Sludge, Round Two

Monday 26th November - WARNING, THIS POST CONTAINS IMAGES OF AN EXPLICIT NATURE, NOT TO BE VIEWED WHEN CONSUMING FOOD!

We inspect the site, and discover only a very thin layer of sludge remaining in the tanks – the influent must have been >90% water, the bulk of which has now drained out through the filters.

A view into the plastic roofed tank - basically a thin film of sludge on the sand

Condensation on the roof

We had lots more discussions about where to get ‘better’ sludge, as in thicker sludge, and how to get it to site, given that the vacutug cannot remove the thicker material.  We inspect the various containers available at Practical Action, and more are bought from the market to enable the volume required to be collected.

300L square plastic tank

70L plastic barrels

Practical Action's backyard/ treasure trove, if you like that sort of thing

From some initial qualitative observations - putting my hand underneath each roof - the metal roof is very much cooler than I had been expecting, and so we paint it black to see if this will improve things.

Painting the shiny metal roof black

We retire to town for dinner, while Practical Action staff make the final arrangements with the sweepers (those who actually do the dirty work of sludge collecting) and wait for the evening and our next delivery of sludge.  We return to site at around 9pm to see our first delivery of the thicker sludge.

The first container from Batch 2 - Mmm thick sludge

The first container is indeed much more what I was expecting…and this is where the one of the problems with talking about sludge comes…the lack of appropriate adjectives!  This first load was kind of a thick soup/ McDonalds milkshake kind of consistency.  Unfortunately the next container was much more runny, and as each container was emptied into the beds, it was obvious that it would be difficult to ensure each bed received the same input material.  Ah well, we will do what we can. 

Once this batch had been delivered, we returned to town to have dinner (!) before joining the sweepers in the bus station to oversee collection of some ‘better’ sludge (there was some discussion amongst them of where to find the ‘good stuff’. 

Watching them work highlighted the dangers of this kind of job – there was no PPE (personal protective equipment) and a significant risk of splashes and slips.  They had absolutely no qualms about handling the dirty buckets and loading containers onto the lorry.

This batch was emptied into the flat beds, and again was a soupy consistency.

  In order to make at least the volumes consistent, we left then to do one final delivery and put the roofs back on, and retired to the hotel around midnight.

Incense being burnt to mask any odours

Still draining...