PRACTICAL UTILITIES
Previous discussion has dealt largely with basic principles of sanitation. The construction and operation of simple utilities embodying some of these principles are discussed in the following order: (1) Privies for excrements only; (2) works for handling wastes where a supply of water is available for flushing.
PIT PRIVY
[Figure 6] shows a portable pit privy suitable for places of the character of that shown in [figure 1], where land is abundant and cheap, and in such localities has proved practical. It provides, at minimum cost and with least attention, a fixed place for depositing excretions where the filth can not be tracked by man, spread by animals, reached by flies, nor washed by rain.
Fig. 6.—Portable pit privy. For use where land is abundant and cheap, but unless handled with judgment can not be regarded as safe. The privy is mounted on runners for convenience in moving to new locations
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The privy is light and inexpensive and is placed over a pit in the ground. When the pit becomes one-half or two-thirds full the privy is drawn or carried to a new location. The pit should be shallow, preferably not over 2½ feet in depth, and never should be located in wet ground or rock formation or where the surface or the strata slope toward a well, spring, or other source of domestic water supply. Besides standing on lower ground the pit should never be within 200 feet of a well or spring. Since dryness in the pit is essential, the ground should be raised slightly and 10 or 12 inches of earth should be banked and compacted against all sides to shed rain water. The banking also serves to exclude flies. If the soil is sandy or gravelly, the pit should be lined with boards or pales to prevent caving. The standard galvanized or black enameled wire cloth having 14 squares to the inch. The whole seat should be easily removable for cleaning. A little loose absorbent soil should be added daily to the accumulation in the pit, and when a pit is abandoned it should be filled immediately with dry earth mounded to shed water.
A pit privy for use in field work, consisting of a framework of ½-inch iron pipe for corner posts connected at the top with ¼-inch iron rods bent at the ends to right angles and hung with curtains of unbleached muslin, is described in Public Health Report of the United States Public Health Service, July 26, 1918.
A pit privy, even if moved often, can not be regarded as safe. The danger is that accumulations of waste may overtax the purifying capacity of the soil and the teachings reach wells or springs. Sloping ground is not a guaranty of safety; the great safeguard lies in locating the privy a long distance from the water supply and as far below it as possible.