Dry toilets in Kaliningrad region as a part of tourist infrastructure in nature reserve – experience exchange with St.Petersbur colleagues

April 20, Ecocentrum Ltd experts from St.Petersburg  visited Vishtynetsky Nature Park, located on the South-East of the Kaliningrad region, and participated in the round table "Environmentally friendly tourism on the territory of the Nature Park "Vishtynetsky". The event was organized by GAU KO "ECAT-Kaliningrad" and the direction of GBU KO "Nature Park Vishtynetskiy”. It was attended by representatives of various travel agencies of the region.

The seminar participants got acquainted with ecological routes, tourist programs for groups and individual visitors, recreation opportunities in the Nature Park. The organizers noted that an important component of recreation in the nature reserves is the equipment of routes with comfortable and environmentally friendly toilets.

The main interest for St.Petersburg experts was experience of Kaliningrad colleagues on installation and mass use of dry toilets, because Ecocentrum has established the demonstration complex of the same tipe in Leningrad oblast, and two more toilets are under construction. This work is supported by the Baltic Sea Conservation Fund.

The pearl of the Nature Park is a Vishtynets lake, the transparency of the water in the center of the lake is 6-8 m. However, the lake begins to suffer from the processes of eutrophication. Dry toilets, unlike the cesspools, prevent soil and nature waters contamination with toilet waste, and also recycle toilet waste into fertilizer. Two composting dry toilets were installed a year ago in the park with the support of the Baltic Sea Conservation Fund within the project VBSWater, and one of these toilets is situated near the Vishtynets lake, the other - near the river Krasnaya. This is the first experience of dry toilets installing in a nature reserve in the Kaliningrad region.

Unlike cesspools, compost dry toilets have no unpleasant smell, there are no flies, powder peat mixture and the design of the toilet allows quickly to recycle waste into compost. Composting dry toilet unlike other types of dry toilets has a larger volume and a special door in the back for the removal of compost.

The following public dry toilets in the Kaliningrad region will be installed on the territory of the Curonian Spit National Park on one of the tourist routes. They will be designed especially for people with disabilities. Currently, only pumped out toilets installed on the routes of the Curonian spit.