THE THOUSAND BAHT TOILET CHANGES EVERYTHING AT AMPHUR PHRAO

The sixth full installation of Project Protein is at Amphur Phrao. It's an hour by car and another rugged hour and a half by four wheel drive.  Like the five previous villages, Amphur Phrao will  have a fish pond, a poultry operation, a communal vegetable garden, and a fully operational "mushroom hotel."  Villagers will learn to make organic fertilizers and pesticides, and school children will run everything, under supervision of their teachers and parents.  

What's new is the toilets.  When the teams arrived, they saw that 6 homes lacked a working toilet and 5 had no toilet at all.  Fortunately, when there is adequate slope villagers can build a complete gravity flushing toilet facility including an area for bucket showers for less than 1000 Thai Baht (about $30 US each), if the materials for all 11 toilets were hauled in at the same time, and experienced volunteers worked beside them. 

 All they needed was concrete, PVC pipe, some roofing material, the actual ceramic toilet (210 Baht or about $6), a cheap lighting fixture and some wire.  The wall material is available for free in the forest, and the villagers are highly skilled at turning bamboo into everything from strong beams to woven mats.
  






The vegetable garden is three-tiered: a level for fast-growing leafy vegetables, another for slower maturing crops like corn, and a mixed orchard for fruit trees like jackfruit and mango. Later this year villagers will learn to make low-cost organic fertilizers and pesticides. As with all phases of the projects, sustainability and independence are key.




Water from mountain springs, for drinking and cooking, also fills the new fish pond, nourishes the gardens, and supplies the new toilets.









Today the water in the new fishpond is curing and will soon be ready for fish.  The chickens have been moved to the big new coop where there's room for many more, and plans for the mushroom hotel are ready.  The first new toilets are in.  Amphur Phrao villagers are proud of it all, and grateful to the principal donors at British Community in Thailand Foundation for the Needy (BCTFN), volunteers from Project WIN/Project Protein, and look forward to the coming year and completion of all phases of the project.  

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