Dear Hajo and Elisabeth,
thank you so much for your answers. Asking SSG is exactly what I did.
They came up with 7-10% as an estimate.

I also was assuming in the beginning that the SaTo would block all rubbish from flowing into the pit, but the hole is not small enough to stop sanitary pads, old clothes, plastic bags and similar items from going in. Maybe even those mini drink bottles sold in Kampala could fit in there. The way I witnessed this is through photos of the sludge surface before installing the SaTo and after 4 or 5 months, so it is just an estimate.
If you need more information about this, I can give you some contacts of people that might know more.

Many thanks and sorry for the late answer! I was in a real hurry to complete the work.
I will share it on the platform as soon as it is concluded.

All the best,

Alice

Hi Alice,

That's a really interesting question. Have you found any information in the meantime that you could share with us here?

Before your post my assumption was that a SaTo pan would reduce the rubbish to zero because the flap is so much smaller then the hole of a pit latrine and would be so easily clogged up. What kind of rubbish have you found that is still being disposed to the pit after the installation of the SaTo pan?

How is solid waste management organised in the communities where you work?
See a related thread here where Hajo explains the situation in Lusaka: forum.susana.org/99-faecal-sludge-transp...enge-in-lusaka#28292

He wrote in that thread:

Lusaka City Council (LCC) has a system of solid waste collection which should help that people do not use their latrine pits as solid waste dumps: community based enterprises (CBE) are subcontracted by LCC to collect waste from the households and accumulate it in a central place of the compound from where LCC should transport it to the municipal waste dump.

The system works only to a small extend. The problems are: LCC does not have enough capacity collecting the waste from all compounds regularly, the waste accumulates in the central place in the compound, the CBEs get frustrated and reduce collecting, the customers stop paying because waste is not collected regularly, the CBEs stop collection completely.

Regards,
Elisabeth

Hi Alice,

I recommend that you contact Sanitation Solutions Group (sanitationsolutionsgroup.com/) who do professional pit emptying in Kampala. They also promote and execute the installation of SaTo pan in order to reduce solid waste in latrine pits. They charge their customers extra for solid waste retrieved from pits when emptying. Thus, I assume that they will have observed a reduction of solid waste in pits before and after installation of SaTo, and if you are lucky, they have even recorded it.. for your easy access and use. Good luck!

ciao
Hajo

Hello everyone,
I am doing research on filling rates of unlined pit latrines in Kampala and noticed that after installing a SaTo pan the inflow of rubbish into the pit continues, even if it becomes less.
I took pictures of the surface of the sludge before and after but that is not enough to reach a decent estimate of the average effect of the SaTo on rubbish inflow.

Does anyone have data or an idea of this?
I read quite some articles online but none give such an estimate..

Best regards to all and thanks for any input!

Good weekend,
Alice