OUGD503 - Disaster Aid/Emergency Packaging - Refugee Camp Sewage & Waste Management Research

• A soak-away pit: this pit or trench is covered to prevent vector access and might be filled with gravel. In this system, the water seeps into the soil, mostly into the sidewall of the pit as the bottom usually seals up due to particles in the sullage.

•  An evaporation bed field: the beds are 3 by 3 meters, the surface area must be leveled and the factor is 1m2 per 20 liters of sullage per day. The beds are separated so that the sullage can be directed to anyone of the drying beds, which have a small dike around their perimeter. If the beds are used properly, they create no insect hazard and only slight odors.

•  A drainage field or an infiltration trench: this consists of gravel-filled underground trenches into which the liquid effluents coming from a septic tank are led through open-jointed (stoneware) or perforated PVC pipes, allowing the effluents to infiltrate into the ground.

• Finally, there are more complex wastewater treatment systems, and therefore more expensive, which can be found in commercial systems units (Harvey 2007). Some of these are:

•  Rotating Biological Contactors (RBC): treats the waste by having many disks mounted on a shaft which rotates slowly to alternatively submerge and aerate the biomass on these disks.

•  Biological Aerated Filters or Submerged Aerated Filters (BAF/SAF): mobile or fixed submerged media are in a tank where the biomass is attached and is continuously aerated form diffusers underneath it.

•  Membrane Bioreactors (MBR): submerged membranes within an aerated tank that essentially 

'The chosen removal system has to be able to remove wastewater without polluting the local environment. This can be done by an open channel, a gravel drain or a pipe drain. The open channel is the most simple and economic technique and should be used only for draining rainwater or wastewater over short distances. The channel should be made out of cement with enough slope to be self-cleansing. A gravel drain is the improvement of an open channel by lining it with plastic sheeting and filling it with coarse gravel. Finally it is covered with soil material.'

Cabrera Pacheco, A. J.; Hamhaber, J.; Ayllón Trujillo, M. T.
Wastewater management alternatives in refugee camps Ingeniería Revista Académica, vol. 14, núm. 2, 2010, pp. 121-125 Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán
México 

https://www.academia.edu/494697/Wastewater_management_alternatives_in_refugee_camps

https://www.wplinternational.com/solution-types/portable-or-permanent-bases-and-camps/refugee-camp-options-portable-and-permanent-bases-and-camps/

'Adequate sanitation provision is vital to promote health and prevent the spread of disease in long-term temporary settlements such as refugee camps. Sites tend to be overcrowded and facilities can be far from adequate.'