Sanitation Facilities

Under our sanitation, hygiene, and public health interventions, we offer services for safe disposal of human excreta. Human excreta must be properly disposed of, to ensure a safe, healthy, and liveable environment! Proper disposal of human excreta prevents pollution of the environment, air, and water resources. Safe disposal necessitates the construction of well designed and sited physical infrastructures, which minimise impact of the faecal matter on groundwater resources.

A sanitation system is a set of technologies and services which together manage sanitation products along the five functional groups of the sanitation service chain. A viable system is composed of compatible technologies through which the products are collected or contained, transferred, transformed or safely reused or disposed of. Selection and design of sanitation systems is assessed using geophysical, technical, socio-cultural, legal, and financial criteria as well as capacity and management considerations, while the main factors that distinguish the different sanitation systems include;

• The type of user interface: this can be either a dry system (no flush but optional anal cleansing water) or a water-based user interface (cistern and pour-flush toilet). The system selected will influence what type of collection and treatment is required downstream,
• The degree of centralisation: some systems treat or dispose of excreta and sludge on-site, while others use transportation or other means to transfer the sanitation products to decentralised or centralised treatment systems or to disposal/reuse technologies,
• The type of transport: if the excreta or sludge is not disposed of on-site, the sanitation products are transported either through a sewer if these are in place and water for flushing is available, or, more commonly, through manual or motorised emptying and transport in cesspool trucks or barrels.

We offer numerous sanitation and hygiene consulting and implementation services, including but not limited to;

• Feasibility study, engineering design, and construction of institutional waterborne flush toilets/toilet cubicles,
• Feasibility study, engineering design, and construction of sanitation facilities i.e. pour flush toilets (SATO pans), lined drainable stance latrines (VIP pit latrines),
• Engineering design and construction of menstrual hygiene management (MHM) facilities and incinerators,
• Desludging of filled up waterborne toilets (septic tanks) and latrine pits,
• Engineering design and construction soak pits and septic tanks,
• Supply of mobile toilets and portable toilets,
• Renovation of sanitation facilities/toilet facilities (rehabilitation and repair of toilet facilities),
• Engineering design and installation of doom shaped slab toilets/SANPLATs,
• Engineering design and installation of smart toilets/automatic public toilets (revolving toilets),
• Engineering design and installation of bio digester septic tanks,
• Supply and installation of hands free hand washing stations and WASHaLOTs,
• Undertaking condition assessments and rehabilitation of sanitation facilities,
• Supply of numerous technology options across the entire sanitation value chain (SVC),
• Undertaking sanitation safety planning,
• Undertaking management and mitigation strategies for sanitary sewer overflows (SSO),
• Unblocking clogged and blocked plumbing, drainage, and sewerage pipe systems,
• Supply and installation of compact, electric operated toilet systems for mining and remote industrial sites (for above and below ground) i.e. mine toilets. The system relies on a miniature biological treatment plant,
• Installation of vacuum sanitation technologies for ships, buildings, and mobile facilities.

At SANKOFA, we have specialist knowledge and expertise in the design and construction of different types of sanitation systems, suitable for various geological conditions and cultural settings.

Sanitation safety planning.

Sanitation safety planning (SSP) is a step-by-step risk-based approach to assist in the implementation of local level risk assessment and management for the sanitation service chain, from containment, conveyance, treatment, and end use or disposal. SSP supports the implementation of the WHO Guidelines on Sanitation and Health and the WHO Guidelines for Safe Use of Wastewater, Excreta, and Greywater. The SSP process coordinates stakeholders along the sanitation chain and prioritizes improvements and system monitoring based on health risk.