Hello Amin,

Thank you for your inquiry. The research into development of pit emptying technologies went through several phases (4) and testing on muddy slurry. It included using treadle pump technology as a base and thereafter gulper pump modification with the focus on improvong user ergonomics. See journal publication based on my research thesis: dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2017.02.012 (Design local solutions for pit emptying in low income urban settlements (Malawi), Journal of Physics and Chemistry of the Earth.

Regards,

Willy Chipeta.

Dear Sir,

Hope you are well. I am kazi, have been working at Practical Action in Bangladesh. I have been working on developing low cost new technologies for pit/septic tank emptying. Would you please share your experience of your research. I will appreciate if you kindly share the methodology and approaches you have followed in your research.

Hi James,

I am working for GOAL in Freetown, Sierra Leone, focusing on improving FSM in the city. I am currently conducting a desk review on manual pit emptying equipment with the aim of selecting the most appropriate technologies to use in Freetown.

Are there any updates on the progress of your pit emptying innovations? If you have more information, reports, test results or images I would be very interested to see them.

Cheers,

Aoife

It is indeed interesting to see innovative designs that are low cost and effectively empty full pits. Hope to share more notes and highlights regarding progress.

Hi All,

I am currently working as a sanitation engineer for Water For People Uganda, and we are also funded under the WRC/SRFA grant (see here: forum.susana.org/forum/categories/99-fae...-project-uganda#6315). Our latest desludging tool - the rammer (gulper 2) - is currently being field tested. It's advantages over the gulper are that it is extendable (reaches deeper into the pit), and because the moving valves are submerged, it pumps thicker sludge. Furthermore, the device uses a donkey tail, so is not so strenuous on the arms as direct lifting. The design improvements were made by interacting directly with pit emptying businesses in Kampala.

Technical drawings of the rammer can be found on our blog: sanihub.blogspot.com/

Alternatively we can ship these devices across Africa if you'd like to test it and provide feedback and insight.

We have also tried developing chain based devices, however, this work stopped due to the variety of challenges we found - rusting of the chain, cleaning after use, weight, the fact that thicker sludge is at the base of most pits but the device is not extendable.... we held a feedback survey with pit emptying operators and they dismissed the device immediately.


Thanks,
George

My name is James Kushe a student for PhD in Sanitation at Mzuzu University. I will be conducting research in the next three years under the Water Research Commission (WRC) funded project on Solutions for Pit Desludging and Sludge Management in peri-urban areas in Malawi. At the end I will have to develop new solutions for pit-latrine emptying for peri-urban areas in Mzuzu. The new innovation which will be developed must suit the condition of these peri-urban areas in terms of access, cost of production, operation and maintenance while optimal sanitation will be achieved by households. One of the tools is the interlocking diver which can be made from PVC pipes (1.2m) and jointed metal rode with a weight (diver) which will be submerged separately into the sludge and will be able to extract smaller amounts of sludge using the toilet hole and can be operated by 1 person. The second innovation is that of a propelling short bit/fun scooper at the bottom which can only set the sludge into up-thrust into a pipe to a head where the discharge pipe. This will be designed in a way that workers will be working right in the toilet room. In all these two innovations faecal sludge will be collected using containers to a larger collecting container for transportation and disposal. The third innovation is a pump with a valve operated with a piston mechanism and a shaft which will be mound and the piston will be moving up and down thereby making the valve to open and close. The fourth innovation is one which will employ a motorized pumping system which will operate in a way the extraction pipe will be submerged into the sludge and the pumped sludge will be emptied direct into the collecting vessel ready for transportation or disposal. To overcome the problem of sludge precipitation a pressure pump will be mounted on the sides of the extraction pipe and will be submerged together with the extraction pipe. I am therefore looking for partners to work with me especially sharing ideas on what to consider in the process of developing these new innovations, technical and ethical aspects of new innovations. All specialized ideas given will be dully acknowledged in the final write up.

Note by moderator: attachment contains some suggested Innovations, four sketches.

In Malawi pit sludge emptying technologies is now getting ground unlike in the past when people would simply opt for a new latrine. Scanning through literature most of the low cost technologies are manual or semi mechanized and are known to lack efficiency in terms of time of operation and hygiene of the workers despite their ability to take out everything from the pit. It is going to be interesting if you consider how these low cost technologies will be options for large scale investors who want to maximize of time and maintain a reasonable safety of the worker from contamination.

My name is James Kushe a student for PhD in Sanitation at Mzuzu University. I will be conducting research in the next three years under the Water Research Commission (WRC) funded project on Solutions for Pit Desludging and Sludge Management in peri-urban areas in Malawi.

At the end I will have to develop new solutions for pit-latrine emptying for peri-urban areas in Mzuzu. The new innovation which will be developed must suit the condition of these peri-urban areas in terms of access, cost of production, operation and maintenance while optimal sanitation will be achieved by households.

One of the tools is the interlocking diver which can be made from PVC pipes (1.2m) and jointed metal rode with a weight (diver) which will be submerged separately into the sludge and will be able to extract smaller amounts of sludge using the toilet hole and can be operated by 1 person.

The second innovation is that of a propelling short bit/fun scooper at the bottom which can only set the sludge into up-thrust into a pipe to a head where the discharge pipe. This will be designed in a way that workers will be working right in the toilet room. In all these two innovations faecal sludge will be collected using containers to a larger collecting container for transportation and disposal.

The third innovation is a pump with a valve operated with a piston mechanism and a shaft which will be mound and the piston will be moving up and down thereby making the valve to open and close.

The fourth innovation is one which will employ a motorized pumping system which will operate in a way the extraction pipe will be submerged into the sludge and the pumped sludge will be emptied direct into the collecting vessel ready for transportation or disposal. To overcome the problem of sludge precipitation a pressure pump will be mounted on the sides of the extraction pipe and will be submerged together with the extraction pipe.

I am therefore looking for partners to work with me especially sharing ideas on what to consider in the process of developing these new innovations, technical and ethical aspects of new innovations.

All specialized ideas given will be dully acknowledged in the final write up.

My name is Rashid Chiposa. I am an MSc student of Mzuzu University, Malawi. My master’s research topic focuses on the description of a local situation of pit latrines- A snapshot of pit latrines in low in-come peri urban-areas in Malawi.
As first phase of my research, I will be analyzing the state of existing pit latrines in the study area as an illustrative local situation to suggest practical strategies for the good management of on-site sanitation facilities. The chiefs will provide information through face-to-face interviews on the history while the Department of Geology in Mzuzu will provide information on altitude, geology and water table of the study area. A questionnaire will be administered to selected households to gather information regarding the following local parameters: Population of Muslims and Christians, number of users per latrine, what is done for babies/children in terms of their waste, number of households that use additives in the latrine, the frequency of pit emptying, the age of the latrine and the number of households that are connected to piped water.
Physical measurements will include determining the dimension i.e. width, length and depth (height) of the latrine in order to calculate the latrine’s carrying capacity i.e. its volume. The increase in volume of the sludge in each latrine will be recorded at intervals for a specified period of time. Thus, the filling rate of the latrine will be given by increase in volume per unit time.
Extraction of actual feacal sludge will be conducted on selected latrines to analyze the constituents of feacal sludge in the latrine. It is during this same extraction process that it will be determined as to whether the latrine is lined or unlined.
My writing therefore, is to request members on this forum to provide additional relevant information which can assist me to successfully carry out this research. Furthermore, you can connect me to any individual who has undertaken this research before or send me any publication on the same.
Thank you,
Rashid Chiposa.

Note by moderator (EvM): The first three posts in this thread belong to a larger research project that is described here on the forum:
forum.susana.org/forum/categories/99-fae...ty-and-policy-issues

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My name is Willy Chipeta and I am a Master of Science student at Mzuzu University in Malawi. The main focus of my research study will be development of low cost innovative technologies for pit emptying in low income urban settlements of Mzuzu City found in the Northern Region of Malawi.

The premise of the research focus entails that urban informal settlements present unique challenges to the provision of adequate and sustainable access to improved sanitary facilities. This focus is in view that most low income urban dwellers have many pressing need on their limited resource base that in turn forces budgetary allocations at household level to be constrained. Hence can only afford pit emptying services that are within their reach in terms of financial resources available.

Therefore in this write up I am seeking help in innovative low cost technologies for pit emptying technologies that are in practice in other cities in Africa or beyond. The purpose of such information is that they can be adapted to the context of Malawi through field testing of the aforesaid technologies.

Further to this, I am seeking support on best strategies to undertake a cost benefit analysis of the potential technologies so as to ascertain viability for use by urban dwellers with due consideration to resource base constraints. Any other advice on how the research can be undertaken successfully is welcome.

I will greatly appreciate any assistance and support that you can render to me.

Willy Chipeta.