Hi all

I would appreciate some ​advice ​regarding a project I am working on. ​I have ​installed six UDDT ​toilets at a charcoal packaging factory in ​Namibia. The ​urine ​production is ​around 170-200 ​l per day and I ​will collect ​about half of ​it (due to ​restricted available ​storage ​capacity) and ​let the ​remainder ​soak away. ​

After ​allowing for 30 ​days of storage,​ I want to pump ​the urine to a ​cultivated land ​area 200m away ​where it will ​be used as ​fertiliser. My ​options are to ​pump it onto a ​tank on a flatbed vehicle and ​drive it to the ​field or to ​pump it ​directly using ​a small pump in ​an adjacent ​chamber and a ​rising main. I ​know there are ​several risks ​with pumping ​urine (or ​conveying urine)​, mostly due to ​struvite ​formation. Does ​anyone have any ​experience in ​this? Any ​advice would be ​much appreciated!​

Dear Megan,

Welcome to this forum! This is a very informative first post and forum profile that you have set up - well done!
In my role as forum moderator I have moved it to the sub-category on urine reuse, as it seems less about the UDDTs but more about urine reuse ( forum.susana.org/175-urine-reuse-or-infiltration ).
If you browse this sub-category you might find prior discussions about pumping of urine. I can't recall any of the top of my head, but you could use the forum's search function to check.

My initial reaction is that if you are going to pump over longer distances then perhaps it's better to mix the urine with irrigation water in a ratio of 10:1 (water to urine) and then pump the mixture, rather than the urine on its own. I assume you'd need irrigation water anyhow.

How did you get onto the idea of UDDTs, are you connected with other UDDT experts in Namibia?
Hajo Schaefer posted about his work with UDDTs and drying in Namibia on 17 Feb here: forum.susana.org/suppliers-of-pans-seats...tGT=0&start=12#24121
In case you haven't connected with him yet, I can highly recommend it! (feel free to e-mail him but even better is to run discussions via the forum so that we can all benefit. )

Regards,
Elisabeth