Dear Elthabet, thank you for your responsible response. Sorry for the inconveniences!!!
I have made this post because not intentionally to put different forums in to competition or abuse the forum………….,
I saw people in Susana forum have discussed different important sanitation technologies that benefit the low income developing nations which always fascinated me. Off course the topic seems traditional idea that was discussed by different scholars before however sanitation in rural developing countries is still need a lot of discussion to promote affordable improved sanitation technologies for low income communities. In Ethiopia many people of the rural communities still do not have the lowest traditional sanitation technologies and introducing appropriate, affordable and replicable technology is still the hot discussion point. When I get the response from LinkedIn, I thought let the Susana forum people can comment on this. I didn’t think that I should acknowledge who said what (plagiarism effect) I am only interested on the content the post without considering who said what. However I still mentioned from where I have got it. But I don’t still see the problem if similar ideas discussed in different forums as far as it is not abused for other purpose as you mentioned. I still do agree the important of creating synergies among different forums and the important of having moderators who control the forum not to be bused by individuals who have other different interests.

Thanks,
solomon

The issues raised bij JKMakowka are correct, but you can use the material bamboo.
Split the stem open and flatten it like floor planks or matting by partly cutting onto the nodes. The closer the cutting are together at the nodes,the better it will look. Use two or three thin stems to make a larger tube around 10 cm long rings of 4" or 5" HDPE pipe. Tie them over the HDPE rings with galvanised wire. Have half a meter section of HDPE pipe remaining on the bottom to insert into the chambre below and keep the bamboo free from any wet floor. If the pipe slips down over the pipe, use some galvanised or stainless steel screws.

Some of the discussion groups/mailing list on dgroups (dgroups.org/) are also very well frequented. For example the RWSN sustainable groundwater development group has hundreds of active members (dgroups.org/RWSN/ ).

But compared to this forum these "walled gardens" have an inconvenient entry barrier (your account and every contribution needs to be approved by a moderator first) and unless you are specifically told to join these you would not come across them accidentally.

Those linkedin groups are probably similar, but in addition I dislike the idea of giving the company behind it so much personal data for their commercial data mining (which is their real business, just like Facebook and the like).

Dear Solomon, *

As you mentioned LinkedIn, I took a lot and was surprised how many answers you got there about your question on the bamboo vent pipes (13 so far).
See here (I think you need to be logged in to LinkedIn to see it):
www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&srchtyp...l=&ut=1gxW5LLa7uGm41

This makes me wonder again how synergies could be created between the two discussion platforms. E.g. in the case where you asked the same question here and there, would it be helfpul to copy the responses from there to here (and also vice versa)? Maybe without mentioning the names? (Mind you without names, I would find the discussion a bit pointless).

We had discussed the potential of the LinkedIn discussion group "Community of practice on sanitation and hygiene in developing countries" for SuSanA members here in the past with Pippa Scott:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/54-wg-...developing-countries

That group has 4000 members (we have currently 3180), and only the members can read the posts whereas in our forum, the whole internet community can read (and find our posts by Google).

I don't think the two groups are competition - they serve different purposes and communication styles. But your example with the bamboo vent pipes made me wonder if the synergies could be harvested better if the same topic is under discussion in both groups.

What do you and others think?

By the way, the other discussion forum which could have been a "competing forum", namely www.watersanitationhygiene.org/, is now well and truly abandoned by its moderators and taken over by spammers which are linking the pages to their sites (as Kris has point out in the past). A stark reminder of the importance of discussion forum moderators! Let's hope this will never happen to our forum.

Regards,
Elisabeth

* Could you please fill in your forum profile a bit so that we know a bit about you, e.g. location, website, organisation in the profile footer. Thanks.

The problem might be that the convection ventilation is already problematic with a black PVC pipe, e.g. most "Ventilation Improved Pitlatrines" (VIP) are not very ventilation improved at all.
The rough interior with cut stem septums probably does not allow for a very free flow of air and unless painted black (could be done with tar to also protect it from termites to some extend) the heat convection will also work not very well.

One of my connection in LinkedIn wrote to me "We have a simple, non-electric composting toilet in a shed in our community garden that works very well. The vent pipe works via convection. The pipe sticks up through the shed roof and is black plastic with a screened top. The dark color allows it to conduct heat and aids movement of air away from the toilet interior. It's a simple piece of PVC plastic tubing, so I can't imagine why a bamboo "tube" wouldn't work as well. Bamboo is still used for scaffolding in some places so it's obviously a versatile material. Maybe not "modern" enough for some folks...?"

Dear Mr.Solomon,

I agree with you. I'm in favour of using local materials, as far as possible. Their cost is relatively low and, they are available in plenty.

Good luck,

F H Mughal

Thanks FH mughal, i have seen that mud covered bamboo could be used.The challenge i have seen in Ethiopia is the so called sanitation expert who are obsessed with manufactured vents rather than using locally available materials.

Best,
solomon

The attached 2 briefs of WHO and UNICEF should be helpful to you

Thank you,

F H Mughal

I wondering to hear if you can share some of your experience using bamboo for vent pipe of VIP latrine.I know there are some Species which has wider diameter which can be alternatively used in Ethiopia however i just to know if there is any research done on this in terms of efficiency and effectiveness! I appreciate if can give me your experience!

Thanks

Solomon,