Faecal Sludge Management 2 - Durban

We are delighted to be given the opportunity to present our ideas for the Nano Membrane Toilet at the Second Faecal Sludge Management Conference in Durban, from 29th October to 1st November.   Alison Parker presented on behalf of the team and received a warm welcome from the team at PID, WRC and eThekwini Municipality.   The presentation was well received, with lots of questions and challenges.   We were also able to present some of the results of a literature review on the characteristics of fresh faeces and urine that one of our PhD students, Chris Rose, is working on.   The presentation slides and video will be posted on the SuSanA website soon.

The conference was a great opportunity to share ideas with other sanitation practitioners working on all areas from technology to financing, and it was fantastic to be in such a large group all talking openly about sanitation and faecal sludge - even over lunch!

A particular highlight was the field visit.   With sanitation, even on-site sanitation, being included as one of South Africa's "basic services", South Africa's municipalities have to find a way to deal with full pit latrines at a large scale.   eThekwini municipality are leading the way, and we saw two different options for pit emptying as well as their current technology for treating faecal sludge.

 Using the eVac to empty wet pits

  

 Or manual emptying for drier pits

 

 The Latrine Dehydration and Pasteurising (LaDePa) plant, which dries and pelletises waste collected from pit latrines.   It is based in a shipping container so it can be transported around the city so it is close to where the pit emptying teams are operating.