Prep Series Week 7: Sanitation

This is part seven of our ten-part toolkit series providing a step-by-step guide about how to prepare for disaster. You can read Parts 1-6 in the Resources & Toolkits page of Cramming for the Apocalypse.

According to the World Health Organization, 1.4 million people die each year because of diseases contracted due to unsanitary conditions. Most of these people are from low- to middle-income countries (LMIC) and it is a massive public health issue that persists and is made even greater in a world where natural disasters are on the rise and where these communities are the most vulnerable on the planet. There’s something to be said for the resilient communities who must deal with sanitation challenges in the day-to-day to ensure that their community is protected from disease, and we can learn from them.

When Elizabeth served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Malawi where her community, Mkanda, was off-the-grid, and got their daily water from community bore holes, her health center colleagues spent a great deal of time educating community members about proper hand-washing. It’s a basic thing we remember also from the early Covid-19 days that we also need to remember post-disaster. 

Those of us reading this are among the privileged population who live in higher-income countries where indoor plumbing and sanitized tap water are the norm. We should understand this is very much a privilege, but it’s not one to take lightly. And it's especially one that we should not take for granted, particularly when it comes to disaster. In this paper published in the Journal of Emergency Medicine Clinics of North America, Drs. Stephen Y. Liang and Nicole Messenger discuss the emergence of infectious diseases after hydrologic disasters including hurricanes, tsunamis, storm surges, excessive rainfall, floods, and even drought. They note that 40% of deaths after a natural disaster, specifically for people who are displaced, are due to diarrheal illnesses. This shows how important it is to prepare for sanitation for your own family.

We should also note that when we’re talking about sanitation we’re talking about anything that would happen in the bathroom (cleaning, ablutions, everyday bodily functions) and some of what happens in the kitchen (cooking and cleaning fresh food items and cleaning before and after eating).

We’re here to help you get ready for the eventuality that fresh and potable water isn’t available.

Emergency Toilet Kit

Look, no one wants to think about a world where there are no working toilets and garbage pick up is indefinitely suspended. But if disaster strikes, you need to have a plan in place to deal with all forms of sanitation. As noted above, water-borne diseases are a leading cause of sickness and even death around the world, and they mostly come from poor sanitation.

Your sanitation preparedness begins with putting together an Emergency toilet kit. If you want a tutorial you can watch one here.

To build your own emergency toilet kit you’ll need: a 5 gallon bucket with attachable toilet seat (don’t bother with a pool noodle–they are a breeding ground for germs!), 3mil or thicker contractor bags, back up toilet paper, and kitty litter.

Yes, you need kitty litter (or pine shaving/saw dust if that’s readily available)! This will absorb your liquid waste and cut down on smell. One of our key goals is containment of all waste. While there are methods for composting human waste, they take a boat-load of more know-how to do safely and that’s outside the scope of this crash course.

Once you’ve got all of these, put them with all your other preps. Brekke stores a disinfectant solution, and rubber gloves with her bucket so she has an added layer of cleaning supplies.

Managing the Waste

When disaster strikes and you’re without flushing water, it’s time to put this into action and set it up in an out-of-way, well-ventilated place.

When your bucket is half to two-thirds full, plan to tie it off and store away from your living quarters, and preferably away from any water run off. Look for storage options ahead of time–if you have property, is there an area where you can dig a trench and cover it with rocks to keep animals away? If you live in an apartment or townhouse, is there a basement out of common space where you can store this waste? 

Remember, garbage collection is likely out too, so you’ll need to plan ahead for food waste as well–start scoping ideas out now. If you have a good relationship with neighbors, make a plan for how to address trash as a community. It’s a lot easier when everyone is rowing in the same direction. 

Keep it Clean

Managing waste is only one half of the sanitation problem. The other half is the on-going struggle against dirt and germs. Think about how you’d keep clean if all of a sudden there was no running water. How would you clean dishes? Clothes? Yourself? 

You might think about going a few days (or weeks!) without a bath is a-okay, but try going that long without brushing your teeth. Or being able to wash out your clothes. It’s not a pretty situation. Depending on your needs, you may want to plan to have some non-potable water stored just for sanitation. Old plastic laundry jugs are great for this–lightly rinse the big soap off (you can even use it in your washer!) Fill and store–this water will be a little soapy and can be used for hand cleaning or light dishes or laundry washing.

Keeping a supply of wet wipes, hand sanitizer, paper plates and single use utensils are all short-term ways to cut down on sanitation problems (and more suited to people with enough property to dispose of the added waste). 

We’ve covered water storage previously, so you’ll want to reference back to that section. But some other cleaning items you would want on hand include: 

• Bleach and borax

• Hand sanitizer

• Large bin of sanitizer wipes for surfaces

Additionally, you want to keep your daily ablutions in mind when stocking your prep kit you’ll want to include:

• Soap (for body and hands) – honestly washing hands with soap regularly is one of the best ways to keep sanitary

• Toothpaste and toothbrushes

• Floss

• Deodorant

• Shampoo and conditioner (or go with a 2-in-1) – Elizabeth has begun stocking up on bars of shampoo/conditioner that are also great as a low-waste option

• Baby wipes – a big box of baby wipes can be a great body wash option, but these are mostly good in the short-term because they won’t last as long as several bars of soap.

• Extra menstrual and sanitary products OR a diva cup – This is a big one for people who menstruate as it can seriously affect your quality of life. You may consider having a diva cup on-hand and getting used to using it because you don’t have to worry about running out of pads or tampons.

• Extra contacts, contact solution, and glasses – This is in the sanitation section because daily contact use (i.e. putting your finger in your eye every day) can be the cause of eye infections and other eye diseases. When Elizabeth went into Peace Corps, her manual suggested contact-wearers to switch to glasses for the duration of their service. Elizabeth decided to take the risk and brought extra contacts and contact solution and never had an issue. But it was still a risk. It’s important for contact wearers to think about what they’d want to do in case of an emergency and how they’ll manage the sanitation. If you wear contacts because you need to wear sunglasses, maybe have a pair of prescription sunglasses on hang.

Bucket Baths

While scrubbing down your body with some soap can be a nice relief, sometimes you just want a damn shower. Well, friends, we’ve got you covered with a bucket bath. This is how so many people around the world without running water bathe and it is how Elizabeth took her baths for her two years in Malawi. One of the amazing things about a good bucket bath is how efficient it is with water. You only really need about 2-3 gallons of water for a whole shower. Since most of you already have a shower facility, this can all happen (more or less) there. 

What you need includes:

• 2-3 gallon water bucket

• A pot for boiling water

• A large cup to pour the water

First, heat a large pot of water up on the stove. Once it’s very hot, pour it into the bathing bucket. Slowly pour colder water in to make sure the temperature is right. When the water’s ready, jump in your shower stall and use the cup to pour the water over your, scrub with water, rinse with another pour.

Of course there seem to be a variety of ways to take a bucket bath based on a Google search. But this is Elizabeth’s tried and true method.

With all of these steps, you should be ready to keep yourself, your house, and your area clean in case of emergency.

Action Steps

• Get your emergency toilet kit materials. See pg. 30 of the workbook

• Find a place where you can store any waste, either from the garbage you create or from the emergency toilet. See pg. 30 of the workbook

• Stock up on extra emergency cleaning and toiletry supplies. See page 30 of the workbook

• Get your bucket bath materials in place. See page 30 of the workbook

Bonus Advocacy Action Steps

Thinking about water in terms of sanitation, it’s much easier to see how essential clean water and access to clean water is on a daily basis. Here are some bonus advocacy steps you can take:

• Try out water conservation in your household. This can make you aware of how much water we actually need. See page 30 of the workbook. 

• Get involved in clean water protection. Clean Water Action focuses on the environmental justice impacts of polluted waterways which affects the most vulnerable populations the most. Plant It Forward works in clean water advocacy with a vision that all people have access to clean water free of waterborne diseases. Also find out what’s going on in your community with clean water activism. See page 30 of the workbook.