Hi Libby,
Thanks for you question!
With regards to the phasing out, the main challenge with maintenance and installation is the labour and equipment costs. Getting the appropriate machinery on country is only achievable by a select group of contractors on the Cape, and this is reflected in their pricing. If and when it breaks, there are the same cost factors where the simple cost of transporting the required equipment can make these systems costly to maintain.
You could certainly consider smaller scale designs, and potentially ones that were achievable with minimal machinery inputs and low-labour required. The labour costs of installation and maintenance of these facilities should be factored into your design considerations and solutions. My final thought on this question is if you’re creating a smaller scale solution, do you need to install multiple at the same site to cope with visitor numbers?
In terms of soaps, assume that most of the soaps are no different to what you or I might purchase in the supermarket. The cost of goods and transport of those goods to the Peninsula is high, therefore eco/earth friendly soaps, or grey water friendly soaps cannot be guaranteed to be the sole soap product in use on the Peninsula, due to their cost per bar. You could proceed with the assumption that a product like black and gold brand or basic palmolive brand soaps would be in use.
Hope this helps, and do reach out if you’ve got further questions.
Luke
Luke Barbagallo