Comments on: Survival Sanitation: How to Deal with Human Waste

By: Tactical Intelligence

Tactical Intelligence — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:34:07 +0000

Larry,

Great comments. Thanks for your insights and experience.

By: larry

larry — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 07:09:14 +0000

In the military sanitation was a bigger problem than the enemy. Bad sanitation was a major problem in both my tours in Vietnam and Afghanistan. i.e. At Baghram in the British section in 2002 several soldiers died of food poisoning from poor sanitation. The Viets used human waste to fertilize rice and the Afghans would deposit solid waste in ditches and streams that were used as drinking and irrigation water down stream. When on combat bases for extended periods of months or more, where no facilities are available, we used metal 50+ gallon barrels cut down to slide under a seat. The barrels would be filled partially with diesel fuel to cover the solid waste to keep the flies from landing. Soldiers would deposit solid waste in the barrel. Tissue, toilet paper, and whips would be deposited in a plastic bag. The solid waste would be burned to get rid of it. We would have to add something to the diesel to get it going because it is not easy to start. We would also burn the tissue bag separately. For males we had urine tubes. We dug holes about 6 feet deep and a plastic pipe or tube 4 or 5 inches in diameter and 8 feet long. The pipe had holes drilled in the side on the bottom 4 feet. We also put a screen about 6 inches into the pipe to keep flies out and urine splash in the tube. we Filled the hole with 4 feet of large gravel, covered with cheese cloth, then 2 feet of pea gravel (pun intended) until we were at ground level. The cheese cloth is to stop the pea gravel from filling in the holes between the larger gravel but allow water to pass for poor aim and rain. I only had 1 to 3 females on the base so they used the barrels for the solid waste. but if i had a larger number of females i would have set up a barrel for urine only. it the urine barrel was not satisfactory we would experiment with different types of barrels with drainage tubes going into the ground like the male tubes. This worked because we had diesel, we had about 100 soldiers. Because we were rocketed several times a week we put these facilities in several locations away from living areas. This meant if one was hit by a rocket they were not all destroyed, the explosion would not throw human waste with the schrapnal into living areas, and not less chance of a person being at the one destroyed. None of the articles i have read seem to want to deal with getting rid of the human solid waste except in a septic tank. i am going to do some more study to find other ways to get rid of the waste in a sanitary way in urban and suburban areas.
If they are any ideas on getting rid of solid waste i would be interested. I do not believe burying is a long term solution it seems to always find a way to get to the water.

By: mike

mike — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 06:07:13 +0000

Just look up Humanure. The book is free on the Net and purchasable at Amazon

By: Tactical Intelligence

Tactical Intelligence — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:49:27 +0000

Hi Spencer,

Kitty litter is a great option. I don’t recommend Bleach since it will kill the good bacteria that will help break down the feces.

By: Spencer

Spencer — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 21:24:01 +0000

In the 5 gallon bucket section of the City Dwellers section, you mention that when your bucket is 2/3 full and you need to replace it, you should add quicklime, ash, etc, to disinfect it before storage. As an apartment dweller, I don’t have easy access to either of those things, or even the dirt listed as an alternative. However, if you had kitty litter around, would that work as a disinfectant? Or, if not, could you apply the chlorine solution to it as you would with dirt, to allow it to act as a disinfectant?

Thanks for the help!

By: Ben

Ben — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 09:02:43 +0000

Where should these wastes to be disposed from septic tank either any ponds or wat???

By: Tactical Intelligence

Tactical Intelligence — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 00:19:17 +0000

You’ll either be notified by your local authorities or when you flush or send water down the drain it comes back up.

By: Misty

Misty — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:36:05 +0000

How do you know if the sewer main is down?

By: iris

iris — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 16:45:40 +0000

I’m still saving for land. But, I have an idea of how I would build a septic tank with walls of stone/clay/wood but in such a way that the water coming to the top would flow off into a separate septic tank which when heated mite produce fumes wherein the methane gases could drop off into a third tank which hopefully could be useful as a gas? The feces I would like to dry out as feces are also known to catch on fire…rite? Plus, mixed with dirt/sand would be a good fertilizer but I am not sure if one would need to heat it up to disinfect it? I’m storing some coffee cans to be used for a sewer line as they are lite and easy to carry. Now, all I need is the land and a hillside.

By: Randall

Randall — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:13:40 +0000

Here is a market solution regarding your comment:

http://earthquakeassurance.com