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It sounds like a lot of toilets; you will need to go into mass production of slabs. I think Oxfam developed some moulds for this sort of problem but otherwise you could just cast them onto the ground.

I attach a scanned copy of the builder’s manual for the Zimbabwean Blair Latrine. The Blair Institute in Harare developed what was possibly the first VIP latrine and has since come up with several variations. I once had a British Labour MP who wanted to be photographed with one at the Harare Show to take back to his leader. In view of the current falling out between President Mugabe and Tony Blair there was a song going round here a couple of years ago “The only Blair I know is a Toilet!” This model uses 3 bags of cement for a brick lined pit, the slab and a brick superstructure. With a further bag of cement you can have a ferro-cement roof, but that can be made with other materials.

The sandy soil means that you will need some form of pit lining. If you cannot get concrete rings, perhaps bricks are possible. I imagine the food aid tins will be quite flimsy metal so that they would not be strong enough to use flattened out. Perhaps they could be filled with sand and used like bricks, or used as moulds to cast concrete bricks.

The other option if you cannot dig down is to build above ground with the cubicle perched on top of a concrete box that is the pit. This would need a lot of materials but is easier to empty if you are going for a double vaulted composting latrine. I don’t know if the use of composted latrine contents will be acceptable in this area. If they are not already used, you will have an uphill struggle to convince people to change.

The Vietnamese double vaulted composting latrine is widely used model in Asia and Latin America but I have not seen it anywhere in Africa. Such latrines are more complex in construction need more materials. They would also require more training for effective use and maintenance. Some construction details can be found at the following website but it is an M.Sc. thesis so may take a while to download; www.cee.mtu.edu/peacecorps/reports/Daniel_Hurtado_Final%20report.pdf. You would probably be better sticking to simple pit latrines in the area where you are working.

Latrines are much better managed when they belong to an individual family. Communal latrines tend to become filthy very quickly unless you want to start paying cleaners. In Zimbabwe we did build some latrine blocks for schools. These were simply lines of latrines side by side and, because they had brick superstructures, material could be saved by shared the intervening walls.

With regards to the flooding, I have had that problem in refugee camps in Azerbaijan and it is not pleasant. There the latrines were pumped out periodically by vacuum trucks but I imagine this will not be an option for you, especially if the pit walls are likely to collapse. You will have to go for better drainage and, roofing and separate showers. It may be that water is also the method of anal cleansing so people will not want to separate the two functions. Jugs for bottom washing will need to be available in each latrine even if showering is done elsewhere.

Regards,

Martin