Sanitation After a Disaster: What To Do?

Sanitation After a Disaster

What To Do

In the event of a natural or man-made disaster and a loss of water, but the sewers and/or septic tank still work:

Toilets can be flushed using gray water (water you have used for washing dishes or hands) from your water storage to flush the toilets. Use only enough water to make toilets flush.

In the event of a natural or man-made disaster resulting in the loss of water, and the sewer and/or your septic tank is not useable, do the following:

Protect Your Home Environment

To protect your home from dangerous sewer gases, sewage leaks, or vermin coming up through the pipes in your home, all drains must be plugged. Place or depress the stoppers in all sinks and bathtubs. Duct tape around them for a tighter seal. Plug floor drains, such as your shower drain, with a test plug.

All toilets must be drained and plugged. Turn the water valve in the back of the toilets to off. Drain the water in the back tanks by scooping it out with a can or cup. It is “gray water,” not suitable for drinking but OK for cleaning. Water may be precious.

The water in all toilet bowls should be completely removed. Use a plunger to get as much down as possible, a cup to remove the rest, then throw it away. Place a Lacrosse ball (or a very hard, non-porous ball) inside a long sock, slather it with shortening and place it in the toilet hole of every toilet in your house. Fit it snuggly inside the hole.

Choose one toilet for your emergency porta potty. It will be your “dry” toilet. Lift the seat, line the toilet bowl with a garbage bag, and duct tape the back of the bag to the toilet in front of the seat hinges. Lower the seat.

When using this toilet DO NOT mix urine with solid waste!! They must be separated. This may be done in several ways. Place a urine collecting hat underneath the toilet seat or use a female urinal or urinal director. A 5-gallon bucket made into a toilet for urine only may also be used. Urine is non-toxic and may be used as a fertilizer. Dilute the collected urine with gray water and use it around plants. Do not use the same spot as a dumping ground for urine but vary the places for disposal. Urine is also a good addition to your compost pile.

In the necessity of evacuation from your home, prepare a two-bucket potty system. Purchase and prepare two 5- or 6-gallon buckets and label one PEE and the other POO. The POO bucket is always lined with a garbage bag, but the PEE bucket needs no lining. Place a toilet seat with lid made to fit on top of each bucket. These may be purchased at any store that sells camping equipment. Purchase at least one 2-gallon bucket with a gamma lid that screws on and off as well as a scoop. Fill that bucket with pine shavings (available at D&B), sawdust, or kitty litter that doesn’t turn hard when wet. Place it next to your dry toilet or your POO bucket. See the instructions below for handling human waste.

Protect your home from insects, pests, and vermin as they are the purveyors of disease. Hopefully you have stored fly tape, fly swatters, fly traps, and mouse traps, or other means of control. A simple homemade mice bait is to make a mixture in a 1:1 ratio of a cheap cake or muffin mix to baking soda. The sweetness attracts the mice, and the gas resulting from the baking soda kills them. Insects such as roaches and ants may be controlled by using food grade diatomaceous earth which will not be harmful to your pets. Perma Guard is an example of a brand on the market and may be obtained at Walmart.

Trash will be a problem in a disaster as there will likely be no trash pickup. Minimize your trash by separating it into items to compost, items to bury, and items to burn that will give heat when it is cold. A metal garbage receptacle or outdoor fire pit would be helpful to have on hand to burn trash.

Safe Handling of Human Waste

Instructions for handling urine were given above.

Poop is DEADLY and should be handled with extreme caution!! Mishandling of feces in a disaster causes diseases such as dysentery, hepatitis and typhoid to spread rapidly and can be even more serious and cause more deaths than the original disaster. Four principles to follow are: SEPARATE, COVER, CARRY AND BURY.

SEPARATE: In your dry toilet in your home or your emergency portable two-bucket system, never mix urine and feces. The bag lining your dry toilet, and your lined POO bucket are for feces only. 

COVER: After each use, use the scoop to cover the contents with some sawdust, pine shavings, straw, crumbled up dry lawn clippings, dry leaves, or other carbonaceous material that you have stored in your two-gallon bucket. It will keep the smell down. Do the same process if using the POO bucket. Cover the toilet bowl with a square piece of cardboard cut to fit over the toilet bowl, put the seat down, the lid down, and if you have small children, put a brick on top so they cannot get into it. The dry toilet and the POO bucket will handle several uses if you also push the contents down with a strong stick such a thick dowel.

CARRY: When the dry toilet or POO bucket bags are full enough to change, place them in a sturdy bucket or tote to support them while carrying them outside to be buried in your pre-dug holes. You do not want any of the contents of the bags to spill anywhere in your home so they must be supported.

BURY: Pre-dig 18”-24” holes at least 10 feet from the house. Never dig holes near a garden where you may have root crops, water, or roads. Holes are OK under fruit trees or bushes, and they need to be in a place where they won’t erode and will be safe from animals. Dig the holes with a shovel, long-nosed shovel, or a post-hole digger. You may use a digging rod to break up the soil and a #10 can to empty the dirt out of the hole.

When you reach the pre-dug hole with your supported bag, place the bag on its side on the ground with the opening of the bag in the mouth of the hole. Lift the bottom of the bag to drop the contents into the hole. Be sure to wear gloves and maybe protection for your legs and feet. Place the open and now empty bag on top of the fecal matter, and 2 inches of dirt on top of the bag. Cover the hole with a piece of plywood large enough to cover the hole generously. Place a cinder block on top of the plywood to keep animals out.

Continue layering in this manner until the contents are about 6 inches from the top of the hole. Close the hole in this manner: final layer of dirt, add a layer of newspaper, 1-2 inches of lime, another layer of newspaper on top of that, and fill with at least 2 inches of dirt enough to completely close the hole. Lime helps to keep animals out. Within a couple of years this will completely decompose. This method will work for a period of a few weeks.

For longer term need for sanitation, please refer to the book, The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins.

Practice Personal Cleanliness and Hygiene

In the event of a major disaster, disease may be rampant, and you will need to keep yourself as clean as possible. Dirty or contaminated hands is one of the ways disease spreads, so if there is no running water, make a hand washing station that is easy to use, water flow controllable, no water left running, sturdy, ready before the disaster, and foot operated if possible so that hands do not touch the handle. (Research hand washing stations, foot pump washers, Tippy-Tap handwashers.) Use liquid soap as bar soaps spread disease. Be vigilant in washing your hands after using the toilet, before preparing food, etc.

Keep your clothes as clean as possible and have ways to wash and dry them without electricity. See the supplies list below.

Suggested Supply List (This is not all-inclusive. You may have additional wants or need not listed.)

Short term –paper plates, facial tissue, toilet paper (50 double rolls per person per year), paper towels, bleach (lasts only six months), commercial feminine supplies, adult hygiene wipes, etc.

Long term:

General items: Lots of plastic bags, all sizes, grocery bags, spray bottles, lots of cotton rags, lots of garbage bags. Reuse small plastic bags if possible.

Personal protection: masks, gloves, scrubs, rubber boots

Personal cleanliness: shampoo, toothbrushes, paste and floss, biodegradable liquid hand soap (Dr. Bronner’s castile soap), washable feminine supplies (Days for Girls) or menstrual cup, cloth diapers, towels, washcloths, lotions and creams, comb, brush, hair ties, razors and shaving cream, cotton balls and Q-tips, Chapstick, contact solution, solar shower for hot shower without electricity,

Human Waste Sanitation Needs: Duct tape, test plugs for securing drains, Lacrosse balls, socks for plugging toilets.

Dry toilet and two-bucket system: Garbage bags, strong stick such as a thick dowel, peri bottles, 8 x 8-inch pre-washed cotton flannel with serged edges for washable toilet tissue—at least 4 per person, small 2-gallon bucket with gamma lid for containing used washable toilet cloths until washing, another 2-gallon bucket with gamma lid and a metal scoop to hold dry sawdust or other carbonaceous material. (Pine shavings, dry peat moss, dry lawn clippings or chopped up leaves, dry finely chopped straw, or kitty litter that does not turn hard when wet.), small but firm bucket or tote to carry filled garbage bags, tools to dig holes outside, lime, newspaper, plywood, cinder block.

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Dry toilet additional needs: Duct tape to tape garbage bags to toilet, urine collection hat, cardboard to cover toilet as explained above.

Two-bucket system additional needs: Two 5-or 6-gallon buckets, two toilet seats with lids made for buckets, sturdy camp chair with sturdy arms and removed seat to place over bucket toilet for ease of use, privacy shelter, occupied indicators, path indicators to find in the dark.

Pest control:  Fly tape, fly swatters, fly traps, and mouse traps, ingredients for mice bait, food-grade diatomaceous earth.

Food handling: Unbreakable dishes, wash tubs, biodegradable liquid dish soap (Blue Dawn has many uses), hand washing station, collapsible dish drainer/dryer, dishcloths for washing dishes, dish towels.

Laundry and general cleaning: 5-gallon buckets for washing, mops, clothesline, rope and clothespins, clothes washing plunger (Wonder Washer), washboard, hand clothes wringer, laundry soap, Borax, white vinegar to take soap out of clothes.

Disinfectants and cleaners: Use cleaners favorable to the environment such as vinegar, baking soda, and ammonia. A substitute for ammonia is Stearamine Tablets which have no smell, are easy to use and safe for food contact surfaces. Restaurants use it. In place of bleach, purchase Dry Tech water treatment, which is calcium hypochlorite. Formula for making your own 5% chlorine bleach is:  

Water                         Dry Calcium Hypochlorite (Store in cool, dry place)

1/12 c.                         1 tsp   

1 quart                         1 Tablespoon

2 quarts                       2 Tablespoons

1 gallon                       4 Tablespoons

Do not drink this! It is now bleach! Dilute in a water-filled spray bottle.

NEVER MIX AMMONIA OR CHLORINE TOGETHER OR STORE TOGETHER. THE RESULTING CHLORINE GAS WILL KILL YOU NOW!

Grapefruit seed extract is an all-purpose internal and external cleaner used to wash fruits and vegetables, meats and poultry, clean food contact surfaces, dishes and utensils. It can also mitigate food poisoning.

Keep a Copy of This Instruction Sheet in Your Sanitation Kit Tote. Protect It With Sheet Protectors.

You Are Not Prepared Until Your Neighbors Are!

Share this information with them as you run the risk of disease in a disaster if THEY do not handle human waste properly.