Five years ago Anglian Water upgraded the facilities in our area, bringing mains sewerage to Hamerton village for the first time. This was a major scheme involving five miles of pipes to serve just 190 residents. Unfortunately despite the heaviest of lobbying and appeals they refused to bring the sewer another 100 metres to the zoo, despite Hamerton Zoo Park being the largest employer in the area with over 40 staff and being the largest such tourist attraction in the county with 100,000 visitors each year. So we still manage on one toilet block, poor water pressure and no mains sewerage.
A solution has been a little while coming! BUT – much better late than never, our first waterless Kazuba toilet cubicle was installed near the tigers in time for the Summer Evening Fayre in August. These units are designed and manufactured in France, when they have been in use for some years. A clever design allows them to be ventilated by a combination of solar gain and wind power, and not only do they compost and evaporate the waste, but they use zero water – and zero electricity.
We hope that another four units will be installed during 2027, and we are delighted to have found a solution to the provision of facilities for our visitors around the zoo, and to have further decreased our dependence on mains water and electricity.
We would like to thank WooWoo Toilets for their help and support on this project; and as the first UK zoo to install them, we expect to be something of a trailblazer – as you soon see them popping up all over the country!