4. Sanitation

Clutter attracts rodents.

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.

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.

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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