latrine

Male Latrine. Fort Sam Houston, Texas
(April 2006).

A latrine (from Latin lavatrina meaning bath) is a communal space with multiple toilets designed for defecation and urination. ^[1] Latrines allow for safer and more hygienic disposal of human waste than open defecation. They are used in rural areas and low-income urban communities, with significant use in the developing world. Many variations exist, but at its simplest, the reason for using a latrine is that waste is controlled and decomposed into safer by-products.

Latrine is also a term commonly associated with the United States Armed Forces, specifically, the Army and Air Force for any point of entry facility where human waste is disposed of, which a civilian might call a bathroom or toilet, regardless of how modern or primitive it is. The US Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps commonly use the nautical term head in place of latrine, even when disembarked from a vessel.

Types

Roman public latrinae found in the excavations of Ostia Antica. Unlike in the modern installations, the Romans felt no need to provide privacy to each indivudual user.

Many forms of latrine technology have been used in the past, from utterly simple to more sophisticated, while newer developments show promise using ecological sanitation (EcoSan).

Some different types and technologies regarding latrines are:

• Pit toilets, or pit latrines, are the simplest and cheapest type, minimally defined as a hole in the ground. The most basic improvement is installation of a floor plate. A dry pit does not penetrate the water table, while a wet pit does.

• A Ventilated Improved Pit (VIP) Latrine is one that reduces two of the most common problems with a simple pit latrine: odor and fly/mosquito breeding. Adding a ventilating pipe is the key improvement of the ventilated improved pit latrine. See Pit toilet.

• The Double-vault Ventilated Composting Latrine is currently the most advanced, free-standing latrine. Apart from offering significant reduction in risk from waterborne disease, this type of ecological sanitation provides the closure of some nutrient cycles by allowing the safe, composted waste to be used as a "free" soil treatment in agriculture.

• Squat toilet

• A water privy uses a watertight tank that receives the waste and sends it to an underground seepage pit or drainage area.^{[citation needed]}

• "Flying latrines" refers to plastic bags used as toilets in African slums, so named because after being filled, "you throw them as far away as you can."^[2] This has led to the banning of the manufacture and import of such bags in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania.^[2]
• Reed Odourless Earth Closet (ROEC) is an improvement of VIP latrine. Common in southern Africa. Some parts of Europe still use latrines in villages that are located in distant rural areas.
• Pour-Flush Latrine
• Cistern-Flush Toilet
• Bucket Latrine
• Pour-Flush Toilet and Vault.

Notes

See also

• Community-led total sanitation
• Composting toilet
• Ecological sanitation
• Outhouse
• Pit toilet
• Septic tank
• Sewer
• Waste disposal
• Head (watercraft)
• Reed Odourless Earth Closet (ROEC)