WASH

WASH, which stands for water, sanitation and hygiene, is a topic that has always been of great importance in development cooperation. That is especially true in today´s world, when many countries are typically struggling with enormous population growth and the consequences of global warming. This is a normal world map and this is a distorted world map, where the size of the area represents the proportion of people who had no access to basic sanitation in 2015. It is based on Data from the World Health Organization.

Another World Health Organization Map shows the Population that uses safely managed sanitation facilities. These are defined as improved sanitary facilities, that are not shared with other households and in which the excreta are safely disposed of on site or transported and treated off-site. It is obvious that the lack of sanitation facilities leads to various diseases and affects the mortality rate of entire communities. Small children are particularly vulnerable and the consequences are irreparable. Despite all this, it often has no priority in the planning of various construction projects.

Of course, toilettes are always planned, but they often come last and are built without much consideration and with the remaining budget. It is important to remember that public buildings such as schools Clinics and community centers are often the only buildings 35 that have adequate sanitation facilities.

If this is taken into account, they may be able to be designed in such a way that they can be used by a larger number of community members In this sense, we – as organizations that are involved in the implementation of various development projects – are able to improve the overall sanitation situation in various way. WASH is the area with a significant amount of very accessible resources, where one can get a better understanding of all related topics and an overview of each technology used can be acquired.

The German Toilet Organization, based in Berlin, Was founded in 2005 and has WASH 52 00:02:23,530 –> 00:02:25,030Hauptthema hat. as its main topic. As part of development cooperation, they organize various advanced training sessions on the implementation of Alternative and sustainable WASH solutions 1-2 times a year. Various resources or links are available On their website There are various websites, that function like information centers and present various Technologies, real-life examples, Planning aids, toolboxes, and similar resources.

They are great sources of information, but one must know exactly what they are looking for, Otherwise, as a layperson, one might feel overwhelmed. In this sense, a much better and simpler resource is the Emergency WASH Portal which is currently available in five languages. Unfortunately, there is no German version at the moment. The topic is emergencies, but when looking at budgets of many development cooperation projects, challenges and solutions are very similar, making the concept perfectly applicable to different situations.

It is divided into three parts, which deal with water supply, Sanitation technologies, and hygiene promotrion. This last part is very interesting, as it is basically the first thing to be done. Planning how to implement small or large WASH projects, especially when it involves something new that differs from usual practice. This part is divided into various sections, covering topics such as assessments, community engagement, communication, planning- various social components, and evaluations. Furthermore, there are also many tools and methods, that can be used for hygiene promotion and to stimulate discussions.

The second part provides an overview of various sanitation technologies, and it is the most useful in our case. It is a good starting point, in order to gain a deeper understanding of all possible solutions Topics such as user interface, collection or storage, emptying methods, treatment and use or disposal. Each individual part has a clear listing of all pros- and cons, so one can easily compare different alternatives and decide what fits best. Everything is written in such a way, that it is easy for anyone to understand.

The last part deals with various water supply technologies and how water can be captured. Er ist nützlich, It is useful, when water infrastructure projects are carried out, in most projects for constructing buildings, there are usually only three options available. Boreholes with pumps, the use of water from water tanks, rainwater harvesting or filled by water trucks or – much less frequently – connection to a reliable public network. Another excellent resource is the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance, abbreviated as SuSanA.

Here one can find an endless amount of information from the whole world, all of which is open source, Freely accessible, and constantly updated. When conducting a project in a specific country, that deals with a WASH topic, this should be the first point of contact. A general overview of some country-specific conditions can provide a much clearer picture of what is possible. There are many materials, But some of them are particularly noteworthy.

A huge photo collection of various sanitation projects, Conducted as part of development cooperation. The good and bad examples, where one can relate all the drawings and diagrams to real life. Many of the photos we use in this video presentation Come from their library. There is also an active forum, Where various topics are discussed. You can ask questions, but basically, everything has already been answered somewhere. The main approaches and possibilities of WASH have not changed for decades. And ultimately, there are various case studies and scientific articles.

Here you can see which technologies are available in individual countries. In Kenya, for example, urine-diverting toilets are very common, in Ghana, biofiltration soakaways are now almost standard, and in Nepal, most construction companies can build a biogas plant. In some countries, none of these solutions are common and require much more work and research. Let´s look at what to consider, when the topic of toilet facilities arises. Toilets are a central part of daily life and have great significance.

everyone uses them many times a day. It is in our interest to keep them clean and tidy. This photo, a household urine-diverting toilet in Kenya, illustrates this very well. Of course, public toilets always look much worse, but that is a different topic. When planning, the local conditions and possible cultural differences must be taken into account. They vary from country to country and should always be discussed. This includes, for example, the question of how close the toilets are to other buildings, how the division between men’s and women’s toilets is done, etc.

A global problem is the maintenance of such facilities, regardless of cultural conditions and the way maintenance is perceived. When it comes to a dark public toilet, suddenly no one is responsible for it and the already poorly maintained sanitary facilities deteriorate very quickly into an even worse state. It helps if the toilets are designed to look nice, like in these examples. You don’t need anything special, just a bit of color, a few nice tiles, and as much natural light as possible.

The initial investment may be a bit higher, but if something looks good, the likelihood that it will be maintained by users over a longer period in this condition is much greater. The positioning of sanitary facilities in relation to other buildings is important, and this is from a very practical standpoint: the toilets almost always smell. Unless they are flush toilets where there is no water shortage, one should always err on the side of caution and place the Toilets a little further away.

In this case, the change – namely relocating the toilets further away – was initiated by director of the local NGO. He was well aware that during the dry season, water shortages are to be expected, which means, that no water is available for flushing and a bad smell is very likely. In this example from Uganda, it was clearly requested that the toilets should not only be as far away as possible from the other buildings in the complex, but that there should be a clear separation and a significant distance between boys’ and girls’ toilets.

Considering menstrual hygiene is especially important when designing school toilets, as it directly affects the number of girls who attend school. There must be safe and clean spaces available. Here is a preliminary design for a toilet building, which is intended only for female students. It consists of urinal stalls, a shower and areas for handwashing. Water is collected on the roof and the space is designed to be well-ventilated, full of light, clean and odor-free.

In this way, it also serves as safe space, That girls can use. The regular latrines, which are dirtier and smell, are located elsewehere. And ultimately, one should always pay attention to how the toilets are positioned in relation to drinking water sources on the property, to avoid contamination. Many toilets do not have a proper septic tank or, if they do, it is with an open bottom, through which various microorganisms and bacteria can Enter the groundwater. For this reason, according to various handbooks, a distance of at least 15 meter must be maintained between the wastewater and the water source.

On slopped terrain, the toilets should ideally be located lower than the wells, and the bottom of a septic tank should be at least 1.5 meters above the groundwater level. The exact minimum distance depends on the soil type and other factors. There are basically two ways to plan the toilets: with or without water. With water means that it is a type of toilet with a flushing mechanism. The toilet is either connected to a water source, public network or watertanks with pumps, or the flushing is done with buckets.

The crucial part is the S-shaped siphon, which ensures that the water blocks the odor from the septic tank. These toilets can either be sitting toilets or squat toilets, which comes in countless shapes and designs. If there is a toilet that is flushed with water, there must be a fairly large septic tank. Typically one with two or three chambers that filters the liquid and discharges it as gray water into the ground, while the sludge remains in the pit.

The septic tanks are built underground, using conventional materials such as various blocks and concrete. They always have an access shaft, through which they are emptied at various intervals, depending on the size and numbers of users. The emptying is done with special equipment, which pumps the sludge into small cisterns. The sludge is then ideally taken to various landfills And disposed of there. An alternative, which is suitable for smaller toilet facilities, would be a double pit system, where the second pit is used as soon as the first one is full.

In the meantime, the water slowly seeps into the ground and as soon as the solids are dried, they can be easily removed manually. There is a higher risk of groundwater contamination, but it is a cheap, Technically simple and permanent solution. The biogas plant is an anaerobic treatment technology that produces a fermentation sludge, which can be used as fertilizer, as well as biogas. Biogas is a common term for a gas mixture, which mainly consists of methane and carbon dioxide.

It can be captured and burned as fuel, like propane, for example. Here you can see some technical drawings and sections, which show what a mini biogas plant looks like. It has two chambers, One is the fermenter and the other is the outlet. It is always built underground, so that it is hardly noticeable after the construction work in completed, apart for a gas pipe that protrudes. As you can see, it is a complex construction, that must be executed properly.

It also requires a certain investment, which depends on the respective country and on how widespread this technology is. In Nepal, it is standard, in Nigeria, for example, it can be done, but it can cost three times more and the quality is very likely much worse. This is what the typical construction process looks like for a household biogas plant in Afghanistan. It starts with a hole in the ground and a foundation. Then the first chamber is built with high precision, as it must be perfectly round.

The material used are bricks and mortar. The upper part is dome-shaped, so that the chamber can better withstand the high pressure. The containers must be sealed very tightly, to prevent the gas from escaping. After that, the expansion chamber is built. This allows the excess sludge to flow out of the main chamber and thus controls the overall air pressure. Another alternative, that can be used in some countries, is the household-based toilets or similar concepts with macro or microorganisms.

In Ghana, they are quite well known under the name Biofil. The basic working principle is the separation of urine and feces and the use of aerobic decomposition and macroorganisms to process all organic degradable materials. Regardless of how the fecese are decomposed, they all have a drainage layer and an open Bottom, through which the liquids can Escape int the ground. Various investigations and studies show that, depending on the soil, 80-90% of the pollutants are removed within 1.5 meters depth.

These soak pits are much smaller, Need to be emptied less frequently, and do not smell. A similar concept is applied to the disposal of grey water or urine from toilets. Typically, these liquids are then separately directed into so-called soakaways (or soak pits), before they seep into the ground through the gravel.

In this way, the septic tanks are not overloaded with too much water. A large part of the world’s population has no access to running water, therefore dry toilets are the only solution in such situations. They usually have a very bad connotation. Toilets that are dirty, smell and fall apart. But – as we will see – this is also an area That potentially offers the most opportunities. Here the user interface is also similar. It probably is a squat toilet with a hole in the ground or in some cases it can even be a proper seat with a hole underneath.

The most common option is a VIP dry toilet, “Ventilated Improved Pit”, or an improved pit. The name sounds more glamorous than the toilet itself actually is. It consists of a hole in the ground with an air vent pipe and a fly screen, which make up the improved part. They always look approximately like this and it has developed into a kind of standard around the world. Sometimes they are better maintained and look nicer, but sometimes they do not and they look very bad.

There are many different ways in which a dry toilet can be built. In this example, regular squat toilets were purchased in a store and integrated into the toilet facility. These elements can also be homemade concrete slabs or a simple hole in the ground, as it usually is the case. To reduce odors and the proliferation of insects, a cup of soil, ash or wood chips is added to the pit after each use.

The walls of these toilets can be built in a very makeshift manner, as many toilets are simply abandoned once the pit is full. It is often much easier, to build a new toilet a little further away, than to empty the existing one. If it is a more permanent structure, the emptying of the pits must be very clearly designed, as you can see in this example of a latrine block in Burundi. For smaller toilets, the emptying process looks more Or less like this.

One prepares the necessary equipment and the contents of the pit can be emptied with a vacuum truck. Or in some cases, it can also be done like this, A very dirty and dangerous task. There are ways to improve this process. The first is to use a dry toilet with two pits, which can be alternately used every 6-24 months, Depending on capacity and usage. When one pit is full, It is closed and the other is used.

This often means, That the entire upper structure must be relocated. The full pit remains closed, so that the wastewater can ssep into the ground and the contents can decompose. The switching system reduces the amount of humus, that needs to be emptied from the pits, and the end product is more hygienic to handle. An advanced method is urine-diverting toilets, urine and feces are collected separately. Typically, toilets are built with two chambers, which operate on the same principle as the previous example.

The feces remain sealed and dry over a certain period, usually at least 6 months. The main advantage of these toilets is that the feces, when not mixed with urine and other liquids, decompose relatively quickly and smell much less. Let´s say, That the user interface is the most complicated part. There is a hole for feces and a hole for urine. And since the most common case is the one with two pits, there is another hole that is completely closed.

That’s a lot of elements and one has to learn to handle them. There are options, that look much more comfortable and where factory-made urinal drainage toilets can be used, which is a very good solution – if available. If not, there are still some similar, homemade options. The back looks similar to the ventilated pit latrines, but usually has better solutions for the emptying of the chambers. There are also options with baskets.

And for urine collection, various plastic tanks are often used, which need to be emptied or collected daily, as they fill up quickly. the current situation is not good, but it offers the opportunity to introduce changes. On the right, you can see our normal sanitation system. The human waste is directed into the sewage pipes, and discharged. This solves the problem in a very elegant and clean way, that’s true. This system is related to the way our cities and our flush toilets function together.

It´s hard to imagine that it could be any other way. On the left side, you can see what ecological wastewater disposal should look like. It is a cycle, where theoretically everything is recycled. All the energy and nutrients that are usually thrown away, here are reused to grow our food, which makes us more independent from various synthetic fertilizers. Especially urine is very rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, which are all main components of various fertilizers.

All these elements are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive, when they are obtained through various standard procedures, like mining. This is a very clear comparison between the two systems, And it shows the advantages of ecological wastewater disposal. Yes, this system implies a completely different network, a different technology, and a different lifestyle. It is also very hard to imagine how it could be scaled so that it can work in different Urban environments.

But from our perspective, and that is the involvement in various projects that do not have running water anyway and at best use dry toilets, this is a great opportunity to do something. Here are some examples of simple and cheap solutions that can be also be ecological. An Arborloo can be an option in rural areas, when there is no budget but enough space. The basic idea is to to simply build another latrine at a different location, once the first one is full.

And to use the abandoned pits for planting trees. These toilets are simple pit latrines with basic walls to provide privacy. When the pit is full, another shallow – about 1 meter deep pit – is dug and the toilet structure is moved This is particularly easy, when it is made of wood and straw. subsequently, a tre can be planted in the ground and its roots penetrate the pit as it grows This is not an example, of how the toilets should look like in the future … They are obviously inadequate.

It only serves as an example of the principle and the potential benefits of switching to an ecological wastewater disposal. Of all methods, the reuse of urine is likely one of the easiest to implement, and it offers by far the most benefits. It is relatively easy to collect and treat and, in comparison to feces, it poses a much lower risk of infection. Urine must be diluted in a ratio of 1 to 10 with water and can be used immediately as fertilizer. There should be at least one month between application and harvest.

Here are some interesting examples of the influence of urine as fertilizer on corn crops. On the left are the examples with urine as fertilizer and on the right examples of water only. When considering the benefits and how much it can improve the living conditions of local farmers and communities, this is an opportunity that should not be missed. This is an example of an Ecosan project in Burkina Faso, but there are also examples of companies that buy urine from households and later sell it as fertilizer.

This is also a business opportunity. Social acceptance is, of course, a much Greater challenge than the practical aspects. When it comes to Ecosan, what is more frequently discussed is the composting and reuse of feces Fertilizer. This is of course also a potentially large source of reusable resources. But if we look at it realistically, it is obviously a much more complicated process with an even greater social acceptance problem. As it can be seen in these photos, it is dirty, It stinks and it requires a lot of space and logistic.

The dried feces must be emptied from various chambers And then composted. This means that the germs must be destroyed and that only happens if temperatures above 60 or even 70 degrees are maintained for an extended period of time. This involves many tests, to ensure that the process is carried out correctly and that the fertilizer is actually safe. it is definetely worth introducing something within the framework of various wash projects, But only if the conditions are right.

When it comes to changes or alternatives, everything works – on paper. In practice, it is a lot of work. Social acceptance is an issue, and then one has to learn how to use, for example, urine-diverting toilets. That is one of the biggest 562 00:26:36,400  00:26:39,260 challenge – not the technology itself.

That should not be forgotten. If the children in a school are not able to use the new toilets, they will go back into the bushes and the situation will get even worse, despite the new facilities. it is often very difficult to introduce something new, Especially when it is something more complicated. Therefore, it may not be necessary to fully rely on Ecosan. An half-way solution could also bring many improvements to the existing situation.

Depending on water intake, an average person urinates about 6 times a day with average volume of 1,5 liters. That is a lot of urine. What if we built more urinals as standalone Structures? This is common in public restrooms, which are often divided into toilets and urinals. For some reason, it is not so common in typical construction projects. Nevertheless, it offers many advantages. In the case of conventional flush toilets, the amount of urine, that mixes with the feces is much lower, and that could make the intervals between the tanks´ emptying longer. In the dry toilets, less urine would be mixed with feces, allowing to reduce the odor, improve the hygiene and create various options for urine collection.