Toilets for Emergencies

What are we going to do when the toilets don’t work?  Do we have the knowledge and materials we need to build simple, safe, functional toilets for household and multi-household use?   Helping Portlanders answer these questions is the goal of Toilets for Emergencies, a fall campaign organized by PHLUSH in partnership with PNCA’s Collaborative Design Studio and the Christchurch compost toilet group in New Zealand.   The first events will take place on October 22 at the Water ! 2011 Festival at Humboldt School, 4915 N Gantenbein, Portland.  The free festival is sponsored by East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District. From 10am-3pm there will be demonstrations on making the Christchurch twin no-mix toilet, which is appropriate for vertical neighborhoods.   At 11 am PNCA graduate students will present a class on building multi-household emergency toilets. With alarming earthquake risk in our area, we need to prepare.  If you are interested in a 15-minute talk or hour-long workshop for your community group, just let us know.