from Hacker News

Designing a standard sewage network for refugee camps

by mhasbini on 9/19/20, 7:11 AM with 40 comments

• by throw0101a on 9/20/20, 6:17 PM

  There seem to be ‘standards’ as to how to build out refugee camps and SOP for various things:

  * https://emergency.unhcr.org/entry/45581

  * https://emergency.unhcr.org/about

  * https://spherestandards.org/handbook/

  * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugee_camp

  Even the humble tarp that meets these standards is more ‘advanced’ than it appears:

  * https://www.wired.com/2016/01/tarpaulin/

• by Animats on 9/20/20, 6:17 PM

  For how the US Army does this, see Field Manual 3-34-471, "Plumbing, Pipe Fitting, and Sewerage", especially the sections on "Field Expedient Systems."[1] The Army has been building camps for a while.

  [1] https://www.constructionknowledge.net/public_domain_document...

• by rendall on 9/21/20, 6:55 AM

  If I read the pipe maps correctly, it seems that the focus of the camp layout is on the sewage treatment facility, which is literally the center of the camp.

  In my opinion, the center of the camp has prominence of place, and should be rather a social center of some kind: gathering place, daycare, school, workshops, communal kitchen, sports facilities, something like that.

  A camp that elevate sewage treatment above all other concerns could be a grim place indeed. I imagine it should be possible to have an efficient, standardized sewage system that locates the physical plant off in a more discreet place

• by harlanji on 9/20/20, 3:33 PM

  I just recorded a voice memo this morning with an inspired idea related to this. Water in a box, pee into the box, poop into compost bags, collect and restock weekly. I’ve done manual labor digging trenches, working with construction, all that. Also been homeless for 2 yrs in SF/SV for what it’s worth, doing said work (do not have resources for coding interviews, trying to save). With compostable or washable containers, I have no idea why one would make a sewage system in a camp. Being a (former) engineer as well, I can appreciate the thought put into it.

• by mdifrgechd on 9/20/20, 4:02 PM

  For this kind of application, I'm a big fan of this idea [1] (there is a more recent example of something similar out of the UK but I can't find it now). It uses a mechanical "flush" mechanism that basically just individually bags the waste and stashes it below the toilet. When full, the bags are pulled out (themselves in a bigger bag) and just taken to the dump. A great alternative to building custom sewer and treatment infrastructure. There are examples of this kind of tech being used in places (e.g Antananarivo that has slaves that flood regularly) that don't have or cannot easily get sewers installed.

  [1] https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/blog/2013/12/entreprene...

• by dr_dshiv on 9/20/20, 3:21 PM

  Why not an elevated latrine over a wheeled removable storage tank that hooks to a pickup truck?

• by tomcott on 9/20/20, 10:11 AM

  Thanks for sharing this! I enjoyed reading about the different types of campes.

  I wonder how self-suistainble wrt to cost can it be? Similar to water recycling in ths ISS

• by ed25519FUUU on 9/20/20, 3:16 PM

  It seems outhouses every block would be a much more simple and economical design. They just require vertical excavation, which can be done by hand if space is constrained but labor is available. When the camp is dismantled (hopefully everyone is resettled quickly) then you just fill it in with dirt.

• by Hokusai on 9/20/20, 3:11 PM

  > In the design, the slopes of the drainage pipes and the velocity constraints are selected in a way to have minimum excavation depths, and to have the flow velocity within its design ranges.

  I guess that the goal is to make it cost effective. To dig deeper that the strictly necessary would add durability that a temporary camp does not need and a lot of extra cost.

  It would have been nice to know the advantages and disadvantages of each camp design. But, I guess that it was not inside the scope of designing the sewage.

• by engineer_22 on 9/21/20, 11:03 AM

  Nice documentation of your use of standards and industry tools. In that way you're ready for professional practice.

  Collection design appears appropriate, however an outfall location was not selected?

  Collection system design is dependent on topography, do you have elevation data for proposed camp sites? Topography can inform your treatment site and outfall selection.

• by mschuster91 on 9/20/20, 2:52 PM

  One might think that the UNHCR should have experts on hand who have ready made designs for sewage, water and electricity in refugee camps, but then one looks at the horrors of Moria and the other "camps" in Greece.

  It is utterly shameful that people in need depend on volunteers taking care of such basic needs. Thanks, OP.

• by nednar on 9/20/20, 6:24 PM

  Who knows more about the tent design shown in figure 15. This looks super versatile, but also hard to repair, build in a factory setting and maybe also unintuitive to set up. I hope this is more useful than it looks. Then it would be great to have such a tent with built in AC and water management.

• by a5withtrrs on 9/20/20, 1:50 PM

  Very interesting.

  I wonder if it then makes sense to run additional services such as power and drinking water parallel to those pipes for similar efficiency?

  I wonder if camping festivals and conferences such as CCC camp would benefit from this at all?

• by aya_mouhtadi on 9/22/20, 2:34 PM

  Very Nice project and a very smart engineer, good luck!