The ministry of defence came out strongly in defence of bio-digesters developed by DRDO after a study by IIT Chennai criticised the technology by saying that this 'toilet is no better than a septic tank'.
Image source: drdoficciatac.com
The study was sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and its report was submitted to Union Ministry of Urban Affairs last week.
As many as 93,537 'bio-digesters' as the toilets have been installed by the Indian Railways in its important trains and the government has plans to have it on an additional 120,000 coaches by the end of 2018.
IIT professor Ligy Philip, who headed the latest study, reportedly said that their tests have found that the organic matter (human waste) collecting in the bio-digesters do not undergo any kind of treatment.
“Like in the septic tanks, these bio-digesters accumulate slush (human excreta mixed with water),” he said.
Soon after the study report was made public, a team of DRDO officials interacted with Philip.
"After examining the information available, it emerges that the experiment design by IIT, Chennai was flawed and results of the study are inaccurate. The statement by Prof Ligy that organic matter (human waste) collecting in the bio-digesters does not undergo any kind of treatment is factually incorrect," ministry of defence said.
MoD claimed that the "study had been undertaken without interacting with DRDO and it appears that the study has been conducted without understanding how the technology works."
DRDO-developed bio-digester has been in the controversy earlier also. In 2016, Dr Y. Ashok Babu, a senior microbiologist of the DRDO itself, who had been associated with the bio-digester project, questioned the technology by writing to the Defence minister and central vigilance commission (CVC). He had claimed that the imported bacteria worked perfectly well in the laboratory but not in Siachen, for which a solar panel heating system was added to accelerate the ‘digestion’ process. He also had said the bio-toilets, which are nothing but gobar gas plants, involved no technology and could be built by a village mason.
Babu claimed that officials conspired with some vendors to fool people; they just added bacteria from Antarctica, which is available in cow and buffalo dung.
