Jenai Lieu

Capstone Project – Optimizing the Biosand Filter Underdrain

For their Capstone project, a team of engineering students from the Schulich School of Engineering designed experiments to observe the underdrain layer of the Biosand Filter to find the best configuration for water to drain out of the filter. The team faced many challenges and learned lessons along the way.

Calgary, Canada – From September 2015 to March 2016, CAWST worked with a team of fourth-year engineering students from the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary. With CAWST as their sponsor organization, students completed their Capstone project, tackling real-world problems to apply their technical knowledge and develop professional skills. Their objective was to explore ways to optimize the performance of the underdrain gravel separation layer of the biosand filter. This article discusses some of their findings.

Our project was composed of multiple parts. The first part was a literature review of how the underdrain works as the bottom layer of the biosand filter in supporting the upper layers and allowing water to drain through the filter. The second part was to design an experiment to test different underdrain configurations. The third part was to optimize the underdrain parameters such as gravel size and layer thickness to optimize the performance of the biosand filter.

In order to properly test different gravel sizes and configurations, an experimental setup was first designed. Our constraints were that it needed to be easy to build and the experiments needed to be easy to observe. With these constraints in mind, we constructed 3 identical wooden boxes with dimensions of 8”x 8”x 36” and one wall being clear plastic. The purpose of this clear plastic wall was to observe any sand that was migrating through the separation gravel layer and into the underdrain layer. To seal the cracks between the biosand filter walls, we attempted initially to use flex seal and silicone. This seal contained the water for approximately 30 minutes until large leaks developed. The next and final solution was to use clear plastic garbage bags on the inside of the boxes which stopped water from leaking out of the biosand filter. The disadvantage to this method was decreased visibility of the migrating sand particles through the clear plastic.

Upon completion of the testing prototype, to the gravel sizes and configurations for testing were then determined. Grain size is specified most often by ‘effective size’ or d10. Effective size is defined as the size of the sieve opening through which 10% of the material (by weight) will pass through. Also, any other size can be found – for example d60 is the size through which 60% of the material will pass through. The coefficient of uniformity, U is defined as d10/d60. For the CAWST biosand filter, the sand specifications are to have a d10 of 0.15mm to 0.2mm and a uniformity coefficient of between 1.5 and 2.5. The separation gravel does not have an effective size or coefficient of uniformity specified, just that it should be between 0.7 and 6 mm. Similarly, the underdrain layer has a specified size range of 6-12mm.

We came up with three configurations to test:

Configuration 1:

This test uses the CAWST Biosand Filter specifications for sand and gravel sizing and is summarized in the table below. This test was used as a control to judge test configurations 2 and 3 against.

Configuration 2:

The underdrain size for configuration 2 is larger than that of configuration 1. The following specifications were chosen to comply with the d10 (bottom layer) ≥ 2 d (drain orifice diameter) rule developed by Huiseman and Wood [1]. This rule was developed to prevent the underdrain from clogging the outlet tube. This larger underdrain should help prevent that.

Configuration 3:

For configuration 3, the filtration sand and underdrain gravel sizes are the same as in configuration 1. The separation gravel size stays the same but a new interface gravel layer was added. This configuration was designed to conform with the rule d10 (top gravel layer)/d85(sand) ≤ 4. This rule was also developed by Huiseman and Wood [1], and helps to prevent the filtration sand from migrating into the underdrain layer.

We ran a large amount of water through each configuration for two weeks. Our results are tabulated in Table 4:

From Table 4 above, it can be seen that experiment 2 was the most effective model a smaller mass of sand migrated into the underdrain. It produced the best results in terms of mass of sand found in the underdrain and was comparable to the other two in terms of flow rate.

Further experimentation is required to verify these results and to continue to optimize the design. There were a number of factors which may have impacted the results from these initial experiments which should be considered in the interpretation of results and to improve future testing. The first factor which impacted results was the temperature of the space where the Biosand filters were stored. Due to below freezing temperatures, the water in the filters had been through a cycle of freezing and thawing multiple times. Additionally, it was difficult to decide how to separate the underdrain layer from the sand layer in order to determine the mass of sand which had migrated into the underdrain. This was facilitated by a visual inspection and manual separation, which would vary slightly in each case and impact the mass of sand found in the underdrain. A more precise or consistent method of separating the underdrain layer from the sand layer before measuring the mass of sand which had migrated in the underdrain could improve the consistency and accuracy of results. Core sampling and freeze sampling tools could be explored further to potentially assist in improving this process, however could not be acquired for this series of tests.

We are grateful to CAWST for sponsoring this project, and to and Tommy Ngai, M.E., Ph.D. and Laura MacDonald, B.Sc., MSE for their guidance as we progressed through this project.

Citation
(1) Huisman, L., & Wood, W. (1974). Slow Sand Filtration. Geneva: World Health Organization

This article was written by Jordan McFleming, a final-year engineering student at the University of Calgary, who carried out this Capstone research project along with Raveen Fernando, Ramndeep Khosa and Harsimer Rattan.

Youth Take Action Walking for Water

Students from St. Michael’s School grabbed their coats and empty jugs to walk 5 kilometers to the river and collect water for their annual Water Walk. From their experiences, they learned that many people around the world need to travel every day to collect their water.

Calgary, Canada – Students at St. Michael’s School left their classroom with empty jugs in hand, to trek two hours to the Bow River in Edworthy Park for their annual Water Walk. Led by the St. Michael’s Water Warriors, 330 students walked five kilometres to gather water.

The Water Warriors at St. Michael’s have been taking action on water issues since 2009, when they first began attending the CAWST Wavemakers Summit. Every year the Water Warriors come to the Wavemakers Summit to learn about local and global water issues and how to take action in their community. In the last few years, the Water Warriors have successfully retrofitted their school’s urinals to conserve water, and installed water bottle filling stations to encourage the use of reusable water bottles. This is the second year the Water Warriors organized the Water Walk, engaging their peers to think about water access in developing countries and protecting our water sources at home.

“The Water Walk is an inspiring, hands-on, inquiry-based activity that the entire school and community participates in,” says Shannon Boyle, a teacher at St. Michael’s School who oversees the activities carried out by the Water Warriors. “The walk, water collection and watering of the outdoor classroom teach all students to become stewards of our water source, the Bow River.”

Before the walk, students watched a presentation discussing global water issues, such as water contamination, health and access to water. Students discovered how mothers and children walk miles every day to gather water. Much of this water is not safe to drink, leading to water-related illnesses.

The Water Warriors wanted to provide participants a first-hand experience walking to collect water and carrying it back to their school. As a grade 9 student explained, this was eye-opening for his classmates.

“I have lived in Calgary my whole life so I think lots of people don’t realize the situation outside this city,” he said. “Many people around the world have trouble getting water and they have to travel far. That’s why we’re walking.”

Students learned that when people have to spend their whole day collecting water, there are harsh consequences, such as children missing out on the opportunity to attend school or women being unable to work.

“When it’s a matter of survival to get water, there’s no time for education or work,” described a grade 6 student. “Lots of people have to walk miles and miles to get water, so we’re walking today to understand what it’s like.”

Students returned after their five kilometre walk carrying heavy jugs filled with river water, which they poured into storage barrels, to be used for their outdoor classroom throughout the spring. More significantly, they brought home a better appreciation of water resources, and what life is like for 1.8 billion people around the world who lack access to safe drinking water.

Improving the Sand Sieving Process

Students from the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary partnered with CAWST to design a technology that efficiently separates the sand and gravel layers that make up the biosand filter. They created a technology that they hope will one day be used out in the field to help practitioners save time and labour sieving sand.

Calgary, Canada – Students from the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary partnered with CAWST to design a technology that efficiently separates the sand and gravel layers that make up the biosand filter. They created a technology that they hope will one day be used out in the field to help practitioners save time and labour sieving sand.

The biosand filter is a water filter made up mainly of sand, gravel and cement, which are affordable materials found virtually anywhere around the world. The filter is highly effective in removing pathogens from drinking water, serving as a viable option in reducing water-related illness along with other water treatment methods. It requires three layers of sand and gravel to function. The first layer is filtration sand which is a very fine grain size, followed by a separation gravel layer, an intermediate grain size, and finally the underdrain gravel, which is the largest grain size. The layers are obtained from raw quarry sand and are separated in batches by manual sieving. This preparation method is very labour intensive: about 2-3 hours are required to separate enough material for one filter.

Practitioners manually sieving sand in Cambodia.

Our project aimed to optimize the preparation process of the sand and gravel. Our group was interested in this project because we were confident that we would have a functional prototype, with the potential for our design to be implemented in the field. The fact that our efforts in designing the prototype could provide a solution to a real world problem was very appealing to us.

After going through the design process we came up with our final prototype, which incorporates three different mesh sizes to separate the raw quarry sand into barrels. The raw sand is fed into one end of the barrel. As it rotates and filters, grains are funneled into their respective buckets. Our final prototype can separate enough sand for one biosand filter in less than 30 minutes with over 95% accuracy. Our solution has the potential to make a significant impact in the way that sand is separated for biosand filters in the future.

This project is important because the existing method of manually sieving involves a lot of time and effort, restricting the number of filters that could be constructed. It also requires manual labour and physical exertion to prepare the sand, limiting those who could perform these tasks. Our prototype only requires one finger to rotate the barrel, so virtually anyone can now prepare the filter materials.

Throughout our project we learned several lessons about effective project management and design. We learned that we need to spend time clarifying the problem statement with the client before designing our project. The problem statement is what defines the scope of the project and guides the group’s direction for the remainder of the design process. If there is any misunderstanding during this stage, the group may waste time on tasks that are not helping them solve the problem. We didn’t clarify the problem statement with our project sponsor well enough at the start, therefore we spent time coming up with ideas that didn’t end up falling within our scope.

Another design lesson we learned is that having technical skills around technology is not enough. It is also important to consider how the end user will interact with the final design. Since our project was intended to be constructed and operated in developing nations, we had to constantly keep the people aspect of our project in mind. We did this by considering the accessibility of sourcing the materials locally as well as the difficulty level of constructing and operating the design.

The biggest project management lesson that we learned was the importance of regular communication and the value of in-person meetings. Regular communication, primarily through group chat, allowed us to stay on track and on the same page. However, the group chat couldn’t substitute the weekly in-person meetings that we had, as we found the in-person meetings to be very effective and efficient. This was especially true when we had to divide up reports amongst the six of us or coordinate the plan forward with a concept for our design.

Our project with CAWST was a great experience and we are grateful for the opportunity and support.

This article was written by Reuben Yakob Fikreyesus, a student at the University of Calgary who carried out this Capstone research project along with James Colborne, Harold Gammuac, David Skelton, Cole Mombourquette and Russel Stroobant.

Capstone Project – Optimizing the Biosand Filter Underdrain

For their Capstone project, a team of engineering students from the Schulich School of Engineereing designed experiments to look at the underdrain layer or the gravel layer of the biosand filter to find the best configuration for water to drain out of the filter. The team uncovered many challenges and lessons learnt along the way.

Calgary, Canada – Last September CAWST worked with a team of fourth-year engineering students from the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary. The students were assigned to complete their Capstone project which involves solving a design problem for a sponsor organization. CAWST sponsored one of these projects to design an experiment that would optimize the use of the gravel separation layer or underdrain layer of the biosand filter. This article reflects their experiences carrying out their Capstone project.

Our project was composed of multiple parts. The first, was a literature review of how the underdrain works as the bottom layer of the biosand filter to allow water to drain through the filter. The second part, was to design an experiment to test different underdrain configurations. The third part, was to optimize the underdrain parameters such as gravel size and layer thickness to optimize the performance of the biosand filter.

This project interested our group because of its potential to improve the quality of water for millions of people who use biosand filters daily. This project motivated our group to work hard, not because we wanted good marks, but because we could potentially make a difference to benefit numerous biosand filters users. This project is important because if the underdrain is not sized correctly, filter performance is reduced and the effective lifespan of the filter can be shortened.

We learned a lot about the challenges and opportunities associated with biosand filters. Preparing the granular media to run our tests was quite time consuming and labour intensive even in good working conditions.

We also learned that obtaining the specific size of granular media desired is nowhere near as easy as it sounds. It is easy to say “use this size gravel” however, it can be very difficult to obtain a specific size of underdrain or separation gravel that improves performance without increasing the amount of work. For example, the current biosand filter material preparation uses three different sized sieves. Our experimental configurations required five sieves in order to get the sizing that we wanted.The impracticality of using five sieve sets decreases the chance of having these configurations used out in the field, even if the results show that they improve filter performance.

Once the experiments were set up, it was equally as difficult to determine which configuration performed best. Our biosand filter for the experiment had one transparent wall so we could observe how much sand traveled into the underdrain. When we ran the experiments, it turned out to be much harder to see than we had hoped, as the wall became dirty and the sand grains were small. We ended up digging up the underdrain and putting it through the sieves to collect the amount of sand that made it to the underdrain layer. This was challenging, as it was hard to collect only the underdrain without getting other layers mixed in. This made it difficult to observe and measure the filter performance during our tests.

Through the experimental process we gained an understanding of how the biosand filter works. Unfortunately the experiments we carried out yielded inconclusive results. Moving forward we recommend running more experiments and to find a better method to separate the underdrain layer from the rest of the biosand materials.

This project provided us with valuable experience working as a team. We got to work in a project setting for a client with an issue that we worked towards solving. We learned a lot about biosand filters but even more about working on a project with deadlines and budgets much like what we will face out in the professional world. We are grateful to CAWST for this project and to Laura Macdonald and Tommy Ngai for providing guidance as we progressed through this project.

This article was written by Jordan Fleming, a student from the University of Calgary who looked at trying to optimize the underdrain layer of the biosand filter for his Capstone research project along with Harsimer Rattan, Ramndeep Khosa and Raveen Fernando.

Students Educate Their Peers at Water Summit

Students from The Ripple Effect Club at Arbour Lake School hosted the first ever Mini Wavemakers Summit to teach other students about local and global water issues.

The first ever student-led Mini Wavemakers Summit was hosted on January 29^th by a team of Grade 8 students from The Ripple Effect Club at Arbour Lake School. The summit was held at St. Ambrose School, where over 90 students learned about different water and sanitation issues and how to take action on them.

The Ripple Effect acts under the mandate to “think global, act local” and has committed to water action projects for five years under the guidance of Melissa Easton, an Arbour Lake School teacher. She includes the Wavemakers program into her class curriculum under the Fresh and Saltwater Systems science unit. This year The Ripple Effect has committed to raising water awareness in their schools and communities to help people become more conscious about conserving water.

“Through starting awareness projects within our community we hope to make people more conscious of local water conservation issues,” says Easton. “We focus on usage and wastage in the home and compare our water situation to those in developing world countries.”

The summit covered a variety of water and sanitation issues within six stations where Ripple Effect members educated students on how to conserve water in their local communities, such as how to spot a leaky toilet and how to fix it. Students also learned about global water issues and assessed safe hygiene practices in developing countries.

Taylor is a member of The Ripple Effect and she hopes that St. Ambrose students feel empowered to address water issues from education they gained at the summit.

“Water issues impact us and our environment,” says Taylor. “I hope they gain knowledge on water issues so they can start thinking about doing something about it.”

The Ripple Effect initially attended CAWST’s Wavemakers Summit in October where they learned practical skills on how to conserve water through a workshop hosted by The City of Calgary. Inspired by what they learned at the summit, the students later consulted with The City of Calgary to learn more about water issues faced in the city and ways to solve them, such as fixing a leaky tap. The youth group also met up with CAWST to learn more about global water issues being addressed around the world.

“Water issues are important to know,” says a Grade 6 participant. “We need to know how to use water properly so we don’t waste it.”

The Ripple Effect continues to encourage and inspire their community to focus on environmental issues and hopes to connect with their local YMCA to host another event. They are currently planning on hosting a Water Olympics competition at their school to provide students with practical skills to start conserving water in their homes.

The Ripple Effect is also fundraising for CAWST by selling CAWST water bottles in their schools. Proceeds go towards supporting CAWST’s global projects to provide the knowledge and skills for people to solve their own challenges and have safe water in their homes. “We hope to raise money on our cause and help the community focus on small ways we can help solve these water issues,” says Easton.

Talking about Toilets for World Toilet Day

Thursday, November 19th, marks World Toilet Day. Help raise awareness and join us in helping people achieve safe sanitation for all.

Thursday, November 19^th marks World Toilet Day. At first glance it may seem peculiar to dedicate a day to toilets, but there is more and more recognition being placed on the importance of basic sanitation for building healthy and successful lives.

UN Water is emphasizing the global need for greater access to sanitation around the world by calling on people to help raise awareness with the hashtag #wecantwait.

2.4 billion people around the world don’t have access to a basic toilet or latrine. These people are more likely to defecate in the open, increasing the risk of spreading diarrheal disease in their communities.

A lack of proper sanitation facilities in schools also affects students’ ability to learn, particularly girls. A lack of toilets threatens the safety and dignity of female students, discouraging them to attend school and ultimately affecting their livelihood.

Fortunately, the Sustainable Development Goals put an increased focus on the need for better access to proper sanitation, as one of the targets set out for Goal Six is to achieve adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation by 2030.

Increasing access to sanitation means more than just building toilets and stopping open defecation. Sanitation encompasses a system of technologies dealing with human excreta from the time it is captured in a latrine until the excreta is used or disposed of safely. To ensure sustainable and safe sanitation user and practitioners need to also consider maintenance of the latrine, emptying of the latrine and disposal of human excreta.

CAWST provides education on the importance of proper sanitation and trains local practitioners how to site, build and maintain proper latrines for their communities.

CAWST has a suite of materials focusing on environmental sanitation and latrine design and construction for low income, non-networked communities. You can find these resources along with many more at CAWST’s WASH Resources website.

To learn more about sanitation, download our Introduction to Sanitation Technical Brief.

CAWST’s Environmental Sanitation materials focus on the planning, designing and implementation of sanitation projects. The Environmental Sanitation materials encompass many aspects of human health, including: human and animal excreta management, domestic wastewater management, stormwater drainage, solid waste management and vector control. The resources include Sanitation Resources for Project Implementers, Environmental Sanitation Webinar, Environmental Sanitation Trainer Manual and Sanitation Inspection Forms.

The Latrine Design and Construction materials guide implementers through the process of designing and constructing latrines that are technically and environmentally appropriate for their settings. The Latrine Design and Construction resources comes complete with resources for project implementers and trainers.

The Latrine Design and Construction for Project Implementers resources includes the Latrine Construction Manual and a Fact Sheet package, presenting different types of latrines to store excreta.

Latrine Design and Construction for Trainers resources includes the Latrine Design and Construction Trainer Manual.

Accompanying the listed resources above, CAWST’s Sanitation Ladder Activity is an interactive game highlighting methods of latrine use in varying contexts.

CAWST’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Poster Set highlights proper sanitation practices, including how to dispose of waste. The poster set is available in English, French and Spanish.

CAWST will soon release its Fecal Sludge Management and Sanitation Project Implementation resources in early 2016.

Help raise awareness on World Toilet Day and join us in helping people achieve safe sanitation for all. #wecantwait

Happy World Toilet Day!

Happy Global Handwashing Day!

Around the world CAWST reminds people that they hold their health in their hands. It seems simple enough, but practicing proper handwashing can reduce the risk of diarrheal diseases by 40%.

Around the world CAWST reminds people that they hold their health in their hands. It seems simple enough, but practicing proper handwashing can reduce the risk of diarrheal diseases by 40% (WHO, 2014).

Globally, diarrheal diseases cause the deaths of over 2,000 children every day, which is more than AIDs, malaria and measles combined. For every child that dies, countless others suffer from poor health and lost educational opportunities leading to poverty in adulthood. Yet diarrheal diseases are preventable thanks to simple, low-cost solutions, such as basic handwashing.

This past year, CAWST worked closely with its WET Centre partner ENPHO in Nepal in the aftermath of the earthquakes there. CAWST and ENPHO worked together to develop water, sanitation and hygiene resources for emergency situations (“E-WASH” training). After the earthquake, ENPHO trained hundreds of local volunteers to conduct E-WASH training in affected communities.

The training, which includes teaching proper handwashing techniques, proved to be crucial. After the earthquakes, there were fears that a second crisis loomed with monsoon season approaching. The population is always vulnerable to cholera outbreaks that time of year, but particularly so when millions were displaced due to the earthquakes.

But thanks to immense efforts to ensure displaced populations had access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation facilities and were practicing proper hygiene practices, an outbreak was avoided.

“There were cases of cholera, but nowhere near the scale anticipated,” says Lena Bunzenmeyer, CAWST International Technical Advisor. “We saw through the E-WASH trainings how crucial it was to deploy hundreds of volunteers into communities to ensure that people understood how important hygiene practices were to staying healthy after the earthquakes.”

Read more about CAWST and ENPHO’s post-earthquake response in our online annual report.

Handwashing resources are available for free download through CAWST’s WASH Resources website. These resources include handwashing posters as part of CAWST’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Poster Set and Trainer Guide, customized for different regions and available in English, French and Spanish and can be found here.

CAWST also provides North American resources raising awareness on the importance of handwashing available here.

Handwashing is embedded in many other resources provided by CAWST, including WASH Resources for Community Education, Community Health Promotion for Trainers and a Handwashing Technical Brief.

To learn more about handwashing and disease prevention visit globahandwashing.org.

Happy Global Handwashing Day!

Mary Banda: A Quest to Make Water Knowledge Common Knowledge in Zambia

Mary Banda’s WASH journey began in 2006 when she sought an answer to why she and her six children kept getting sick.

Mary’s search not only led her to discover the source of her family’s health issues, it also launched her on a mission to help others.

This story appeared in CAWST’s 2014 annual report. Download CAWST’s 2014 annual report at www.cawst.org/ar2014. Watch a video about Mary Banda by following the link at the bottom of the article.

Mary Banda’s WASH journey began in 2006 when she sought an answer to why she and her six children kept getting sick.

Mary’s search not only led her to discover the source of her family’s health issues, it also launched her on a mission to help others.

Today, Mary is a community health promoter (CHP) and biosand filter (BSF) technician who works tirelessly to build filters and educate communities about water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) issues.

Mary was the first woman in Africa to become a certified BSF technician. Her story illustrates the extent to which empowering women at the community level can spark deep, lasting change.

It all began when a doctor told Mary that her family’s stomach problems could be caused by unsafe drinking water. At the time Mary, who is a widow, was barely getting by, and she and her children were constantly struggling with poor health.

Not knowing what to do didn’t stop Mary from seeking a solution. She rightly assumed that if her family was suffering from the effects of unsafe drinking water, much of the community likely was as well.

Mary’s first step was to attend a training session delivered by CAWST’s WET Centre partner in Zambia, Seeds of Hope International Partnerships (SHIP), which motivated her to become a CHP.

CAWST’s Water Expertise and Training (WET) Centre program sees CAWST partner with locally-based organizations to provide locally-based WASH services via local staff who are trained and supported by CAWST.

CAWST currently has eight WET Centres worldwide, in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Lao PDR, Nepal and Zambia.

Mary didn’t stop at becoming a CHP. The following year, in 2008, she was introduced to the biosand filter during another WET Centre training session in her community. That simple technology changed Mary’s life.

“They taught me about the biosand filter and the problems became less,” Mary says. “The children could go to school and we started living well again.”

Not only did the health of Mary’s family improve. Mary also noticed an improvement in other community members who had begun using the filters in their homes.

Mary was so fascinated by the filter’s impact that she became determined to educate others and get more filters into more homes. Mary began going to the WET Centre’s biosand filter factory twice a week to help people build their filters.

She volunteered full-time for three full years, eventually gaining her biosand filter technician certification and getting a job as a BSF technician at the WET Centre.

Mary brought more women from nearby communities into the WET Centre, to the point where the WET Centre’s BSF technician crew transitioned from all male to being nearly all female.

“Mary is an amazing lady,” says Evans Chiyenge, manager of the Zambia WET Centre. “Before Mary came to the factory we used to have a lot of breakages, biosand filters that did not work. Right now I am proud to report that the rate of failure is almost nil. Those ladies are amazing.”

Today, Mary works full-time as a BSF technician at the WET Centre during the week, while on weekends she volunteers as a community health promoter, never stopping in her quest to make water knowledge common knowledge.

“Through teaching, we are saving peoples’ lives,” Mary says. “And then those people can share what they have learned and save even more lives.”

Watch a video about Mary Banda and her impact on the health of her community.

Finding Health Through WASH: Rin in Cambodia

This story appeared in CAWST’s 2014 annual report, released in September, highlighting the extent to which WASH interventions can improve overall health. Download CAWST’s 2014 annual report at www.cawst.org/ar2014.

Freed from sickness, Rin can go to school

In the village of Anlong Veng in Cambodia, 11-year old Rin Thearith frequently suffered from waterborne illnesses as a result of drinking unsafe water.

His family collected water from a hand-dug pit using contaminated containers and had no way of filtering the water in their home.

“When I got sick, I could not go to school and my mother had to spend money for a doctor and medicine for me,” Rin says. Continue reading “Finding Health Through WASH: Rin in Cambodia”

Finding Health Through WASH: Bismillah in Afghanistan

For three years, Bismillah searched for a doctor who could explain why his daughter, Tabbasum, so frequently suffered from diarrhea and abdominal bloating. Bismillah regularly sacrificed work, but was unable to find a physician who could help his daughter.

In Afghanistan, Bismillah finds a solution for his child’s health

“I am only a stonemason so the daily income was not enough for our family needs and Tabbasum’s treatement,” Bismillah says. “I was facing a huge problem because I had to feed my family and treat my daughter.”

As Tabbasum’s condition worsened, Bismallah made the decision to travel 700 km over mountainous terrain to Pakistan in search of a solution. A doctor there informed Bismillah that his daughter’s illness was caused by unsafe drinking water.

Bismillah returned home with the knowledge of his daughter’s issues but was left without a solution. Bismillah was finally able to end his search when hygiene educators from CAWST’s Afghanistan WET Centre, run in partnership with the Danish Committee for Aid to Afghan Refugees (DACAAR), visited his village promoting affordable water treatment methods.

With the knowledge he gained from the WET Centre’s visit, Bismillah now uses a biosand filter in his home and benefits from regular visits and ongoing support from the WET Centre. Since then, the family has been drinking clean water and Tabbasum’s health has greatly improved.

“We started using the filter and she is no longer sick,” Bismillah says.

Knowledge, skills and sustained support are crucial to successful WASH and health interventions

When people are exposed to unsafe drinking water, poor hygiene practices or inadequate sanitation, their health becomes vulnerable. Regaining health can initially involve simple, effective interventions. But maintaining health over the long-term is less simple.

What CAWST has found time and time again is that for individuals and communities to remain healthy they need ongoing, long-term access to WASH training, resources and support. CAWST’s WET Centres and clients are proving that a focus on local WASH knowledge and sustained relationships leads to long-term improvements in the health of individuals and communities.

Learn more about CAWST’s work on maternal, newborn and child health through WASH at www.cawst.org/mnch.

Filling a Gap to Address a Key Global Need

CAWST is addressing a major humanitarian need: half the world lacks access to safe water or sanitation. The existing approaches, used over three decades, have not borne the results we need to see.

The most significant gap identified by CAWST is the lack of professional education and training services in water and sanitation for the poor. There are many organizations, both NGOs and government agencies, implementing water and sanitation programs on the ground. They need professional support to execute these programs in an effective, replicable and sustainable manner.

CAWST was formed in 2001 to deliver these services. Twelve years later, we know that by providing the right kind of practical education, training and consulting support, we can catalyze independent action at the scale needed.

“Any future investments to improve and sustain water and sanitation services will be severely undermined unless immediate steps are taken to incrementally address human resource demands ensuring they are met in the medium- to long- term.” — IWA,2013, Human resource capacity gap in the water and sanitation

WASH Capacity Gap Pyramid — Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) Gap in human capacity (knowledge and skills)

Our vision, mission and core strategies

Our vision of a world where people have the opportunity to succeed because their water and sanitation needs have been met and our mission of providing technical training and consulting in water and sanitation to people who serve those in need have been our compass since the beginning. Our core strategies have also remained unchanged:

Make knowledge about water “common knowledge”.
Build the capacity (knowledge and skills) of public sector organizations – both NGOs and government agencies.
Start by improving drinking water quality at the household level.
Lead with education and training.
Identify barriers to implementation of water and sanitation and ways to overcome them.

CAWST is committed to providing subsidized training, consulting and free open-content education materials and resources, ensuring that our services can benefit those who need them most.

Developing and delivering our products and services

CAWST took a bottom-up approach to developing our education and training. We started by developing an understanding of what individuals need at the household level to take care of their own water and sanitation needs. We then looked at the expertise available,and at what was needed to bridge the gap.

We started with delivering training on one technology (the biosand filter) to figure out our implementation approach, which we then evolved, tested and applied to other simple, appropriate household water and sanitation technologies. We learned that for a project to be successful, a variety of roles must be present (community health promoter, technician, project organizer, trainers, collaborators), each requiring different skills and knowledge. Customized trainings were needed for each. Our training workshops were just the start, and quickly led to ongoing consulting support and mentorship. Today we have a total of 12 training workshops and hundreds of education training resources, including technical fact sheets, educational posters, training games and both participant and trainer manuals.

Connecting practitioners to research

As a centre of expertise in implementing water, sanitation, and hygiene programs for those in need, CAWST has continually examined emerging issues and stayed abreast of new technologies, approaches and research by collaborating with universities and academia. As a capacity builder, CAWST refines and transfers this new knowledge to our client organizations to develop and implement actions in the field.

Expanding the reach of our services: Water Expertise and Training (WET) Centres

As word spread about CAWST’s services, demand for our training and consultation grew. In 2009, we launched our WET Centre program to establish independent training centres in developing countries. These WET Centres do locally what CAWST does globally: build the knowledge and skills of community groups, NGOs, government departments and local entrepreneurs to increase access to safe drinking water and sanitation. We started in three countries and began expanding in 2010, now with seven WET Centres in our program.

This year, we launched a Virtual WET Centre as a way to further expand the reach of our services and multiply our impact. The Virtual WET Centre offers a suite of online platforms for disseminating our education and training resources and supporting the technical capacity of WET Centres and clients.

Techology Transfer Diagram-web — How technology and services get transferred through CAWST’s model

Inspiring action in Canada: Youth Wavemakers

Over the years, CAWST have listened to youth and sought to close the awareness gap in understanding local issues within the context of global realities. Through the Youth Wavemakers program, youth are building the knowledge and leadership skills to take action on local and global water issues, and to become the next generation of water stewards.

In 2011, we saw the opportunity to scale-up our reach by adopting the same model as we use overseas: we began to provide training, consulting and open content materials for educators to teach and inspire youth action.

RS47340_IMG_1338 — Future Youth Wavemaker teams at our annual Youth Summit

Moving Forward

Over 12 years, CAWST has worked with 530 clients in 63 different countries, reaching 7.5 million people. Our reach is growing, and we hope to make it to our goal of reaching 20 million people by the year 2020 with safe water and sanitation. So we ask you to join CAWST in supporting those in need of safe water and sanitation and help people realize their right for better health.