Existing Solutions

Biosand filter, domestic, drinking water safety, technology transfer, training entrepreneurs

technical

Education:

We are providing a training the trainers initiative by training students at the university who will train rural entrepreneurs on building and maintaining biosand filters for safe domestic drinking water. We not only  suggest a solution, but train them and create awareness for the community on how to improve the quality of their water and health . This also, creates environmental awareness, capacity building and entrepreneurial leadership.

R.I.S.E. Association is affiliated to Tsinghua university promoting Rural International Student Exchange. A team of International and Chinese graduate students from the School of Environment was formed in order to apply their knowledge and skills for sustainable development. The goal is to provide technology transfer and educational support in rural areas of China.

Our first project is to propose the use biosand filters for safe domestic drinking water as an alternative to boiling or drinking untreated water.

Our training the trainers approach is to

1) Develop a comprehensive training program for trainers (Rural entrepreneurs)

2) Train Tsinghua University students and Non-Profit Organizations from target rural areas for project dissemination.

Our design is based on The Centre for affordable water and sanitation technologies (CAWST) <www.cawst.org>

First, direct contact and collaboration with local authorities from rural areas of China with serious safe drinking water issues such as Sichuan, Yunnan, Ningxia Province. A comprehensive training program will be provided by the association.

Second, Students from target rural areas(South and North West of China) will be trained at the university in Beijing and will disseminate the technology during their summer vacation.

Two Canadian graduate students, Jason and Alejandra, have recently initiated this association in September 2011 at Tsinghua University in order to create collaboration between international and Chinese students to learn and work together in order to transfertheir sustainable technical knowledge in rural areas of China.

More than 20 students have taken part learning about project management, issues such as drinking water safety, project dissemination and training program development.

Even though the  association is at an early stage , many goals have been achieved. A team of skilled environmental engineer graduate students (International and Chinese) have come together to work on the first project consisting in developing a training program for the construction of  Biosand filters for safe domestic drinking water.

We have already built the first biosand filter on campus and have trained members of the association.

We are in contact with a village in Ningxia province who is interested in being our first pilot project village to train a group of local entrepreneurs.

How to provide a low cost technology for safe drinking domestic water?

This is a low cost technology, that has so far proved to be around 100 RMB to construct. Without the inclusion of fixed materials such as hammers, buckets, etc.

How to provide a technology that can be self-sustainable and self-built with local materials?

This technology requires maintenance on an average of every 3 months and can be built with local sand, rocks and recycled containers. Along with a training program, local people can learn to construct and maintain their own filter.

How to prevent health issues caused by contaminated water?

This Biosand filter can remove 95% bacteria, 80-95% viruses, 95% parasites, inorganic contaminants and provides aesthetic improvement. The typical flow rate can be designed for 10 to 30 000 L/h. It is moderately easy to construct. It requires a moderate level of education for the users. It is suitable for non-tropic regions.www.cawst.org

How to provide an alternative to boiling water?

This filter does not need any power supply, only gravity.

How to provide education on contaminated water health hazards?

Many are not aware that the cause to many health problems, specially related to gastro-intestinal problems, are related to their drinking water.

The student association has created an interesting collaboration and opportunity for local and international graduate students to design sustainable technology transfer projects.

The solution we propose, the Biosand filter, will give the opportunity and empower a rural entrepreneur with the knowledge of building these filters for his/her community. The action of educating him/her allows for the technology to be transferred, implemented and maintained in a long term vision. It empowers the entrepreneur with new skills and a possibility to start his/her own business in producing  for the community and educating the community.

There are two phases:

1) The process will be effectively succesful when a local entrepreuner has been trained and acquired the skills to build such a filter.

2) The second step, is when a household has been educated to build a Biosand filter and has been aware of the positive outcomes for their health. Each household can maintain their filter and provide for themselves safer drinking water.

For the moment this solution targets and is suitable for rural areas of China which have a drinking water quality problem. Many areas of rural China drink water straight from a river, ground water, or rain water that has been stored for a long time. These waters are usually contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites, have physical and odorous problems. The Biosand filter is an effective affordable immediate solution. This technology would prevent households to use energy to boil their water and would allow households to store more water for a longer time (the stored water can grow bacteria which can be removed with the filter).

In order to upscale this solution regional support is needed. The capacity to train a large group of rural entrepreneurs can be very interesting, but requires enough mobility and funding. Our association has all the technical and training capacity, what is more challenging is finding regional support and funding.

The most important is to create a training program and study the technology for specific local needs. For example, in an ideal situation the sand used in the biosand filter needs to be washed, this requires alot of water. Hence, in areas with water quantity problems, biosand filter can be built without washing, but may have  a lower flowrate.

A large amount of time needs to be dedicated to gather all the equipment together and for training. An investment in fixed materials such as sieves and hammers is needed. An approximate cost for fixed materials for our pilot project was approximately 300 RMB. The cost of the filter material is approximately 100 RMB. The sand and gravel can be obtained on site.

Construction can take up to 10 hours which would require a workshop of two days at least.

A presentation to the local authorities and entrepreneurs to make awareness of the positive outcomes of this Biosand filter must be done. The villagers must first understand the problems of unsafe drinking water, in order to obtain their will an support.

A Canadian NGO by which we have base ourselves from, provides free training manuals for the construction of these Biosand filters. We have done some modifications to suit the situation in China , minimize costs and simplify the construction.

www.cawst.org

Please contact the founder members of this new student association for Chinese and International graduate students at the School of Environment at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China:

Jason Lee: jasoncklee@gmail.com, Tsinghua University, (86) 188 10 49 2394

Alejandra Burchard: alejandra.burchard@gmail.com, Tsinghua University, (86) 159 01 42 8774