Workshop on emergency sanitation in Delft, the Netherlands, June 2012

Emergency camp’s sanitation infrastructure is often inadequate and the risks to people’s health become extreme. Governments, NGOs and Humanitarian organisations are fully aware of these problems and the fact that the basic pit latrine design has not been improved upon in decades which aggravated those problems even more.

This is especially applicable for camps packed with tens of thousands of people, be it in refugee situations or after natural disasters. Thus, a consortium of organisations (The Netherlands Red Cross, WASTE, OXFAM GB, the IFRC, and UNESCO-IHE) brought together for three days private manufacturers, humanitarian organizations, and researchers to foster the development of sanitation designs and systems to particularily tackle the aforementioned problems.

Impressions

Introduction of the Emergency Sanitation Workshop in Delft, the Netherlands.

Photos from the workshop

Structure of the workshop

The workshop itself was structured according to the three links of the sanitation chain:

Day 1: Raised latrines
Day 2: Desludging equipment
Day 3: disposal and treatment

Each of the days consisted of a problem definition of the specific topics, a variety of pitch presentations, where suppliers of sanitation equipment presented their solution to the problem and an intensive workshop time slot where the participants were asked to brainstorm and design a sanitation solution for a given scenario and give input to a list of specifcations that will be used in the design and development of (post-) emergency sanitation kits. The list of specifications is part of the outcome of a project funded by the Dutch government.

Furthermore, we opened a discussion in the SuSanA discussion forum, where we would like to give the participants the opportunity to give feedback regarding the workshop and also to give the rest of the SuSanA community the chance to leave a comment reagrding workshop or documentation.

The minutes of the workshop will be available soon.

Link to WASTE website with detailed information regarding the workshop

Presentations

Workshop day 1: Raised Latrines

Raised Latrines - General Introduction
Olivier Lauteslager, Aldus; Prof Damir Brdjanovic, UNESCO-IHE; Roel Blesgraaf, Ministry of Foreign Affairs the Netherlands; Gert Bruijne, WASTE

Providing Safe Sanitation in areas where you can’t dig simple pit latrines
Andy Bastable, OXFAM

Use of bio-degradable plastic bags as context specific emergency alternative to "classical" toilets in Haiti
Peter Maes, Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF)

Ecosan in Disaster Relief
Katherine Kinstedt, TU Hamburg

Flat packing Composting Toilet for temporary communities lacking sanitation infrastructure
Hamish Skermer, Natural Event

Field Sanitation, Hygiene, Shelter Products
Michael Messenger, Aircell Structures

Peepoo in emergencies
Asa Angelino, Peepoo

Top list of requirements for raised latrines
Olivier Lauteslager, Aldus

Storage in Raised Latrines
Martin Nieuwmeijer, Flexxolutions

Cook & Sanitation for All Peapole International
Paul van Essen, Cook & Soapi

Aldus research conclusions of demand and supply. Inspiration, challenges and discussion points for new technologies
Olivier Lauteslager, Aldus