Hi Nicola,

I am a colleague of Moritz and one of my research fields is quantifying and characterising faecal slugde on a city-wide scale. The hyperlink to the FAQ project, Moritz refers to in his post leads you to a website with publications about the approach we have implemented in Kampala/Uganda and Hanoi/Vietnam.

I could see the application of the latrine logger to better understand accumulation rates of faecal sludge within on-site sanitation technologies. I have read the information on the website you are referring to and please correct me if I am wrong, but do I understand it right that the latrine logger receives a signal if you "flush" at least one cup of water? Does this mean the logger would not receive a signal if applied in a dry toilet, which means it would "only" be applicable for pour-flush toilets? If we could measure the sludge height within the toilet in addition to monitoring the flushing events, we could potentially figure out sludge accumulation rates within these pits.

Cheers,
Lars

Hi Nicola,

Thanks. Works perfectly for me now.

The main application for us as a research institute I see in estimating faecal sludge quantities for design of faecal sludge treatment (www.sandec.ch/faq). For lined latrines one could measure whats going in (Latrine Logger) and whats going out (e.g. number of barrels collected but gulper entrepreneurs). In the same way conditions (e.g. design of the onsite system, temperature) could be studied for which the amount of feacal sludge which need to be emptied is minimal.

Cheers,

Moritz

Hi Moritz - great, glad to hear you are interested.

Sorry to hear the website link isn't working. It seems to for me: www.re-innovation.co.uk/web12/index.php/...jects/latrine-logger

If it doesn't perhaps you could try the home page: www.re-innovation.co.uk/web12/index.php/en/ and pursue the latrine logger from the 'Projects' tab on the left.

May I ask the use you see for the device in your work? Its still at the prototype stage (as you saw) so modifications are possible depending on how people envisage its use.

Nicola

Dear all,

The Latrine Logger was presented to me during FSM3. Unfortunately, the webpage doesn`t work. I would like to spread the word that a technology like this is out there.

Cheers,
Moritz

Sorry can't get hyperlink working - details here: www.re-innovation.co.uk/web12/index.php/...jects/latrine-logger

Renewable Energy Innovation along with Nottingham Hackspace and Water for People have been working on a sensor which estimates the volumes of fluids entering a pit latrine.

Right now the capacitive sensor wraps around the pipe leading from a latrine pan to an offset pit and gives a good estimate of how often something passes through the pipe, and the volume of water/fluids which has entered (a work in progress). its battery powered, can stay a few months and output is time, date and flush seconds (related to volume).Hypothetically could also be used to indicate bore hole activity.

The details of the mechanisms of the sensor are open access and available here (bearing mind this is still at the prototype stage).

At Water for People we intend to use it a monitoring study of pit latrines to understand their filling rates better. I just wished to get an idea from the community if this device or versions of it might be of use/interest to anyone else or if you have any feedback on the mechanisms of the sensor and its readings thus far.

Photos of its recent installation in Malawi.
The sensor wrapped around a pipe entering a latrine - it is adjustable to size.


The sensor unit is a small box - it was just installed in this large plastic container for protection.


The output



Nicola