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RE: WW treatment in S America Rainforest

Emery L — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:15:01 GMT

Jeff,

Thanks for the info. I understand your O&M concerns. It is my understanding that the EWB program at ASU has committed to a 5 year program to follow up with them. They currently have an operator for the water system and the townsfolk is charged $1 per month. The plan is to train another operator for the sanitary system and cross train them both on the w & ww systems. The town is also a community center for a local tribe...hence the additional "wanting" for those things of the modern world. They recently got an small building with internet access.

Looks like a good idea to leave on the list for the March trip where some team members are going to propose several ideas and come up with the ultimate solution.

Thanks again.

RE: WW treatment in S America Rainforest

Jeff Naumann — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 20:12:49 GMT

For some time now I have following an interesting blog of an American who has become an expatriate living in fairly rural Mexico. He has installed a composting toilet at his home there. Here's a non-working direct link that that blog, specifically talking about his composting toilet:

http://www.vivaveracruz.com/blog/?p=421

Frankly, for a rural system in Equador, with only a small number of hookups (or, not even hookups), and shallow groundwater, I think something like Sr. Calypso is doing in Mexico makes much more sense. Often, people in the non-first world want what those in the first world have, with no practical understanding of how to operate it, or the will to properly maintain it. Who is going to pay for and operate/maintain even a simple lagoon system in a rural area.

WW treatment in S America Rainforest

Emery L — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:47:45 GMT

WEF Form Members,

I have recently through my local WEF affiliation's become a Professional Mentor for some students at ASU (local university) in their Engineers Without Borders program. They have a very interesting project in a rural community of Ecuador. The community has a broken water system and little wastewater infrastructure. Current cesspools and septic tanks are daylighting and adding to the health problems of drinking water not disinfected. A traditional septic seems to be out of the question due to local groundwater at 2 to 4 feet bgs. As you can guess the community members have serious health problems associated with sewage contamination of community surface waters.

More info on their website:

http://ewb.asu.edu/tsuraku/index.htm

I am helping them with the design of a community master plan and sewage treatment facility (supporting about an 800 person build-out). They have settled on the idea of a lagoon treatment system with a cartage system until the town can raise enough capital for a sewer system. This seems to be the lowest capital and O&M cost. The village consists of about 40 homes, a school, medical facility and church. Previous efforts to provide community bathrooms (clustered system) have not been successful. The citizens want flushing toilets in each home.

A big push of our efforts is public health related. Without adding too much more info I was curious if anyone had experience in this type of project? I have done this type of work in the US but this is a totally different animal. Is there anyone with success (or horror) stories of a system that we may be overlooking for a project with a VERY limited budget?

Thanks in advance.

Take care,

Emery