The following solutions, services and/or products for projects in developing countries are available.
Project applications under the Model are planned with and executed, run, maintained, owned and paid for by the people themselves. The proposed technologies enable most items vital for basic services to be made locally in low-cost, labour intensive production units with up to 100% local value added.
The concepts incorporate numerous sustainable energy applications which, if appropriately pooled, will qualify for the issue of CER (Carbon Emission Reduction) certificates under the Kyoto Treaty. This, together with the savings made by users on their present outgo through adoption of the recommended technologies, will cover the formal currency cost of the projects.
We can also train future project coordinators.
a) An interest-free ten year seed loan for the purchase of capital items not produced locally but required for basic structures. The amount will depend on the basic structures included in the project but will normally be US$60 per user. In the poorest or least developed countries repayments should not exceed US$3 per family of five per month.
b) The monthly payments under a) are paid into a Cooperative Development Fund and immediately recycled as interest-free rotating micro-credit loans for the purchase of capital items not produced locally but required for productivity purposes. Since the micro-credit loans are also paid back into the Cooperative Development Fund the amount made available to each family interest-free over a ten year period is about US$1500
c) Where local money systems are set up as a part of a project, they enable unlimited trading of local goods and services produced within the project areas. Those responsible for local development should then make sure that technologies are adopted enabling most services and items necessary to ensure a reasonable quality of life can be supplied under the local money systems.
The savings on drilling costs can in some cases be enough to cover the cost of the solar pumping systems.
Washing places can be placed near the wells.
Water tanks, water containers, well linings, washing places, handpump stands, PV panels supports and similar products can be made using the Beosite(R) process in low cost, labour intensive, local production units with up to 100% local value added.
The spring rebound inertia pump technology is recommended for the handpump backups, as the pumps do not need to be placed vertically over the boreholes. A version of this pump technology is being developed for local manufacture at project level from Beosite at a price directly competititve with that of traditional pump technologies. Contact Terry Manning on 0031-227-604128 for more information on this development.
The drinking water systems are owned and administered by tank commissions (at water tank level) and well commissions (at central well point level).
We also supply solar pumps and systems for drinking water supply projects.
We offer consultancy support for project co-ordinators.
The Village Life deep well handpump incorporates advanced design features:
a) Variable force input with variable stroke length, which means that children can use the pump in any installation
b) Several pumping units can fit down the one 4" internal diameter borehole, therefore better exploiting the capacity of the borehole
c) One travelling artisan can maintain up to 500 pumping units on a regular quarterly preventive maintenance visits basis because the pump can be pulled, dismantled, repaired, and re-installed by one person in half an hour, using just two spanners and a kit with tools and parts weighing 20kg.
d) Parts subject to wear and tear can be used several times
e) Potentially critical parts are pluralised so that a pump eventually needing attention will continue to work pending the next maintenance visit
A version of the Village Life pump is now being prepared for manufacture at local (project) level using the Beosite (R) process for a price directly competitive with that of traditional handpumps. The technology is in the public domain.
Supply of spring rebound inertia handpumps for water supply projects and the setting up of maintenance structures for them.
Transfer of spring rebound inertia handpump technology for local production, starting early 2004.
Maintenance is minimal as the pump has few working parts. The pump and all its parts, including the rubber parts, will be repairable. The pump is 100% ecological. When no longer required it or any of its parts can be returned to the local factory for recycling in exchange for a discount on a new pumping unit.
The pump unit under development is a double-acting unit. It will be smaller than the unit illustrated in the accompanying material. It will have a diaphragm cover, a suction lift of up to 8 meters, and an outlet pressure to 12 meters. The capacity will be up to 100 liters/minute or 6m3 per hour, suitable for small scale irrigation. For this purpose a two person handle unit will be made available as an option.
It will be able to handle solids to 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/2" and will have inherent protection against the ultra-violet rays of the sun. The pump will be subject to much less wear and tear than the (conventional) stainless steel one and will have a much smoother operation. Inlet and outlet can be closed without harming the pump. The presence of air bubbles will present no problem. Though the pump is self-priming, the use of a foot valve is recommended to make pumping start-up easier. The inlets/outlets will be adaptable to take 1 1/2" or 2" diameter feed pipe or male threaded (gas) threads
The pumping efficiency will be approximately 90%.
Design of high efficiency diaphragm handpumps from Beosite, according to users' specifications.
Transfer of technology for the manufacture at project level of diaphragm handpumps made from Beosite and training of local manufacturers.
The sanitation projects incorporate high-quality ecological products made from Beosite (r) using local materials in labour intensive low cost local production units with up to 100% local value added. Where the items in question are built within local money systems, the entire structures can be developed without the need for any formal money at all.
The systems are based on the separation of urine, faeces, and grey water.
In poor urban areas, urine, grey water and fertiliser can be recycled on site using vertical gardens made from Beosite (R) locally built under local money systems.
The number of users for each toilet unit will be decided according to users' preferences and customs. Units could be for an individual or a group of related families or for public facilities.
Product design will be in accordance with users' customs and preferences. A typical unit will comprise a small toilet building containing three Beosite(R) tanks. One tank will be used for urine. The other two tanks will be used as aerobic composting toilets. Building support structures, san-plats, urinals and where required toilet seats will also be supplied by the local Beosite(R) production units. The toilets structures will be completed with washing and cleaning means for personal hygiene.
Locally available lime, ash, sawdust or similar would be added to the urine tank once or twice a day and to the faeces after use of the toilet. The contents of the urine tank can be emptied at any time. A mixture containing one part urine and ten parts of water can be safely used for watering plants. This high quality product has been known to more than double the productivity of a household garden. An average family with 5 members can produce about 27.5m3 of this fertilizer per year.
With the double composting dry toilet system, one properly aerated toilet tank is used until it is more or less full. It is then sealed and allowed to compost for 9-12 months while the second toilet tank is being used. During that time, the compost in the sealed tank reduces to about one wheelbarrow full of soil per adult person per year. After composting, the soil can be safely and profitably used as soil conditioner.
The toilet structures will be built by local builders or cooperative groups and paid for using the LETS local currencies where these have been introduced.
Users, especially those in poor urban areas who have no gardens, who are unable or do not wish to dispose of the urine or the composted soil conditioner themselves will hire local operators to do it for them, under the local LETS currency systems where they have been introduced.
In rural project areas, grey household water from the kitchen and from household cleaning can be collected in an appropriate closed container and spread on the family vegetable plot once a day, avoiding the formation of open or stagnant pools and concentrations of water. It can also be used to dilute urine. Users not able to dispose of their grey water will hire local operators to do so under the local LETS currency systems, where these have been introduced.
In urban areas, grey water may need to be regularly collected, possibly together with urine, and taken to the countryside nearby where it can be recycled. This work would be done under local LETS currency systems.
Non-organic solid waste products will be recycled in recycling centres operating wherever possible under local currency (LETS) systems, creating more local value added. In larger communities the centres may be specialised to some extent. Collection charges will depend on the kind of material being recycled. Environmentally harmful materials will be charged for at a higher rate than other materials. Special waste from clinics will be addressed separately.
Appropriate sanitation services where needed for schools and clinics in the project area would be included in these projects.
We are available to give formal presentations of advanced sanitation procedures.
For other aspects of sanitation projects we can help design comprehensive advanced sanitation projects, including analysis and design of preferred products, preparation of first moulds for them, and their production either in the Netherlands or locally, at project level.
In case of local production we are available for the transfer of the technology, for the design of the local production units, for the preparation of the first moulds, for the training of the personnel and as consultants in support of local project coordinators.
The following is an indication of the type of structure which would be expected to emerge during the workshops.
The operations will normally take place under the local money LETS systems, where these have been set up. A separate interest-free credit fund will be set up for the purchase of equipment which is not available locally and/or which has to be paid for in formal currency.
We can help analyse products and quantities involved, which structures are necessary to handle them at a local level, and give advice on how to set them up.
We can design products necessary for non-industrial waste recycling, prepare first moulds for Beosite (R) products for waste re-cycling projects, design and set up units for their local production and train personnel.
We can act as consultants to local project coordinators.
The purpose of vertical gardens is to enable users with little or no garden space to be able to grow up to 70% of their vegetable and fruit requirements at home by recycling urine, household grey water, and duly composted faeces on site.
The amount of fertilizer liquid available annually in a family of five persons is 27.5m3. In fact 500 liters of urine per year per person amounts to 2500 liters. One part urine mixed with 10 parts of grey water amounts to 27.500 liters. The amount of water available can be extended through the use of extra grey water if there is any, or harvested rainwater.
The vertical gardens can be placed against one or more walls of a house, or on top of a flat roof, if there is one. They offer multiple layers for the growth of plants. They are designed to be inherently structurally stable in any wind conditions. They are also designed in such a way that no water/fertilizer is lost from the system, as any excess automatically seeps down from the top layers to the bottom. Any excess left over at the bottom is stored for re-use.
We can design vertical gardens to local specifications, prepare first moulds for them, design units for local production, train local personnel, and act as consultants to local project coordinators.
For example, wood often has to be brought great distances, sometimes hundreds of kilometers, by trucks using imported fuel. It then has to be distributed. This wood is expensive and the money to buy it leaves the local economy creating a downward poverty spiral. Fuel costs are often the biggest budget item of families in developing countries.
Local production of highly efficient stoves under local LETS systems can eliminate or at least substantially reduce the need to import wood into the project area. Under the project proposals wood will not be needed at all. The benefits of just this single project item are dramatic, including:
- halting the depletion of forests
- helping to stop erosion
- reducing CO2 emissions
- reducing smog formation in cities
- releasing users from an unsustainable financial burden
- using (some of) the financial saving to finance intergated development projects
The proposed highly efficient Beosite (R) stoves will reduce the bio-mass needed for cooking by up to 60%. The stoves will run with any kind of fuel. Importantly, the reduced bio mass needed to fuel them can be 100% locally produced, creating jobs to grow it, to make mini-briquettes for cooking and to distribute the briquettes. The production of bio-mass for cooking must not affect the production of local fertilizer for agriculture.
Beosite (R) stoves have been preferred to solar cookers (though these can always be offered as an option) because the use of solar energy for cooking does not always coincide with users' eating habits. The stoves also allow people to retain their customary cooking methods and preferred pot and pan sizes, and are better adapted to preparing traditional staple foods. They incorporate heat level control, and will allow circulation of smoke so that the heat in the smoke is utilised before being eliminated without creating local air pollution.
The stoves will be locally sized to suit the two or three most commonly used pots and pans. Each family will buy as many stoves as it needs and can afford using the local LETS currencies.
The mini-briquettes will be made from local waste materials like straw, leaves, sticks, paper, and dung. Suitable fast-growing crops will also be planted to produce enough local bio-mass to make the mini-briquettes needed in the project area. Using the LETS currency systems where they exist, the growers will either sell the crops directly to mini-briquette manufacturers or to tradesmen equipped to treat the bio-mass to make it suitable for use in briquettes.
The solar cooker recipients will be made from Beosite (R).
With reference to the use of local bio-mass and waste products for the manufacture of mini-briquettes for the cookers we can assist in the design (recipes) for the briquettes according to the materials locally available, the design and preparation of equipment for the manufacture of the briquettes, the design of local production units for the briquettes, and as consultants to local project coordinators.
Beosite (R) is a practical alternative to concrete. Beosite(R) production units can be established wherever there are local deposits of cheap gypsum (CaSO4 + H2O) or anhydrite (CaSO4 + 1/2 H2O) which are very common, occurring naturally in most parts of the world. They can be used to make cheap, ecological, hygienic tanks, well-linings, toilets and other products. The technology can easily be transferred to any project area where cheap gypsum or anhydrite deposits are present. The Beosite (R) units can make a major contribution to the regional economy for the manufacture of products needed for development projects and other consumer items.
First projects could be supplied with products from the Netherlands, however our purpose is to develop products which can be made at project level in the developing countries themselves in low cost labour intensive production units using locally available gypsum and anhydrite deposits and other waste materials.
Examples are tanks for rain-water harvesting, tank supports, PV panel supports, compost bins, weather-proofing of mud walls, improved roofing materials to substitute the use of corrugated iron, support structures for buildings, and water containers. Some items, such as the weather-proofing of mud walls are projects requiring 18 months' research as the products must be invidually adapted to the building materials used locally, the climate, and the quality of the local cheap gypsum deposits. Others, e.g. water tanks and containers can be designed and developed rapidly.