4. Sanitation
Clutter
attracts rodents.
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By Miles
Stair
In order to
maintain life under normal conditions, humans must have sufficient
potable water, adequate food, shelter, and proper sanitation in
order to stay alive and healthy: in adverse conditions each element
becomes absolutely critical. It is proper sanitation that most
people of our generation have taken for granted. With water supplied
to homes by certified water works, we have forgotten how to live
without easily obtainable water, and how important it is to "normal
living" and proper sanitation. Without proper sanitation, disease
becomes rampant, food is spoiled, water transports disease, and
people die.
In
an emergency situation, you and your family would be largely on
your own as far as sanitation is concerned. You would have to
take care of yourselves, solve your own problems, make your own
secure living arrangements, subsist on the supplies you had previously
stocked, and take care of your own sanitation needs. Now, all
that is done virtually automatically for us without thought or
care, and for many people that will be their undoing.
Failure
of the water-carried waste disposal systems in homes, as a result
of damage to the sewer system or failure of the public water supply
system, will lead to serious problems. Very strict regimes or
methods of sanitation will have to be followed to prevent disease.
Those dependent upon public sewer systems may want to prepare in
advance with a composting toilet: they work, and you can either
build your own system or purchase a commercial unit quite
inexpensively (Do a web search to see if what you find is fits
your needs.). Homes with a working septic system but not a
reliable, gravity flow water system
will find the septic system does not work without the input of a
lot of water through the toilets...they too could benefit from a
composting toilet.
See Lehman's Hardware for
their selection of
composting toilets for examples of commercially available
composting toilets.
Those
people fortunate enough to have both a septic system and
gravity flow water will be able to
simply use what they already have - it works automatically.
Be sure your drainfield is clear and your septic tank is clean
now, while you can.
Cleanliness
is next to Godliness goes the old aphorism, and it is true. In
any future scenario which leads to a breakdown of civilization,
you will need to be able to
make
your own bar soap,
laundry
soap, dispose of garbage correctly, have a safe
method of
sewage disposal,
make lye water
for sterilizing soiled linen, cleaning floors, etc.
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A good trash
burner can burn up almost all garbage and eliminate a source
of food for rats and mice. A trash burner will even
burn the galvanizing off food cans so they rust quickly.
This is a photo of my trash burner. It is 4 feet wide,
5 feet deep, and has two levels: trash is burned on
the top level (black door) on a grill, and ashes are
collected through the bottom door. The ashes are filtered
through a 1/4" mesh screen, then used on the garden.
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The
people in Freelton and Walkerton, Ontario, trusted their city
water supplies, and got E.
coli bacteria that killed at least 6 people and
sickened hundreds. Even in good times a reliable supply of fresh
running water independent of any "system" is of immeasurable benefit
in maintaining life and cleanliness, and the most reliable source
is to have your own gravity flow collection and storage system
as described in my booklet,
"Rain
Water Collection."
Insect
and
rodent
control will be critical in any disaster scenario.
Fly control
activities will be necessary for two reasons: the control of diarrheal
diseases, and the prevention of nuisance conditions. Diarrheal
epidemics are accentuated by fly breeding habits which bring them
in alternate contact with human waste and food. Under
#5,
"Medical and Health," you will find the recommended antibiotics
for treating typhus and cholera, but it is obviously better to
avoid the problem in the first place than be forced to treat a
serious illness caused by lack of attention and proper caution.
It
will be up to us to control as best we can other vectors of
disease: mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, lice, etc. Biting insects
or arthropods often carry debilitating diseases will make life
untenable at best, and under the worst conditions will sicken
us or even cause death. It is possible to control our environment
to some extent, but it takes advance planning and preparation.
Proper sanitation is the key or first step to control of these
vectors, with the use of insecticides and larvicide to stop future
breeding of disease spreading insects in or around homes.
There
are people, particularly the New Druids, who would rather die
than harm any of God’s creatures. They will. The Darwinian Principle
will apply quite brutally in the future. Those who now exist only
by condescension of modern society, such as the extreme tree huggers,
will find themselves ill suited to survive in a world that bites
back: they are parasites who neither spin nor toil, but fancy
themselves as lilies of the field. They can only exist through
the beneficence and toil of others, but their time is rapidly
ending.
~~~~~~~~~~~ Update Sept. 3, 2005 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
Comment from readers:
Miles,
I just found your site, Wow! what a great stockpile of information!
I noticed however you didn't reference the Humanure Handbook
(composting human waste) on your page about sewage disposal. It's here
online:
http://www.weblife.org/humanure/default.html
Sonia
~~~~~~~January 8, 2008
Miles: Great site, one of the best I have seen in all areas.
Sanitation: What a problems this is going to be. I remember reading
about the forward troops in Iraq and the problems they had with
"sanitation" after going potty. There was no shortage of toilet paper,
but there was a lack of water, and in short order, many of the troops
were literally disabled with a case of the "red a--." The problem was
solved when one of them received a care package from home that
contained a package of baby wipes, sent to him for skin care. Guess
what they used them for? Baby wipes soon became a sought after
commodity and the problems associated with sanitation virtually
disappeared. This might be a tip that you could pass along to the
dedicated readers of your site. I know I now stock some baby wipes.
While this is an unpleasant topic and may seem trivial, when and if it
happens, it could pose severe problems, particularly if it happens
when someone has to bug out. B Wallace
~~~~~~~~July 16, 2008
Miles:
May I say that I have the utmost respect for your survival guides and
the copious amounts of information that you have provided as a public
service. Clearly such a website is a labor of love and duty.
Generally I refrain from contacting people I do not know in cyberspace
to offer a correction, but due to the above mentioned respect I have
for your work I thought I would take a few moments of my busy day to
offer that correction.
You are right to say that fuzzy tree-hugging, new-age crystal toting
hippies would be devoured by a hostile world. However, to refer to
them as "druids" is incorrect. True druids are masters of the natural
world and can survive with little but their wits, knowledge and skill.
True druids have respect for the natural cycles of the planet and make
wise decisions with their resources. Idiots who call themselves druids
are vegetarians who spend too much money on "green" products instead
of learning how to be a "green" person. These self-important
individuals insult the years of studying and skill acquisition
involved in the pursuit of Druidry.
I can appreciate that given the Christian overtones in your website,
you may have a slight (or greater) disdain for Druidry as a faith and
lifestyle. However, please do not perpetuate false information about
druids; the people you speak of are idiots that the majority of
society looks down upon, most especially the group they claim to
belong to.
For more information about modern Druidry, please see www.aoda.org
As for me, I am a rural rancher (10 miles to the nearest gas station,
5 miles to pavement from my home) who has been pursuing sustainability
for several years now.
Thank you for your time.
Sarah
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