Frequently Asked Questions

A major earthquake in the Wellington region is likely to cause significant damage to the pipes that take away your poos and wees. It's important that people do not flush or use their normal toilet.

Damage to roads will also limit access around the region which will disrupt refuse collection services.

Members of the community will need to be self-sufficient for at least 30 days, but some parts of the region could be more, following an event and adapt their sanitation practices in the months following until wastewater networks are repaired.

After the 2011 Christchurch earthquake highlighted the lengthy restoration times of sewerage systems. A situation that is likely to be exacerbated in Wellington by the significant access difficulties expected after a significant earthquake

There are two main options for managing your wee and poo at home after an earthquake:

1. Make a long drop
2. Make a two-bucket emergency toilet
3. (Only for those with mobility impairments): Place a sturdy plastic bag inside the toilet bowl.

The long drop and two bucket options were taken as the preferred emergency sanitation options because they were considered the most viable/technically feasible options for the Wellington region by most of the stakeholders involved in the waste-water system. 

For a long drop, the Ministry of Health recommends the hole needs to be 1 metre deep, 30-40cm wide.
For a hole in your back garden to store your poos, it needs to be 50cm deep. 

Away from vegetable gardens and neighbours boundaries. Avoid waterways like rivers, streams and ground water.

You will need two buckets: one bucket for wee and one for poo.

Bucket 1 - Wee:

• Add 2-3cm of water to bucket before use
• Don’t put toilet paper in this bucket
• Empty daily into an area of your garden or other green space (dilute with water first)

Bucket 2 - Poo:

• Add layer of mulch to bucket before use
• After each use, add a handful of mulch to cover your poos and keep dry (to reduce the smell)
• Empty every 3 days into the hole in your garden (50cm deep) or if you don't have a garden, empty into an outdoor lidded bin.
• Menstrual cups should be emptied in this bucket.

Period products and nappies go in a normal rubbish bin.

Plastic bags in toilets should only be used as a last resort for people who cannot use a long drop or two-bucket toilet (for example those with accessibility needs or limited mobility). There are two main reasons around why we don’t want people weeing and pooing into plastic bags (unless they really, really need to).

The first reason is public health and safety. When people are weeing and pooing into plastic bags this requires more close contact handling with their wees and poos and this increases the risk of gastro outbreaks.

The second part is for environmental reasons. When poos and wees are in a plastic bag they can’t be processed in the water treatment plant and will have to be sent to the landfill (much like your dog poo bags). When poos and wees are in a plastic bag they take a very long time to break and this would have a huge environmental impact on our region having everyone weeing and pooing into bags that end up in our landfill.

However, we know that for some people this might be their only practical solution (those with accessibility needs or limited mobility) so we have put it down as an absolute last resort.

It is important that wee in the bag is soaked up with absorbent materials such as sawdust or other super-absorbent material. This option is discouraged for the general population because of anticipated difficulties with sourcing of the bags and drying material, disposal of the resulting waste and potential for spillage and mess. 

Wees and poos combined together can get really smelly. Keeping your poos and wees separate will help keep the smell down and make it safer to handle. By keeping wee and poo separate, you will find that your bucket toilet is easier to empty and more hygienic.

1. If you have an outdoor garden area where you can dig a 50cm hole - dispose of your poos in this hole. Keep your poo dry. Do not put your wees in this hole - dilute your wee bucket with water and dispose of in another area of your garden/green space.
2. If you do not have a garden/green space area where you can dig a 50cm hole -dispose of your poos in your outdoor bin. Keep your poo as dry as possible. Dilute your wee bucket with water and dispose of your wees in an area of your garden/green space.

If you have no garden/green space or live in an apartment, you can still use the two bucket system.

Put a sturdy bin liner in your poo bucket and dispose of your poo bag every 3 days in your normal apartment skip bin. For your wees, dilute with water and dispose in a green space outside. 

• Empty your wee bucket daily - dilute your wee bucket with water and dispose of in an area of your garden/green space.
• Empty your poo bucket every 3 days or earlier if it is full. 

You can use your two-bucket toilet inside your home. Make sure to have it away from cooking areas and put a lid over the buckets when not in use. Empty your buckets outside into a hole in the ground or into an outdoor bin like a wheelie bin.

Use mulch, sawdust, straw, kitty litter or shredded newspaper to keep your poo dry.

Your whānau can share a bucket, But if you have children, you may need to make your emergency toilet small enough for them to sit on it.

You can purchase sturdy buckets from hardware stores.  You can also use other sturdy containers such as small bins etc. 

• You can cut a hole in a garden chair and place it over your bucket toilet or long–drop.
• Toilet seats can be unscrewed from existing toilets and attached to the chair.
• Wrap something soft around the top of the bucket to make it more comfortable to sit on such as a polystyrene, pool noodle etc.

There are a number of challenges associated with use of portaloos/chemical toilets.

Difficulties of collecting and treating the waste from chemical toilets and community portable toilets after a major earthquake make them an unviable solution for the Wellington region. Road access around the region could also be affected for days to months following as well, which would reduce the ability of to deliver these options. Common strong winds in Wellington also make portaloos prone to tipping.

Poor safety conditions, and maintenance are also issues. Concentrated effluent from chemical toilets or portaloos would have to be stored for drip-feeding into treatment plants.

Some of the challenges of chemical toilets/portaloos highlighted from the Christchurch experience were:

• The supply was unable to meet demand
• Takes a significant amount of time to source enough toilets to meet needs
• Some people were required to walk quite a distance to use a port-a-loo
• Safety issues at night time
• Public health issues. Not being cleaned regularly for the number of people using them.
• Labour intensive as they require pumping twice a day
• Significant odour issues
• Easily and regularly vandalised
• Safety issues. Some were tipped over while people were using them
• Lack of water and hand washing facilities (often not working)
• Waste needs to be dumped in large communal tank, which users found difficult.
• Impact on psychological well-being of community with the large number of people using one port-a-loo for extended periods of time.

• Environmentally friendly, no chemicals used 
• Smaller load factor – reduces the public health risk 
• Easy to put together 
• Storage containers do not need to be emptied daily 
• Can be used in the home 
• Requires minimal water  

• Keep bucket contents separate from other household waste and cover them with extra mulch, straw, or soil.
• After using the toilet wash your hands thoroughly using soap and water, or hand sanitiser. Dry your hands thoroughly.  If possible, use gloves when emptying buckets.
• Rinse and clean the poo bucket after emptying. Disinfect with a dilute bleach solution if necessary. Make sure you are emptying and cleaning your buckets regularly.
• Keep the toilet and waste material well separated from any food preparation areas. 

Pads and tampons go into your regular waste bin. Empty menstrual cups into the emergency poo bucket. 

Nappies go into your regular waste bin.

You can also use other sturdy containers that you can find in your home such as small bins or storage containers.

If you can't use a two bucket toilet/ have mobility impairment, you can place a sturdy plastic bag inside your toilet. The bag needs to be big enough to cover the whole bowl to avoid spillage. Place some dry material in the bag to soak up your wees and poo - It's important that you try to soak up as much liquid as possible in the bag. Tie and dispose of your bag in a rubbish bin. Wash your hands thoroughly. 

If you have a septic tank, and you are confident that it is still operational and that the drainage field is not impacted, you can still use your septic tank. If there is damage to either the tank or the drainage field, contact your septic tank provider. 

These options are based on research conducted by Massey University and a series of stakeholder workshops.

Recognising the potential for lengthy outages of wastewater and following experiences in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake response, Massey University and WREMO collaborated on a pilot of a two-bucket emergency toilet. An emergency compost toilet trial was undertaken in October and November 2012 to determine whether compost toilets could be a viable alternative to port-a-loos or chemical toilets in an event that sewerage systems are disrupted. The trial was funded by the National Emergency Management Agency.

Following this, a number of workshops were held with stakeholders involving Massey University, Te Whatu Ora, Wellington Water, WREMO, Ngāti Toa, local councils, and managers and contractors of solid waste.

The emergency sanitation solutions allow end-users to choose their preferred option, allowing for a range of behaviours, cultures and capacities. Māori representatives guided the cultural aspects of the plan. 

Consultation was with all key stakeholders managing and responding to an emergency sanitation plan - Massey University, Te Whatu Ora, Wellington Water, WREMO, Ngāti Toa, local councils, and managers and contractors of solid waste.

The target levels of service were created to have realistic solutions and restoration goals for all organisations involved in the restoration of the waste water system after a major earthquake. The target levels of service are:

• First 7 days - self-sufficiency by the community for sanitation needs. Until the wastewater networks are repaired - residents to dispose of wee and poo on their property.
• From day 8 - if the roads are available and all other systems operational (e.g. fuel supply), options 3 and 4 (as shown in the infographic) will also be viable.

Massey University led a collaboration with Wellington Water, Regional Public Health, WREMO and the councils to understand the process of capture, containment, emptying and transport, treatment and disposal or re-use of excreta, if using the two bucket system. This led to the councils, WREMO, Wellington Water and Te Whatu Ora/Regional Public Health to conduct a project including a wider range of stakeholders to plan for emergency sanitation. Stakeholders were from Ngāti Toa, the disability sector and managers and contractors of solid waste.