Ecosan Kenya Network: 2011

Monitoring and Post Evaluating UDDTs in Nyanza and Western provinces

written by Kirsikka Pynnönen
(Field work for Master Thesis research on Ecological Sanitation)

Last month UDDTs in rural schools (of Ecosan Promotion Project, EPP) were monitored and post evaluated in Nyanza and Western provinces in Kenya, by a Finnish master student Kirsikka and GIZ consultants Wycliffe and Moses. The purpose of this project is to do research on how these schools have been managing with operation and maintenance (O&;M) of ecosan toilets. Schools selected for this research are the ones managing well with O&;M. Besides monitoring and evaluating the situation on the field, the purpose is to find out what are the main reasons for the good performance in these schools. And figure out if there are some particular issues that other schools, and also projects in the future, could learn from these well managing ones. Why are they managing so well, what factors are affecting to that? As known, one of the major challenges considering ecological sanitation is to create a sustainable operation and maintenance mechanism. How to succeed with that in schools, were challenges are e.g. the high population of toilet users and small children?


Comparison on maize field of different fertilizers (chemical fertilizer / EcoSan compost) shows good results for EcoSan! Hope and Kindness, Nyanza province.

EcoSans on the school yard, Kakichuma primary school, Western Province.

In Nyanza province altogether five schools were visited, four of them sponsored by GIZ and Ecosan promotion project: Kendu Muslim Secondary School, Kachan Primary School, Siany Mixed Secondary School and Radienia Primary School. One of the schools, Hope and Kindness, was self sponsored. All the schools were managing relatively well with their operation and maintenance. Toilets were correctly used by pupils and teachers, clean, there was no smell or flies and storing facilities were functioning. Urine and also dried and stored compost was utilized in the school farms! I was happy to see how people were dealing with ecological sanitation very positively and they consider it as a very important issue. Interviewed students were pleased to use UDDTs, as they are clean and not smelly. Idea of reusing urea and compost from the toilets as a fertilizer in the school gardens or farms was well accepted. All the pupils I talked with knew the benefits of this natural fertilizer and had accepted the reuse.

In Western province schools were already closing for the Christmas holidays, so we managed to visit only some of them. Eldoret Educational Center was a very good example of well operating and maintaining schools! But, we also got one example of the opposite performance: in Kitale Ndogo Primary school the maintenance of UDDTs seemed to be entirely neglected, and the condition of the facilities was terrible. Unfortunately the head of the school was not around, so reasons for this bad performance could not be figured out. Field observations and interviews in Western province will be continued next week, and also Kitale Ndogo Primary will be visited again.

A look inside to a well maintained UDDT, Eldoret Educational Centre, Western Province.

Dry product ready for storing, Eldoret.

Ecological sanitation has been generally accepted very well in these schools and also in the communities around. Some of the schools had built more UDDTs after the EPP, and communities around were involved – which is one important factor. The schools are spreading the ”gospel of ecosans” (as one head teacher put it) and some schools get visitors who just want to see and learn about ecological sanitation. Pupils would prefer this kind of toilets also in their home communities, and for sure are spreading the idea to their parents and relatives.

Now it’s time to work with the collected data and make some conclusions. I’ll get back to the topic later!

Who Gives A Crap? Sanitation, Energy and Entrepreneurship in Kenya

Extract from an article in Forbes magazine (online) below on Sanergy work in Kibera slums. Full article here http://www.forbes.com/sites/elmirabayrasli/2011/05/23/who-gives-a-crap-sanitation-energy-and-entrepreneurship-in-kenya/

...

David Auerbach and Ani Vallabhaneni, two of Sanergy’s young entrepreneurs, didn’t need stats to know how the absence of toilets affected the poor. The two graduating MIT-Sloan of Management school students experienced first hand the challenges of no sewage or sanitation when they lived and worked in rural China and India respectively. “Going to the bathroom isn’t a popular topic that comes up at the dinner table in the West,” Auerbach, a former policy hand at the Clinton Global Initiative (and my former colleague at Endeavor), says. “It’s flush and forget for us. That’s not the case in much of the developing world.”

Children at a Sanergy toilet in Kibera slum

Auerbach and Vallabhaneni knew what they didn’t know. What they didn’t know was that they couldn’t draft up a sanitation solution in Boston – without the insights and input of those in the developing world. Committed to launching a start-up that would truly work for the poor, the two, along with a team of MIT classmates traveled to Kenya for the answers. Kenya, with eight million without access to proper sanitation but a university filled with bright and eager minds to help solve the problem, was an ideal testing ground. In January 2010 the team, in collaboration with the University of Nairobi, conducted a user survey among Kenya’s urban poor, inquiring about their lives. “It was important to us that we found a solution that fit into their lives, not our imagination of their lives,” Auerbach says.

What they found was that Kenya’s poor were interested in having compact stalls that could fit into the tight spaces of their usually one-room homes, rather than large community outhouses. They wanted a “permanent” feel to the stalls rather than the flimsy feel of a porta-potty. As a result, Auerbach, Vallabhaneni and their Sanergy team that includes engineers, architects and designers drew up plans for a 3×5 toilet made out of thin shell cement that is locally produced for $200 per unit. Each toilet is designed for a 100 uses per day. They are units, which also collect waste in double-sealed 30L containers, rather than pits, or septic tanks “that are then drained into waterways.” It is this waste collection that is key.

More than where to go to the bathroom, how to dispose of human waste is, as Auerbach points out, a primary reason that no one touches the issue of toilets. That was Sanergy’s opportunity. Recognizing that, though “messy,” human waste can be converted through anaerobic digestion to produce fertilizer or electricity. It is also where the Sanergy team recognized that it could generate revenue.

Sanergy produces toilets that are franchised to local operators who charge around $0.06 per use. Currently the company has two toilets serving approximately 150 each day. One is at Bridge International school (a for-profit school supported by the Omidyar Network), the other in Kibera, Kenya’s largest slum. These local operators keep all revenues. That, Auerbach says, is an incentive for them to clean, maintain and “market” the toilets. The operators then work with groups who collect the waste daily and bring it to facilities where it is converted to energy. “The waste from each toilet generates Sanergy revenues of $1250 per year.” The waste from 10 million creates a potential market of $178 million per year. Brown gold.

Sanitation training in primary school in Ngong Township

Posted by Leonie Kappauf on behalf of Moses Wakala

Barclays Bank Ngong branch Kenya is funding several projects in the surrounding of Ngong through their Community Project program. Sanitation is one of the projects that the bank is supporting in some schools around Ngong Hills in Kenya. The area is located on black cotton sticky soils that are unstable and therefore rather unfavourable for traditional pit latrines. The bank has therefore opted for UDDTs in some schools in order to test whether the community is accepting this technology.The UDDTs are constructed with fibre glass squatting pans and hydro form blocks for the superstructure, which has greatly reduced the cost of the toilets.

Sanitation training in Ngong primary school

The biggest challenge for the bank's program is the lack of a training component within the project. Moses Wakala, a Kenyan sanitation expert from Ecosanity Ltd., formerly working with GTZ, observed that the toilets in the school compound were not used and the doors were locked. He learnt that the toilets were not in use since the school did not have the necessary knowhow about the technology. Consequently, Wakala initiated a full training for proper use of UDDT toilets at the school at his own cost.

Moses Wakala explaining UDDT usage

The training covered usage, operation and maintenance, product recycling, hygiene and information on other types of ecosan systems. The training was successful and the school UDDTs are now in use.

For his contact please check the contacts page on this blog http://ecosankenya.blogspot.com/p/network-contacts.html

Double vault UDDTs for pastoralist communities in Narok South, Kenya

Posted by Leonie Kappauf (GIZ) with information provided by Richard Napper (Wherever the Need)

The British charity Wherever the Need and the Kenyan Rainwater Association (KRA) have constructed double vault urine diversion dehydration toilets (UDDTs) in Narok South Kenya. The UDDT construction is part of a project targeting a population of 3,000 through the provision of a large rainwater collection reservoir, a small livelihood opportunity, a tree nursery and improved sanitation facilities. The two combined UDDTs and bathrooms are located next to the reservoir as part of the auxiliary facilities. It is estimated that they will attract around 200 users weekly.

Combined UDDT and bathroom under construction

The project location is approximately 140 kilometres west of Nairobi, where open defecation is common among the Ildungisho community. Aim of the toilet construction was to reduce water contamination through open defecation as well as through bathing and washing clothes inside the households’ water source. Awareness creation about the relationship between unhygienic sanitation, water quality and the transmission of water borne diseases is part of the project.

Urine diversion squatting pan

The project has taken into account the cultural beliefs and traditions of the Maasai community at the project site and has provided gender separated toilets and bathrooms. The Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation will be involved in the community training, advocating improved sanitation and hygiene practices, which is expected to increase the projects sustainable impact on sanitation and hygiene practices in the area.

Access to bathroom (right) and faeces chambers (left)

For more information please visit: http://www.wherevertheneed.org.uk/projects/kenya-projects/narok-south/

Reaching 800,000 urban poor through up-scaling household and plot-level sanitation in Kenya

Posted by Doreen Mbalo (GIZ) with information provided by Roland Werchota (GIZ Kenya) and Han Seur (WSTF)

Water Services Trust Fund (WSTF), German Financial Cooperation (KfW) and the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) will be partnering with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) on a 5 year urban sanitation program that aims to provide sustainable sanitation services up to additional 800,000 people in the urban low income areas. The program will specifically target the population of the “sanitation hotspots” in Kenya; the informal and formal / unplanned and planned low-income urban settlements where child mortality is twice the national average. This cooperation is in line with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation aspirations enshrined in the Kenyan Constitution that sanitation is a fundamental human right.

Plots with multiple housing units

This up-scaling program is drawing on experiences of the three globally active organisations BMGF, GIZ and KfW to develop broad-based implementation strategies and is a significant expansion of previous work of the Kenyan WSTF. It builds on the ongoing WSTF up-scaling initiatives for increasing access to safe water with the support of GIZ, KfW, and the European Union which has provided quality- and price-controlled drinking water to additionally 750,000 urban poor since 2009.

Almost 50% of Kenyans have no access to a toilet with acceptable standards, only 19% are connected to a sewer system and 12% are forced to open defecation. This is unacceptable for the individuals and highly compromises public health which hampers the country’s economic and social growth.

Plot with a poor sanitation unit for several families

The efforts carried out in the past through stand-alone projects by informal service providers have had little impact and sustainability. This will change as the up-scaling program is now aligned to national strategies and will make use of sector institutions, building their capacities as well as offering for the first time a sound national concept for up-scaling of improved urban sanitation at household and plot level. It will go hand in hand with the concept for public sanitation already part of the WSTF Urban Project Cycle (UPC) and presently being rolled out country-wide.

The financial support for up scaling sanitation will be demand-driven and implemented through annual Call for Proposals to the registered Water Service Providers (WSPs) by the WSTF. The proposed plot and household-level sanitation up-scaling project will target the population of the urban “sanitation hotspots” in the low income settlements. Residents of such low-income areas can apply for support to the WSPs once the concept and the financing mechanism is in place. The concept will be embedded in the water sector and its institutions, to ensure sustainability of the project outputs. The program aims to provide access to improved low-cost sanitation for up to 10% of the estimated 5 million underserved.

The proposed program subscribes to the principle of the full value chain for sanitation (sustainable sanitation services approach). It will promote sanitation facilities of different types (including UDDTs for instance) but also include sludge management which will be treated as a business opportunity.

The proposed program is jointly financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (10.00 Million USD) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the KfW Entwicklungsbank (10.00 Million USD). Additional in-kind contributions will be made by GIZ as well as by the relevant Kenyan sector institutions. The GIZ program will closely cooperate with the SV (Sector Program) and sanitation networks within GIZ in order to ensure validation of lessons learned and integration of innovations.

For more info, please email Patrick.Onyango@giz.de

Sanitation experts brainstorm in Kigali, Rwanda

Posted by Doreen Mbalo (GIZ)

The Africa Water & Sanitation magazine in its September - October edition featured an article on the 13th SuSanA meeting in Kigali. The magazine is distributed for free in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and various other countries.

It describes the activities and outcomes of the 13th SuSanA meeting which took place at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in Kigali, Rwanda, from 17 – 18 July 2011. The meeting took place prior to the Third Africa Conference on Sanitation and Hygiene (AfricaSan3). It was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Health (Rwanda), UNICEF-Rwanda and the SuSanA secretariat (at GIZ) and was attended by 107 participants. You can find the article here September-October edition of the Water & Sanitation magazine

Group photo taken at the 13th SuSanA meeting which was held at the KIST in Kigali, Rwanda. Photo taken on 18 July 2011 by S. Blume

Kisumu urban seminar on water and sanitation in slums

by Christian Rieck (GIZ)

The Sustainable Environment and Community Development project (SECODE) intends to hold urban seminars on 7th – 8th December 2011 in Kisumu. This years event will the the first one of a annual series. The Kisumu urban seminar will focus on two themes each year. For this year the Kisumu Urban Seminar theme is proposed to be on Waste, Water and sanitation which is coherent with the Kisumu City council current strategic focus. The second theme will be on Information exchange and networking in informal settlements: successful case studies

The Seminar will be organized by SECODE Project-Umande Trust through the collaboration of VE International. More sponsors are invited to come on board. Sponsor will be recognized through publications and in the conference papers on the conclusion of the seminar.

Thematic area 1: Waste Management, Water and sanitation challenges and local innovations
Thematic area 2 : Information exchange, Parnership and networking in informal settlements: Successful case studies

Deadline for applications is 15th October 2011.

For further details contact:
Ann Nabangala Obae
Umande Trust- SECODE Project
Project Officer: Capacity Building and Information
+254 412004532/ +254720204861
Email: a.obae@umande.org http://www.secodeproject.org/

PeePoo - Toilets in bags

by Xizi Ling (GIZ) with information provided by Camilla Wirseen (peepoople)

The Peepoo sanitation solution is an alternative approach to tackle the lack of sanitation in informal settlements and during emergencies. Anders Wilhelmson is the Swedish inventor of the idea in Sweden in 2005 and was developed together with a team of multidisciplinary researchers. He wants to give poor people in developing countries a simple way to improve their lives. The toilet is a single-use bag made of environmentally friendly plastics. The inside is treated with urea, a chemical commonly used as fertilizer. A natural reaction kills harmful organisms in the waste. It reduces the waste to fertilizer that Anders Wilhelmson says is safe for growing food. The sanitation toilet bag was invented by a Professor of Architecture Anders Wilhelmson (Ashoka fellow) in Sweden in 2005 and was developed together with a team of multidisciplinary researchers.

In summer 2010 a small scale production was set up in Nairobi and in November the same year the Peepoo sanitation system was launched in Silanga village in Kibera Nairobi Kenya, which was Peepoople’s first launch project. Today in Kibera, four sales women are selling the Peepoo for 3 KSH (0.03 EUR) and when brought to collection point a refund of 1 KSH (0.01 EUR) is paid back. The aim is to have 20 000 users all over Kibera by 2013 after a high-speed production line will be operation by the end of 2012.

The current production costs from the small scale production of peepoos are still high with about 7 KSH per peepoo thus a subsidy is currently provided. In the long run the costs for production will be brought down further and the expected money return from the sale of the sanitized peepoos to farmers shall make it a self-sustaining business model. However this will take some time and many research and development partners are actively engaged in this process including the University of Nairobi. For more infos see contacts below.

Click here to see the peepoo story in Silanga from next million blog

More than 1500 school children have been taught WASH by the Peepoople Kenya team and have the possibility to use the Peepoo. The Sales women have about 1200 customers (both men and women) and they witness improved health and cleaner environment. By summer 2012 Peepoople will start producing 500 000 Peepoos daily which will enable large deliveries to emergencies.

More info please go to http://www.peepoople.com/ or contact the Kenya office

Peepoople Kenya

House No 1 Kibera Phase V
LR 61/441 Olympic,
P.O. Box 21486-00505 Nairobi, Kenya
phone: +254 (0)701 435 800
email: kenya@peepoople.com

Chief Mutsembi Primary School Ecosan Project completed!

Edited by Xizi Ling (GIZ) and provided by Moses Wakala (ecosanity)

Finally, Chief Mutsembi Primary School Ecosan Project in Kakamega is completed!

The ecosan project lasted from March to May 2011 and was funded by the Western Water Company and the consultancy company RODECO. At the end of May, the school facilities have been completed well and are ready for use by 600 pupils and teachers in Chief Mutsembi Primary School and Nabongo Primary School.

Ecosanity Services Ltd, the contractor of the project has already done initial user training. They also recommend official commissioning of the facility and possible upscaling due to high demand in the schools. One of the schools (Chief Mutsembi) has already got funding from CDF (Community Development Foundation) to construct six more double vault UDDT's (Urine diversion dehydration toilets).

Pic 1: Completed double vault UDDT's at Chief Mutsembi Primary school with two toilets and urinal

Pic 2:Two double vault UDDT's for pupils at Nabongo Primary school

Pic 3: Completed double vault UDDT's at Chief Mutsembi Primary school

Pic 4: Stakeholders Training in progress at LVNWSB (Lake Victoria North Water Services Board) conference room in Kakamega

Pic 5: Installation of a double vault UDDT user manual poster in toilets at the sites in Kakamega

Other three posts on Ecosan Network Kenya concerning the project:

Chief Mutsembi ecosan Primary School Project     on Jan 04, 2011

Chief Mutsembi Ecosan Primary School Project    on Feb 28, 2011

Chief Mutsembi Primary School - update on the UDDT construction    on May 02, 2011

Please contact Moses Wakala, ecosan expert and entrepreneur for more information (wakala.gtz@gmail.com).

Time to harvest from Namwela Community UDDT!!!

by Moses Wakala (posted through Xizi Ling)

It was great news at Namwela Community UDDT constructed early last year (see the post here: http://ecosankenya.blogspot.com/2011/01/namwela-community-uddt-toilet-bungoma.html) when they came together to witness the harvesting of decomposed manure from their toilet. A team of the community members and artisans who were involved in the construction were present to witness this activity.

Many of the members present had been using the toilet but they had never experienced the removal of the fertilizer. They were in fact afraid of what could be present in the chambers when the chambers were to be opened by the expert. They could not imagine using human faeces as a soil additive.

Many of them were astonished at the way the expert was confident in opening the chambers. To their surprise, there was no odour from the compost. It was decomposed and looked much less like the animal manure they were used to handle. They were the first to take the compost by the spade to use on the farm to plant maize.

Pic1. Maize planted with decomposed organic manure from UDDT

This was an encouragement to most of the people present to construct similar toilets in their homes.

The facility here was constructed by Ecosan Promotion project funded by GIZ and EU.

Pic 2. Sampling the quality of decomposed manure from the UDDT Chamber

Community Cleaning Services CCS - clean toilet “magician”

Edited by Xizi Ling (GIZ)

CCS - Community Cleaning Services is an emerging Kenyan nonprofit social enterprise working with entrepreneurial teams across Nairobi’s low-income communities providing significantly cleaner, more hygienic and more “usable” toilets at a cost each client can afford (usually less than $0.25 per family per week, the same cost as a soda).

(Resource: “S.C. JOHNSON & COMMUNITY

(Resource: “S.C. JOHNSON & COMMUNITY CLEANING SERVICES: Delivering Sustainable

Diverse infrastructures (vertical and horizontal dwellings) and community structures are operated by CCS. It is providing cleaning services to residential toilets shared across multiple households as well as semi-public facilities in the communities serving residents who do not have access to a residential toilet.

There are 8 “coordinating entrepreneurs” who employ at least another 60 on a semi-regular basis (2-6 days per week). 14 CCS teams currently service around 225 facilities per week. Monthly, CCS teams are improving sanitation for a conservatively estimated 249,000 low-income Nairobi residents and are using S.C. Johnson cleaning products. More infos on the partnership with S.C. Johnson is found on http://www.e4sw.org/projects-initiatives/sc-johnson-kenya.

*Germ level is measured by the amount of organic material that remains on the surface. RLUs are Relative Light Units. A chemical on the germ monitor swab causes organic materials to glow and the monitor reads the Relative Light Units, or the amount of light emitted.

(Resource: “Investing in People, Investing for the Planet”)

In addition, CCS teams re-use all packaging and only replace it once it has served its full useful life—and then it is recycled locally. They are not only delivering cleaner, safer toilets, but also, by nearly eliminating packaging waste, contributing to cleaner communities and setting a positive commercial example.

CCS recently became a partner of the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA), and is expecting to learn what others are doing in the East African sanitation space through this platform and share what they are doing and their learning’s with other partner oraganisations. They also took part in the ecosan vision workshop of last year in Nairobi http://www.susana.org/lang-en/library/conferences/2010-conferences/183-2010-conferences/472-ecosan-workshops-kenya.

CCS evolved through a bottom-up process driven by a unique partnership between entrepreneurial low-income youth and SC Johnson a multi-national company. CCS has deep roots in the community and has a pragmatic, locally orientated business approach to the issues of urban sanitation, which they believe can be replicated. They hope to create demand for improved sanitation, new income opportunities and cleaner, safer toilets in Nairobi’s lowest income communities.

Turning Problems into Opportunities

Problem

When cleaning walls, water and dish soap would be splashed onto the wall by hand. Water would run down the wall and drain away, requiring even more water to complete the cleaning task.

Solutions

CCS now mix the water and cleaner into foam by pouring them back and forth between two buckets. The foam stays on the wall for a thorough scrubbing, and requires about half as much water and cleaner.

Results

By using less water, the cleaners can make fewer trips to the water source, which is often distant. This increases the number of sites that can be cleaned in a day and reduces costs since most water sources charge a fee. Water use is reduced by 57 percent and local team profits can more than double, particularly during frequent droughts and soaring water costs

Contacts
Address: CCS, No. 33 Parklane Stalls, Outer Ring Road, 53042-00200 Nairobi, Kenya

Contact: Joseph Njenga

Internet: www.comcservice.com

Phone: 0722209733

Category: Private sector

S.C. Johnson (cleaning products) :

Contact: Justin P. DeKoszmovszky

Internet: http://www.scjohnson.com/de/home.aspx

Contact information was taken from SuSanA website http://www.susana.org/lang-en/partners)

Sanitation + Energy = Sanergy!

Edited by Xizi Ling (GIZ)
Sanergy is a NGO led by international and Kenyan students, that aims at building sustainable sanitation in urban slums. The groups aims to generate renewable energy through providing clean sanitation services in countries that desperately lack both. They build and franchise low cost sanitation centers to local entrepreneurs in previously unreachable urban slum communities. The waste, from their network of sanitation centers, is transported to their centralized processing facility. Using proven technologies, waste are converted into electricity and organic fertilizer which can be sold to the grid and the commercial farms. They also build low cost toilet for less than 200 Dollars per unit which is a thin-shell pre-cast concrete assembly. See also links below.

Video on how the sanergy sanitation system works?

Turn on the lights from Ani Vallabhaneni on Vimeo.

It consists of a number students from MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambrigde, USA and other motivated Kenyans.

Through each action, Sanergy creates jobs, opportunity, and profit, while simultaneously addressing serious social needs and tapping a market potential of $25M in Kenya alone. MIT Sloan school, Babson College and many motivated Kenyans. The MIT Sloan School of Management, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA), is one of the world’s leading business schools — conducting cutting-edge research and providing management education to top students from more than 60 countries.

Read more about Sanergy related to Ecosan on their new blog http://saner.gy/ and the old one http://kenyasanergy.blogspot.com/. Kenneth Owade from Sanergy had also participated in the ecosan workshop last year in Nairobi. See a few examples of their great work here:

Lunga Lunga! Hip Hip Hooray!

Flying toilet? NO!!! Eco-toilet? YES!!!
Pilot site of UDDT been constructed in Lunga Lunga! Our toilet in Lunga Lunga is on the grounds of a Bridge International Academies school. Bridge is a social enterprise that’s building low-cost (i.e., $4/month), high-quality private primary schools in the slums.

http://saner.gy/2010/08/25/lunga-lunga-hip-hip-hooray/