Sanitation & Hygiene

[Nemesis]

Military Guidelines For Field Sanitation & Hygiene


Latrines must be located at least 100 meters from unit messes and at least 100 meters from any water source.

*Garbage must be buried at least 100 feet from any water source.

Keep in mind, this is for large parties and amounts of waste. For smaller parties, personal cat holes and burial of personal trash should suffice if common sense is applied.

Some other things to keep in mind for planning:

* Plan for garbage/rubbish disposal by burial or incineration.

* Plan for liquid waste disposal. Use soakage pits/soakage trenches.

* Plan for body waste disposal. Use cat-hole latrine for marches, straddle trench for 1-3 day bivouac sites, deep pit latrine for temporary camps, burn-out latrines and soakage pits for urinals.


Fig1-cat-hole latrine: Fig2-straddle trench

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Deep Pit Latrines. The deep pit latrine is used with a latrine box placed overit. The standard type box provides four seats and is 8 feet long and 2 1/2 feet wide atthe base. A unit of 100 men requires 8 feet of latrine space, or one 4-seat latrine box(see Figure 3-3). The holes should be covered with flyproof, self-closing lids.

All cracksshould be flyproofed with strips of wood or tin nailed over them. A metal deflectorshould be placed inside the front of the box to prevent urine from soaking into the wood.The deflector may be made with flattened cans.




Construction. The pit is dug 2 feet wide and 7 1/2 feet long. This willgive the latrine box 3 inches of support on all sides. The depth of the pit will depend onthe estimated length of time the latrine is to be used. As a rough guide, a depth of onefoot is allowed for each week of estimated use, plus one foot of depth for the dirt cover,when closed. Generally, it is not desirable to dig the pit more than 6 feet deep becausethe walls might cave in.

Rock or high ground water levels often limit the depth of the pit.In some types of soil, a support of planking or other material for the sides may benecessary to prevent wall cave-ins. Earth should be packed tightly around the bottomedges of the box so as to seal any openings through which flies might gain entrance.

I just found a lot of information on this subject while looking for a Deep Pit Latrines picture, so I am going to add that info here as well, as it will save me looking all over for pics and stuff, so I will stop this now and start over.