Open access
Author
Date
2023-06Type
- Student Paper
ETH Bibliography
yes
Altmetrics
Abstract
Asiye eTafuleni, a South African non-profit organization, has launched a program giving workers and customers at a popular market conglomeration in Durban, South Africa, access to public urinals. Since these urinals are not connected to a sewage system, they instead require a means to regularly empty the on-site urine storage and to transport the urine off to a centralized storage location.
The objective of this semester project was to find a solution to this problem by designing, building, and testing a urine collection trolley. If successful, the design was then to be replicated and deployed in Durban as part of the urinal program.
In order that Asiye eTafuleni could continue using their old cart, it was decided to use a barrow similar to the ones commonly found in South Africa as a basis for the prototype. Other key components included a 126-liter water tank, a cover, a pump, and a storage solution for the pump’s hoses in the form of two plastic pipes. The entirety of the accessories could be removed from and reattached to the trolley with the help of two ratchet straps.
The system was tested the same way it would be used in its real working environment in Durban, except that the urine was exchanged for water. In other words, the testing stage consisted of repeatedly pumping water from a canister into the cart’s tank, and then pulling the cart through the streets for 1.85 kilometers while loaded with 110 liters of water. Although a few design flaws manifested themselves over the course of the testing process, most of those are easy to fix and all in all both tests proved to be well feasible for the prototype.
As a result, the project can be viewed as a success, having produced a urine collection trolley capable of efficiently emptying the urinal drums and transporting the urine to a final storage location. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000619021Publication status
publishedContributors
Examiner: Tilley, Elizabeth
Examiner: Kalina, Marc
Examiner: Tkaczuk, Jakub
Examiner: Meboldt, Mirko
Publisher
ETH ZurichSubject
Urine; Non-motorized transport; informal workers; Public toilet; South AfricaOrganisational unit
09746 - Tilley, Elizabeth / Tilley, Elizabeth
More
Show all metadata
ETH Bibliography
yes
Altmetrics