The dry toilet built in a village was poorly maintained and later abandoned.

"Nobody wanted to maintain the toilet after it was built," Zhao says.

In contrast, another toilet built in a primary school in another village has continued to be in service.

"There was involvement from the local community when the toilet was built. We also taught the pupils about why the dry toilet is preferred," Zhao says.

He, from Wild Grass, says it is not wise to be too hasty to build dry toilets unless the whole green concept is already in place. The one project Wild Grass is proud of is that at Yulongxi village in Kangding county, Sichuan province, which it initiated at the end of 2010.

Yulongxi is a Tibetan village located in the interior of Mount Gongga, where some villagers have started offering home-style accommodation to visitors.

"We did not come to the community with a plan saying what to do. Rather, we came to the community to see what we could offer," he says.

Through its interaction with villagers, the organization helped launch an eco-friendly inn program that installed composting toilets and encouraged tourists to take away their own garbage.

"We explained to them the consequences of pollution with a growing number of tourists and the side effects of flush toilets without sewage treatment plants," he says.

The eco-friendly inn program was able to get through to the villagers and so far, six out of 11 households offering visitor accommodation have joined the program.

"One reason is that the Tibetan people already had the sense of environmental protection long before we came," He says.

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Big problems in smallest room

In the rural areas of China, basic hygiene facilities are changing. Where a hole in the ground used to be the norm, there is now an eco revolution going on, thanks to the spreading influence of urban visitors. But it is an uphill battle. More...