Cutting the disease vector in Tankwa Town
AfrikaBurn is a spin off from the Burning Man festival held in the United States. It is an annual event, held near the Tankwa Karoo National Park, an isolated and pristine conservation area in South Africa.
It is centered on the construction of temporary artworks in a semi-desert environment, some of which are burnt towards the end of the event.
From the first event held in 2007 with 1 000 participants, it has grown to host 13 000 people over a 10 day period, who have to haul everything they might possibly need out there, as one of the fundamental principles of the event is that no money is exchanged and hence nothing can be bought or sold.
Another fundamental principle is “Leave no trace” and the management of MOOP, which was coined at Burning Man and stands for Matter Out of Place, is a critical aspect for the organisers and participants alike.
Practically speaking, for a one-week period at the peak of the event, Tankwa Town is an informal settlement with 13 000 inhabitants.
And this presents us with a unique, interesting and non-politicized opportunity to consider the solutions developed for the event, and how to extrapolate them to help solve some of the problems faced by informal settlements all across our beloved country.
So how do you cater to the sanitation/infrastructural needs of 13 000 people of all ages in a densely populated area with no running water?
Ironically, the beginning of the event’s sanitation story follows the same traditional solutions employed by our government and local authorities for other informal settlements.
At first, pit toilets were dug in strategic outlying locations, and portable chemical toilets were placed in high-traffic areas.
As the footprint of the event grew however, this option became less viable because the outlying areas for the pit toilets were being pushed out further, and closer to water courses that are subject to sporadic and seasonal flash floods.
The capacity of the pit toilets was also limited, especially in the arid environment. It was essential that the toilets had to have the ability to handle larger volumes of people than ever before, and in an environmentally considerate manner.
It was the event of 2017 that created the greatest urgency for a new approach. An unfortunate set of factors such as extremely hot weather over the week and a prolific viral pathogen, called the norovirus, created a gastroenteritis epidemic. Health and hygiene became the number one priority and all eyes were on the toilets.
Fortunately, without the politics and the bureaucracy of public office, the organisers and our consulting sanitation expert were able to think outside of the box and problem solve a viable, long term solution that satisfies every requirement.
With Michael’s 25 years of experience designing and manufacturing portable toilets, the event now has a toilet that can easily be moved, and can handle much larger volumes of people. These units are designed to be erected in high-use locations like informal settlements, events and dense urban areas. Each unit can accommodate 600 people’s complete daily output of solids & fluids for 24 hours (or could be used by 6 people for 100 days) before needing to be pumped.
It also scores on the sustainability scale as the structure is made out of 98% recycled and repurposed materials that would otherwise be discarded by various construction and manufacturing processes. All plastics used are composed of 100% recycled HDPE and LDPE. The 2% that isn’t recycled or repurposed consists of the screws, metal straps, hinges and shade cloth privacy barrier.
The systems make use of an activator fluid that consists of fruit oils and active micro-organisms. This enables the output to start being remediated right away in the tank, with an anaerobic process starting as soon as the toilets begin being used. Once the level of effluent reaches the 75% full mark, it’s pumped out and then deposited into a remediation tank which, with the help of a bio-digestor, converts the effluent into water and manure.
The intention is to dry the manure and donate the fertiliser to local farmers to improve soil quality in their fields. In the future this process will be further developed and accelerated to the extent that, during the event, the water produced from the bio-digestor process will be clean enough to be re-used for non-consumptive purposes.
The use of the fluid in the tanks also has other important benefits. The activator fluid is oil-based, so it sits on top of the effluent, reducing smells and preventing flies from getting to the effluent and becoming a vector for potential GI pathogens and bacteria.
The toilet units are raised off the ground, which enables crew to position them anywhere, without impacting the ground in any way. Their base allows them to be lifted and moved by a forklift and replaced or repositioned if necessary, and of course picked up and stored safely until the next event.
These hygienic toilets have been very well received and have vastly improved the sanitation experience at the ‘Burn.
Now to improve the sanitation experience for the millions of people in our informal settlements….
