Piggery Operations
In the vast majority of Pacific Islands, piggery operations are small, numerous, and spread across the landscape. In these small communities and villages, pigs play an integral part of the culture and traditions of the people. Most piggeries are non-commercial operations, with limited fiscal resources and limited land areas bounded by the sea. Waste management systems or models designed for the large commercial operations simply do not work in these small piggeries. The concepts provided on this web site are suggested management practices and ideas offered for these small systems, including: portable dry litter pen; dry litter technology, composting; Ihaka system, and solid separator. No system is perfect and there are no “free” systems as it relates to cost and/or labor inputs. Some of the concepts are new and others are as old as the history of farming. If you have new ideas, share them with your community.
Water Resources
Potable water for human consumption is a critical natural resource that needs to be protected in coralline atoll ecosystems. The fragile freshwater and marine ecosystems are some of the most productive habitats in the world and are easily disrupted due to sedimentation, overfishing and eutrophication due to sewage, animal waste and pollutants. Nearly all of the small piggery operations in the Pacific adopt a water‐based approach for pen cleaning, meaning that wastewater from concrete‐constructed pig pens are generally discharged directly from the pens onto ground surface; into a “septic tank”; or directly into natural water ways.
Human Health
Although manure output is relatively small, the excessive use of water in pen cleaning creates a significant risk to water quality and human health. The primary concern is the spread of pathogens to groundwater and coastal waters that can have serious consequences for human illness from E. coli and Leptospira bacteria. The secondary concern is the nutrient loading of nitrogen and phosphorus into groundwater and coastal water resources. Consumption of water with high nitrate levels can have toxic effects on infants and the elderly, causing a symptom known as “blue baby syndrome”, where nitrogen molecules bind to oxygen molecules, reducing the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. High nutrient discharge into coastal waters have led to algae blooms that smother important marine life, such as coral, shellfish, other microorganism.
Cesspool vs. Septic Tank Systems
Cesspools are commonly--but incorrectly--called "septic" systems by many piggery operators. Discussions with piggery operators have revealed that these systems have open bottomed tanks, which make them cesspools rather than septic tank systems. Farmers install cesspools to handle the waste stream from the piggery but many of these systems are not adequate for managing the waste, as evidenced by effluent backup at the inlet to the tank and obvious ponding surrounding the tank (as can be seen in this image to the left). In areas with shallow ground water or other water resources, the cesspool can overflow and become a direct conduit of contamination of water resources (e.g., ground water, streams, ocean). This situation results in uncontrolled flow of untreated waste into the environment for direct exposure to human and contamination of nearby water sources.