Timeline for Sanitation

Coordination

The sooner a sanitation team, or at least a coordinator, comes on board, the better. As soon as the site is determined,

Start finding places to take the humanure.
Order bales of straw (ca 3ft x 1.5 ft x 1 ft - not the huge ones!)
We had 300 for a 1,200 people site, which was just about right. You can probably order bales a few months in advance for pick up just before the event. If you do that, you may want to pay a deposit to secure the straw.
Find a friendly wood recycling yard that will let you have any stuff they want to get rid off, and/or make you a cheap deal for construction timber.
Find a local source of sawdust, woodchip, coffee bean husks or the like. Arrange for pick-up once storage space has been found.
Set a training date for people willing to help build toilets. This can be at a site where the “training” toilet will remain, or where it can be stored until site set-up.

Roles within the team:

Liaise with:

Timeline of Tasks from March to August 2008

March-May 2008: These can be shared within the team as appropriate

Contact neighbourhood kitchens with a checklist for sanitation maintenance. This way neighbourhoods know what will need doing, and can arrange for volunteer teams to take on maintenance tasks.
Begin recruitment of coordinators and volunteers for building structures at the earliest possible time. Set a date for training, in liaison with other working groups and site teams.
Make the team available for questions, and have a known contact person
Do an inventory of existing toilet structures, and calculate anticipated need. Develop a timber order.
Source suppliers of materials (straw, timber, soaking materials) local to the site and make price and credit enquiries

May-June 2008

Run training event for building structures. Make sure you keep peoples contact details, and their availability before, during and after the camp.
Check state and completeness of existing toilets in storage locker.
Arrange transport for existing structures and wheelie bins from storage locker to the site.
Prepare timber order for additional toilets and urinals, liaise with procurement and finance people.

June –July 2008

Maintain regular contact within the team and with neighbourhoods. Make sure any final needs for information and support are met and that you know when to expect neighbourhoods on site so you know capacity and cover for the first few days of the camp. This will give an idea of how quickly toilets will have to go up, and in what order.
Order timber supplies to the pre-event storage and building space.
Set date for building of necessary structures and invite volunteers. using site email list, contacts form previous gatherings and those made in the run-up to this year’s event.
Arrange for transport of structures to the site. At least one block of toilets and one complete set of tools for toilet set-up complete with sawdust and wheeliebins needs to arrive with the get-in crew, and preferably a few bales of straw and a set of urinals.
Have a strong toilet set up crew in place and ready to be onsite as soon as the site is taken. Do an inventory of equipment and do last minute checks.

Immediately before Site Set Up
Get on site as soon as you can after it is taken. Start assembling toilets as soon as practicable.

August: A Brief and Not Comprehensive Summary of Onsite Tasks and Routines.

Keep site meeting up to date with new toilet locations as they are ready. Make sure to have a maintenance rota in place – neighbourhoods can either adopt a toilet close to them, or do at least one day of cleaning all toilets.
Set up hand wash facilities at the same time as toilets, improvise with bowls and buckets until/unless running water arrives.

Main Camp

Make sure that volunteers for toilet maintenance are well briefed and equipped
Monitor need for replacing bins and straw bales. If they need to be replaced more than once a day, build more toilets/ urinals.
Let site meeting and neighbourhoods know if more volunteers are needed
Before the day of action, make sure to have a crew for maintenance. The day of action is a good time for a great tidy up and any repairs that are needed.
A few days before the end, start recruiting volunteers for delivering humanure to its final destination(s).

Tat Down

Begin to take down toilets as neighbourhoods leave - take structures apart carefully, and keep flat-pack components intact.
Arrange for transport of humanure and straw bales to their final destinations. Send an extra car full of volunteers with each lorry. Make sure all volunteers have protective clothing (waterproofs or overalls).
Have some kind of review meeting on lessons learnt for next year. and add lessons learnt to the Instruction sheet.

Primary links