The Poopack: An ergonomic alternative to using barrels for FSM
Pit Vidura’s service is built on our ability to access and serve underserved communities in last-mile urban areas. Our process is specifically geared at removing waste from neglected households that live in out-of-reach informal settlements. Over 50% of the households we served in 2020 were users of dry pit latrines and two-thirds of them had no access to the main road.
Left to right: Pit emptying using the Hopper eVac; One of our emptiers carrying a filled 60 L barrel on his shoulder; Loading the barrel onto a truck
Pit Vidura uses two different processes to empty waste from households we serve. Our direct pit-to-road pumping system, DoVac, works great on flat terrain up to a 200 meter distance. However, many households are too far for the DoVac to reach. In these cases, removing waste barrel by barrel is the only solution: waste is pumped from full pits into barrels which are carried one by one, by hand, from the household to the truck at the nearest main road. We never say no to a household in need of our services.
Given the need to use the barrel system to reach our lowest-income households, we seek to do it in a way that protects the health and safety of our workers. Thus, we present “Poopack”, an ergonomic alternative to hand carrying barrels. Our prototype makes use of locally available materials such as steel bars, cushion pads, and repurposed seat belts — all for a low price of $30! Using lightweight materials, such as aluminum bars to further improve ergonomics will increase the production costs but can be leveled when producing the packs at scale.
Left to right: The Poopack prototype; Poopack with strapped barrel; Poopack on the back of an emptier
We used the Liberty Mutual ergonomics analysis tool to assess the barrel handling task in regards to ergonomics safety to avoid overexertion by our workforce.
The benefits of the Poopack include:
Improved occupational safety and reduction in potential health hazards
Compliance with ergonomics standards
Improved portability and quality of the workers’ grip
Reduced risk of spillage and contamination during transportation
Gender inclusion (women can do this job safely!)
High-quality labor mobilization due to increased pool of potential workforce
Using the Poopack has increased the barrel handling task time by 35 % compared to the conventional shoulder loading. With time and further iteration, we work on better aligning our process efficiency standards and our safety standards. As always, safety first!
Have an idea to share with us? Engineers, ergonomists, and makers, please get in touch!
info@pitvidura.com
Thanks to Rutayisire Bruce.