Laundry Stations

Laundry stations are another element that we hope to include in the facility design. One of the CTPC teams from 2007 worked primarily on designing and implementing a communal laundry station in Monwabisi Park. Their project has been a great resource for the planning of a laundry facility design in Langrug. Their design was a sustainable system that used collected rainwater, environmentally safe soap, and an irrigation system that watered a small grove of trees nearby. This project stands out because the team was not only able to design the laundry centre, but was even able to finish construction. Laundry is bonding activity in many informal settlements as women enjoy socializing in a public place as they wash their laundry with others. When there are not sinks to do the washing in, women collect buckets full of water and carry them home to do the wash. The used wash water (now greywater) is usually thrown in to the streets (Alen 2007). A laundry station in the facility design has the potential to reduce greywater from flowing into the streets. Some suggested components are rainwater collection tanks, plugs for the sinks, laundry wringers, clothes lines, and possibly even a play area so that mothers can bring their children along as they wash the laundry. Many of these components have been implemented in previous projects done by WPI, and hopefully can be replicated in our design as well (Kenney 2011).

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