On: Workshop: Waste Management

This workshop on sanitation was given by Viivi Hakanen, she gave first a general presentation about Overview of sanitation challenges in developing countries and presented the area we would focus on, Soweto East in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya. In the workshop we imagined that we were participants of a UN conference on sanitation and small talked with each other of different questions on sanitation. After every topic people were asked to write down some thoughts and key words, and stick them to the wall at the question. When all the topics were through we divided into groups that looked deeper into the different answers and then presented the results for the rest of the conference audience.

I was in the group about solid waste management. My suggestion for Soweto East would be to educate children to educate their families about waste management, at school waste would be minimized, sorted in the classrooms and recycled. The children would also be asked what kind of trash they have at home and what they do about that.

At the same time a mapping of current recycling workers and litter pickers would be made, that would also look at how solid waste is managed in the rest of the city and if Soweto East could link to that wit a few collection points. If that would not be possible it would be good to try to reuse as much as possible of the waste, sort organic waste and compost it or produce bio gas, reuse paper for new paper and find ways to use plastic bags and bottles.

Entrepreneurs in upcycling could show how waste gets value and motivate others to sort their waste, that way plastic bags would not even end up laying around in the mud. My grandma made carpets out of plastic milk bags, that we still have in use at our cottage. I think plastic bags still could be used like that, or form thread for knittings or crocheting.

Some friends of mine in Berlin, Germany and Asturias, Spain are working on a upcycling handbook, I guess spreading these ideas also inspire to action. These are some ideas, for a good project that would go further that the start a lot of community commitment is needed. Some how I feel like a lot of studies should be made, and then the implications, but on another hand it feels like now is the time to act.

Further reeding:
Sandec Training Tool - Version 1.0 - Module 4: Sanitation Systems & Technologies

Understanding Small Scale Providers of Sanitation Services: A Case Study of Kibera Water and Sanitation Program - Africa, World Bank, 2005

Living in the Bucket - video

Pictures from Kibera - Matleena

On the papers on: Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

Municipal solid waste is a growing problem. Due to rapid urbanization, specially with the growth of slums waste management is not keeping pace, and often it is seen more lucrative to provide richer neighbourhoods with good waste management, instead of making any efforts for poor communities. In general the priorities to avoid solid waste should be avoidance, minimisation, reuse, recycling, recovery, treatment and disposal, but is big investments are made for treatment and disposal the eager of making efforts in the first four steps diminishes.

Insufficient solid waste management leads to environmental and health problems. It may pollute air, water and soil while providing food and breeding ground for rodents and vector insects. "Studies have shown that a high percentage of workers handeling refuse, and individuals residing near or on disposal sites, are infected by gastrointestinal parasites, worms and related organisms." (Solid Waste Management, p.8)

In my opinion a key issue is to separate organic waste from non-organic and find a good solution for handling that, the scale can vary between a household compost, or a small biogas plant on the backyard to a municipal composting or biogas plant. Depending on the toilet solution the faeces could be processed in the same municipal plant. If the organic waste and the dirt is separated it becomes easier to handle and recycle rest of the waste, that could either be divided at the source, or picked up daily and collected at a recycle plant.

An interesting project that I got to know about concerning solid waste, and activating people to clean up their surroundings in Let's do it world. The first clean up of a whole country in one day was done in Estonia, where illegal dumps had first been mapped and were during one day taken to collection point were they were picked up to be recycled and disposed. This year actions have been made in New Delhi, India and in May 2011 the campaign will be carried out in Finland.

Pre reading: Solid Waste Management, Sandec Training Tool 1.0 - Module 6, Sandec: Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries, Eawag - Aquatic Research, 2008
Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries, Chris Zurbrugg, SANDEC / EAWAG

On: Work shop: Electification and motivating sustainable energy solutions

In this work shop we were divided into four groups of four persons. Every group got a case to solve, then they had to present it to one other group, and hear a presentation from another grup trying do find new suggestions to the propositions that then were presented for the whole group. The themes of the cases were: Electrification of a school in a notorious urban slum in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, Alternatives for a large hydro power project in Congo, Electrification of a remote town, Munsyari in a hilly region i North-India and Wells and electrification in rural areas of Burkina Faso.

I was in the group planning electrification of a school in Addis Abeba. We happened to have an Ethiopian guy in our group, so we asked him about weather conditions and what the schools are like. Our plan was to equip the school with solar cell panels, and have a back up generator that could run on bio fuel made locally from faeces and biodegradable waste collected at the school and from the community. The bio fuel could be sold to people in the community for cooking, and they could take advantage of lights at the school by having evening classes there. We also thought a guard would be needed to safeguard both the school and the solar panels. A nice komment was that our plan is a bit overkill, some solar panels would be enough, and if there is cloudy days, then you wouldn't have any lights.

This work shop was nice, since the team worked commonly for one goal, not as in some previous work shops that everybody has an own role to represent. The whole group is also getting more familiar, which makes it easier to joke about things. We were laughing long about micro hydro power stations, that would be so small you would need a microscope.

On: Workshop: Energy II

In the Energy lobbing workshop Jukka Paatero divided us into groups and gave every group a task that had to do with introducing electricity in different places. The scales of the places were quite different, our group had the case of electrification of a school, while other groups had whole towns or countries to think about. The hardest quest was to present alternatives for a large hydro power project in Congo.

Our task was to, as energy consultants and planners, try to solve the problem of electrification of a school in a notorious urban slum in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. There was funding for building the school, but the funders demanded that the school would be electrified. The local power company refuces to build electric lines to the school, in the middle of the slum, as it fears excessive misuse of the line.

Our suggestion was to equip the school with solar panels, for which there would be a battery keeping the energy until use in the evening, if there would be access energy it would boil up water for the morning porridge. As a back up for rainy periods there would be a generator that could be run on bio fuel generated at the toilets (there would be both toilets for the school kids and others for residents of the area) and from collected biomass from the neighbourhood. Some of the bio fuel could be sold to the community as well as the fertilizers that arise as bi-product. Other benefits for the community from an electrified school would be that they could have evening classes there. Still we thought the school would need a 24/7 guard to keep an eye so that no-one would steal the solar panels. But maybe this person could concentrate more on care taking and maintenance if everyone understood how good it is for the community to have electricity at the school.

First we precented for another group, that got some time to make suggestions of how to make our system even better, and then we presented to the whole group. Our presentation got the comment that it was "overkill" and we were asked if we ever thought that on rainy days there just would not be any lights. The bio fuel plant was seen as a good idea, it would probably be popular if the toilet was good and if people would get benefits from bringing their bio waste there.

I liked this way of doing the workshop, as everyone in the same group worked tor the same goal, with kind of the same background. Presenting to the other group there was also more questions than normal at the end presentation.

The background reeding material for this workshop:
Reliable Electric Power for Developing Countries, Alfredo Vaccaro – General Editor, Humanitarian technology Challenge
Off-grid electricity for developing countries, A Doig, IEE Review, 1999

On: Lecture: Energy I

Jukka Paatero, Teaching Research Scientist at Aalto University gave us a lecture about: Sustainable Energy Technologies and Resources, and a few days later held a workshop session about Energy lobbing.

One of the charts that Mr. Paatero took up was Gapminders statistics on CO2 emissions compared with energy usage per person in the world. I had to take a better look at it and understood that the logarithms had messed me up a bit. Looking at it linearly it really showed how much more Arab Emirates produce CO2 than Norway, even if the usage per person is approximately the same (huge amounts). Still the alignment shows that when energy usage grows, also CO2 emissions grow.

There seems to be quite some coal and a lot of sun, but the question is how to turn from coal to green energy and is that even smart or do people need the plants for food, but how to balance all of that? More and more people want more energy, and others should slow down the usage. I've been ofteh thinking if it is every individuals responsibility to cut energy usage, or if the state should intervene somehow, and what about companies who should check on their energy usage? And can countries with heavy industry be compared to countries without?

I think that instead of going with one big plan(t), many smaller ideas in different fields should be utilized. And then I think Fingrid should buy electricity from small producers, so that it would make sence to have an own wind turbine and produce a bit more than the house needs.

I also want to link here slides from a lecture about Sustainable energy flows, given by Samu Mielonen at the How to Change the World course.

On: Workshop: Water Resources and Urbanization

Dr. Ulla Heinonen from Aalto University - Lifelong Learning Institute Dipoli and Water & Development Research Group gave a work shop about Participatory approach in Water Resources and Urbanization with the case of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The location was already familiar to me as I participated in the course City in Crisis last year. Our project concentrated of urban development, and change of mind sets, and only a bit on water.

First we wached a documentary, about Phnom Penh Water Supply authority, and how they are bit by bit connecting the city to tapped water.
The Connection — ADB Water Voices Documentary Series (1/3)
The Connection — ADB Water Voices Documentary Series (2/3)
The Connection — ADB Water Voices Documentary Series (3/3)
Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority Wins Stockholm Industry Water Award - SIWI

Then we were divided into groups, and everyone got an own role. I was a village chief / bicycle repairman in a urban slum settlement. Our problem was that we didn't have tapped water, only a water vendor who sold water to the other people in the area. The water vendor was reductant to the new pipes that the others wanted to build with the help of Phnom Penh Water Supply authority, but at the end we managed to propose a one pump suggestion that would need a worker to help distribute water to the other people of the slum and count the usage. At a later stage we wished that every house could have an own connection.

On: Lecture: Water Resources Management

Dr. Marko Keskinen, from Aalto Unversity's Water & Development Research Group gave a lecture on Water Resources Management and presented cases from the Mekong river area. Some starting points were that the volume of water is fixed, but its use increases. Population growth and urbanisation leads to changes in consumption patterns and diets, and all of that increases water usage. Also climate change is connected to water and many water uses decreases water quality.

We were asked to talk about different questions in small groups. The first question was: What do you think are the most critical regions in terms of water scarcity in 2020? Why? When we went through the conclusions all groups mentioned Africa and Asia, and some Middle-East, as the population there is biggest and there is a lot of poor people. Still we thought that the rich anywhere would have access to water, since they demand piped water and can buy good quality drinking water.

The second small group discussion was to figure out which is the most important one of the five changes mentioned in the lecture: Population growth & urbanisation, Development issues
(informal sector, polarisation, health), Energy production, Climate change, Environmental degradation. We came to the conclusion that all of them are wicked problems, but the population growth might be the trickiest one, as it somehow links to all the others. The climate change and all the uncertainty around that are big issues too, and the most sad one could be biodiversity, since many spices could just vanish without us ever knowing about them and what they meant to the world.

Water and Sanitation in developing countries (Eawag/Sandec training tool)