engineers without borders-usa composting toilets overview and nicaragua project for ewri asce may...

Engineers Without Borders-‐USA Compos7ng Toilets Overview and Nicaragua Project

Pat Coyle, Global Grant lead Rotary Club of Livermore EWB-‐SFP ATDT lead

for EWRI ASCE

May 12, 2015

Agenda •  Engineers Without Borders-‐USA (EWB-‐USA) •  EWB — San Francisco Professional Chapter (EWB-‐SFP) •  Service Corps and Appropriate Technology Design Team (ATDT) •  Compos7ng toilets, background – the need •  Benefits/Advantages/Safety considera7ons •  Some organiza7ons involved, overview – types, examples: •  Household or school: with in-‐vault or on-‐site compos7ng •  Urban: sanita7on-‐as-‐service, with off-‐site compos7ng

•  SFP-‐ATDT project: Compos7ng Latrines in Nicaragua •  Rotary Global Grant for more compos7ng latrines in Nicaragua

Agenda •  Updates and status: Belize Open Source -‐ Sustainable Development •  Engineers Without Borders-‐USA (EWB-‐USA) •  Engineers Without Borders — San Francisco Professional Chapter (EWB-‐SFP) •  Updates and status: Three EWB chapter projects in northern Belize •  Belize photos •  Road past Belize Open Source

40-‐acre site toward August Pine Ridge village

EWB-‐USA vision and mission A world in which all communi7es have the capacity to meet their basic human needs

Supports community-‐driven development programs worldwide through the design and implementa7on of sustainable engineering projects, while fostering responsible leadership

EWB-‐USA Growth

2000 8 Members 1 Chapter 1 Project

2014 14,700 Members ~ 300 Chapters 684+ Programs 39 countries

•  Established in 2004 •  ~ 200 ac7ve members •  7 infrastructure programs •  2 Appropriate Technology Design Team (ATDT) projects •  Execu7ve Commicee and support commicees provide chapter management, fundraising, and publicity

EWB-‐SFP Na7on’s 1st Professional Chapter

EWB-‐SFP Programs and Loca7ons Kenya Water Supply

El Salvador Water & SanitaIon

Fiji Water System

Kenya Water System

HaiI Community Health Clinic and Solar Power

Honduras Bridge ConstrucIon & Water DistribuIon

Nicaragua ATDT ComposIng Toilets Water distribuIon – solar pump

Tanzania Well rebuilding, water DistribuIon & solar pumping

EWB Program Process and Commitment •  Programs have a non-‐governmental organiza7on (NGO) or

community based organiza7on (CBO) partner ac7ng as a liaison to the community

•  Three project phases: 1.  Assessment 2.  Design and Implementa7on 3.  Monitoring and Evalua7on

•  Infrastructure projects have a minimum 5-‐year commitment to the community

•  Service Corps and Appropriate Technology projects vary in length depending on the needs of the NGO and community

•  EWB-‐USA's Engineering Service Corps offers the exper7se of our most seasoned volunteers to organiza7ons in the interna7onal development sector

•  Collaborates with NGOs and governments who use a community-‐driven approach and who lack access to the resources needed to design sustainable and appropriate solu7ons to engineering challenges

•  Performs a variety of services, including engineering studies, owner's representa7on, planning, design, monitoring and evalua7on

Appropriate Technology Design Team (ATDT) •  EWB-‐SFP’s ATDT is a group of MEs, EEs and other

product development professionals who provide engineering design and research assistance for projects in developing communi7es throughout the world •  The team works with in-‐country partners to design

for local condi7ons so that solu7ons are appropriate and sustainable

•  The implemented solu7ons empower communi7es by providing tools that facilitate local economic development and provide basic needs, local educa7on, and entrepreneurial opportuni7es

EWB-‐USA is rolling out Appropriate Technology Design na7onally •  EWB-‐HQ’s new Service Corps mode, includes ATDT •  Sam Burd, EWB-‐SFP, leads the EWB-‐HQ ATDT ini7a7ve •  The EWB-‐SFP ATDT Compos7ng Latrines in

Nicaragua project was approved as the first Na7onal ATDT project

•  The Puget Sound Professionals Nepal Biogas Program was approved as the second Na7onal ATDT project

•  We don't know yet exactly what this will mean for our projects: perhaps more visibility, opportuni7es for resources and collabora7on, fundraising support

EWB-‐SFP ATDT ac7ve projects

For addi7onal informa7on on the ATDT projects see: hcp://www.ewb-‐sfp.org/atdt

ATDT completed or closed projects

Compos7ng toilets – the need Over 2.6 billion people don’t have access to toilets with huge health consequences:

•  Open defeca7on and improperly maintained, overflowing latrines contaminate drinking water and food supplies •  The resultant cholera, hepa77s, parasites and other contaminants claim lives, sicken people and cripple economies by keeping people home from school and work. 1.8 million people die every year from diarrheal diseases – 90% of these are children under the age of 5

•  Safety -‐ Lack of toilets puts women at risk. In India in May 2014, two young girls were raped, murdered and lem hanging from a tree. The deaths could have been prevented if the girls had access to a safe toilet. Instead, they were murdered when they went to an open field to relieve themselves

Benefits of compos7ng toilets Compos7ng toilets have clear ecological and economical advantages over flush toilets. In addi7on to addressing the sanita7on issue, they: •  turn waste into compost that can fer7lize crops, comple7ng a circle of nutrients that rebuilds soils •  reduce the cost of sewage disposal and fer7lizer •  require much less water and energy

Cell phone analogy •  Some developing countries have skipped land lines, moved

directly to cell phone networks •  Similarly, they could skip the water and energy intensive sewer

treatment approach -‐ use dry sanita7on, compos7ng solu7ons

Managing Poop Safely When is the compost containing poop safe to use? (from A Sewer Catastrophe Companion with references) •  Op7on 1: Reten7on – Retaining compost can kill many pathogens by keeping them away from their host (our gut), however, Ascaris eggs (roundworm) can last up to 130 days and s7ll be viable. Retaining compost for two years (730 days) is considered extremely safe •  Op7on 2: High Temperature – Most pathogens are adapted for a narrow temperature range around their host’s body temperature, very few survive outside of that range. Two consecu7ve days at 57°C (135°F) kills roundworm eggs. U.S. Federal guidelines for sewage sludge treatment require three days at 55°C (131°F) for pathogen reduc7on

Managing Pee Safely In healthy people urine is sterile, although it may pick up bacteria or feces while leaving the urethra •  Addressing Urine Disease Risks: When retained outside the body, the urea and water in urine quickly change to ammonia and then ammonium during reten7on, raising the pH from around 7 to around 9. The pH change and presence of ammonia (which is toxic to living cells at high concentra7ons) is enough to inac7vate most bacteria within 2 hours •  In Sweden, urine is used as a fer7lizer for any crop amer a one month reten7on at 20° C (although it must be applied one month before plan7ng for crops that are to be eaten raw)

Killing the Tough Bugs

Some major organiza7ons involved

Overview – types, examples

SOIL, Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods, developed EcoSan latrines that store human waste in removable 15-‐gallon drums for compos7ng. SOIL and its partners build and manage latrines, compost centers and vegetable gardens and hold sanita7on workshops in Port au Prince


Gates Founda7on -‐ Reinvent the Toilet Fair: Andrew Larsen with Fontes Founda7on): Low Cost Emergency Sanita7on Structure (urban slums in Hai7): Five toilet units are grouped on a vented pentagonal structure over a box containing the compos7ng pile. When full, the toilet structure and steps are moved to a new compos7ng box at a different loca7on.

Vodrey Cite Soleil, Hai7

Resource partnered with SOIL in Hai7 on household toilets Resource blogged: cartridge-‐based sanita7on services…have tremendous poten7al, but…need to make them much, much bigger…worldwide, more than 748 million people live in ci7es today without access to decent sanita7on…we need to move from serving thousands of people…to hundreds of millions…

Concept: ultra-‐low-‐cost toilet using removable containers

•  Easy to collect and transport wastes safely from the community •  A good toilet is a symbol of cleanliness and modernity •  Beyond being odorless, hygienic, and vector-‐free, toilet needs to be elegant, modern, and pleasant to use •  It needs to be cheap. Toilet combines a 20-‐L (5-‐gal) bucket, a liquid container, and a western-‐style toilet seat into a sealed, portable, urine-‐diver7ng toilet

Resource: full cycle •  Collect and deliver the wastes to SOIL’s exis7ng compost sites •  Remove full containers, replace with clean ones •  Transport containers, carts to trucks •  Compost waste, clean containers at the compost site •  Sell the compost to help finance the service, restore Hai7’s devastated soil


X-‐runner is opera7ng sanita7on as a service to low-‐income urban households that can’t have regular toilets in Lima, Peru; where 3 million people don’t have a toilet at home


Clean team, in Ghana, offers an innova7ve, affordable sanita7on solu7on for low-‐income communi7es in the developing world


Sanergy builds healthy, prosperous communi7es by making hygienic sanita7on affordable and accessible throughout Africa's informal seclements. Recently honored by Silicon Valley’s Tech Award


Barrel Compos7ng Toilet System (55-‐gal drums): David Omick approach. When first barrel is full, enclosure and toilet seat is moved to next. Compos7ng is facilitated by regular mixing


EWB Portland Maine Professionals, (Portland State University) For Ethiopia, Debre Birhan School Sanita7on project


EWB UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, LAS VEGAS PROFESSIONALS, NICARAGUA, SAN FRANCISCO LIBRE, LOMAS DEL SOL SANITARY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT


(Cont.) EWB UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, LAS VEGAS PROFESSIONALS, NICARAGUA, SAN FRANCISCO LIBRE, LOMAS DEL SOL SANITARY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT

Specific case: SFP-‐ATDT Compos7ng Latrines in Nicaragua

•  In 2010, EWB-‐SFP ATDT, Alvarez Co-‐op, Alcance Nicaragua (AN) and Outreach Interna7onal (OI), built ten compos7ng toilets with the community of Los Alvarez, Nicaragua (134 families, ~ 938 people) •  95% of its latrines were in poor condi7on. These latrines flood with water during the winter and fail structurally, resul7ng in illnesses due to exposure to fecal macer and water contamina7on •  The environment is polluted and inhabitants are exposed to physical harm due to latrine collapse

Completed compos7ng toilet from 2010 pilot implementa7on trip

Compos7ng Latrine Status •  The first compos7ng toilets were working great •  User acceptance was high •  Genera7on and use of compost for agricultural applica7ons was successful •  The community wanted more units

Phase 2 •  A member of the Alcance Nicaragua team designed and built a less expensive compos7ng toilet which cut the cost by half

Prototype reduced cost redesigned toilet

Phase 2 (cont.) •  Goal: build fourteen compos7ng toilets in El Llanito community using the new design ($340/toilet) •  Alcance Nicaragua responsibili7es: iden7fying new beneficiaries, materials procurement and transporta7on, managing the construc7on, and collec7ng beneficiaries’ contribu7on (40% of cost)

Phase 2 (cont.) •  July 2014: AN selected par7cipants •  August 2014: Material Procurement prior to construc7on started •  August 19-‐August 31: Construc7on •  Post Construc7on: Documenta7on – in progress

Phase 2 ConstrucIon

Preparing founda7on

Phase 2 ConstrucIon (cont.)

Concrete in founda7on form


Building the vaults


Sealing the vaults with plaster coat


Building the upper structure


Families with completed toilets

Families amer workshop

Post ConstrucIon: DocumentaIon – in progress

Next steps •  The EWB team has raised funds to do more compos7ng toilets for the families that need them •  Almost $3k through an IndieGoGo campaign •  $7.5k grant from EWB-‐SFP chapter • My Rotary Club of Livermore and our NGO partner have agreement with the Masaya Nicaragua Rotary club to partner on a Global Grant (GG) for $37.5k, enough to do about 80 more units •  The applica7on is in review with our District 5170, Masaya Rotary and their District 4240, and Rotary Interna7onal •  Rotary Club of Castro Valley allocated funds (DDF) to get us to $15k min •  EWB is dona7ng $5k Nicaragua is easy to visit: A red-‐eye from SFO gets you to Managua

by mid-‐morning

Not just for 3rd World -‐ hands-‐on EWB workshop at UC Davis Based on A Sewer Catastrophe Companion: Dry Toilets for Wet Disasters, the field-‐proven 5-‐gallon pail based composAng approach for seismic or other emergency response situaAons

Portland Oregon’s Bureau of Emergency Management has adopted this approach as part of their planning

Hands-‐on workshop (cont.)

Wrap-‐up, Q&A •  Compos7ng toilets/Dry Sanita7on: The simple way to think about

this is “Don't poop in the water.” Ques7ons? Email me, [email protected], with follow up ques7ons and for a copy of the Sewer Catastrophe Companion: Dry Toilets for Wet Disasters, the field-‐proven 5-‐gallon pail based composAng approach for seismic or other emergency response situaAons … or you can find it online at: hcp://www.portlandoregon.gov/pbem/ar7cle/447707

engineers without borders-usa composting toilets overview and nicaragua project for ewri asce may...

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