How far a pit latrine must be from a well in each kind of ground to keep the well water safe
- Good it would do
- 4 / 5
- Can AI help
- 3 / 5
- How neglected
- 4 / 5
- Can we check it
- 3 / 5
Why it's stuck
77 billion people use pit latrines, many next to shallow wells. A 2013 systematic review found only 24 studies that directly tested whether latrines contaminate groundwater.
What we'd try
Run very large ensembles of groundwater flow and pathogen and nitrate transport simulations across the soil, rock, water-table and rainfall conditions found in low-income regions, using public hydrogeology maps. The result would be a lookup of safe distances by setting instead of one global number, checked against contamination distances measured in field studies.
What could stop us
Safe distances depend on site details that public maps do not capture, and field data to check simulations are few.
Source: https://escholarship.org/content/qt7dn8t3qn/qt7dn8t3qn.pdf
Do you know the answer?
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