251–260 of 288 posts
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Most properly sized and installed septic tanks do not ever need to be pumped out. They compost on their own and the excess water seeps out underground.
That makes no sense. What happens to the solid material?
I suppose there will be very small amounts of minerals that don't break down but they are insignificant.
As an African, I can't help but think that all this charity to Africa might be contributing to us lagging behind in the world. With charities helping out so much, will the local government ever get their act together and provide these functions of public sanitation like they are supposed to? Or will they keep stealing public health funds in the knowledge that charity will always swoop down to save the day? Charities…
It's an interesting ethical question on paper, but I bet it's one you wouldn't bother to ask if it were you dying from cholera, "for the greater good". In any case, only the living can hit rock bottom, so I salute the humanitarian effort going into saving lives.
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If you watch the video properly you will see that he did not drink the water
> * If you watch the video properly you will see that he did not drink the water* Then what's he doing at 1:52? Although granted, the Janicki Omniprocessor website says that it doesn't quite produce drinking water quality.
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"Job creation" by itself isn't a very noble goal. Creating hamster wheels for humans to run on is comically cruel and pointless.
Fundamentally I agree with this, it's very inefficient and wasteful of resources, although I sometimes wonder whether it's the only practical way to provide welfare in places where politics / prevalent ideology oppose direct social policies.
If a corporation would try to do that in US, it would be called price dumping and trigger antimonopoly lawsuit against them, but somehow, when it's done to poor African countries we consider it OK, and even expect them to be gratefull for it.
EDIT: I think that China does much better job helping them by making actual investments in their economies, building railroads, factories, etc. You might question their intentions, but you cannot question the results.
This makes me realize how freaking stupid we are as a nation/group-of-nations: There are issues/problems that are common to all. Especially common to ALL governments, societies, etc. Given a population of X and an infrastructure level of Y with purpose Z that are impacts ABC...N A=Cost B=Scale C=[whatever] N=... So - when you look at the cost of a nation, we assume that we have an infrastructure maturity/development…
Why the fuck was this downvoted so much, comment and contribute please. This is a serious thought experiment.
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Most properly sized and installed septic tanks do not ever need to be pumped out. They compost on their own and the excess water seeps out underground.
Actually, a proper septic tank (according to EU regulations) has to be water-tight and be emptied regularly. Many beaches on the Mediterranean loose their health pass occasionally due to nearby overbuilding and improper septic tanks.
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this was contrary to my city-dweller's understanding, so i did some quick wiki-reading and it seems like the reality is somewhere between you and GP's statement? i.e. they do biodegrade waste via anaerobic bacteria, but non-degradable sludge has to get pumped out every few years.
Your city dweller’s habits compel you to throw fat and oil down the drain. These need very high temperature to compost. But then you are also throwing chlorine and ammonia based cleaning agents, which greatly inhibits organic life. If you let the fat and oil solidify at room temp and dispose of them in the trash, and if you use regular soap in the recommended amount, and if you septic tank additive once in a while, y…