10.2.3  Burial in a pit

This is practised mainly in the yards of individual households. It can be an effective way of dealing with waste, especially when the waste is covered by earth every day. But care must be taken in choosing where to position the pit so that there is no danger of leachate contaminating groundwater or surface water. Another disadvantage is that these pits cannot accommodate a huge volume of solid waste, so a household could run out of disposal space. An example of a burial pit, which is fenced to keep out animals and children, is shown in Figure 10.2.

Figure 10.2  Waste pit for a small community.