Ecosan Kenya Network: 2010

Khaimba Primary School UDDT post-training and follow up

by Moses Wakala (Nov.2010)

Date: 18 October 2010

Participants:
- Pupils from all classes except STD 8
- All teachers
- Environmental Club
- School Management committee

This trained was planned by the expert following subsequent visits giving an alarming feedback on toilet use. Khaimba primary school was the first UDDT constructed in a primary school in Kenya with an NGO approach. Four toilets were constructed for a population of 900 pupils and 25 teachers. This posed a challenge of sharing the modern toilet. Therefore because of location, it was decided that two doors to be used by the staff while the other two to be used by the class eight pupils.

The facilities picked up so well in 2008 as the best example of dry toilet sanitation in primary schools in Kenya. However in the follow-up visits during the consultancy period, it was discovered that the toilets were being abandoned and the users opting to go to the pit latrines due to constant blockages of the urine pipes in the UDDTs. Reasons for this deterioration of toilet performance was obviouly the change in school management and teacher in charge, which quickly caused the failing of the toilets after occurance of blockages of urine pipes and poor management.

Additionally ecosan technology was also failing due to over pressure on the few facilities constructed by EPP and maintenance practices that demands constant training. The expert had to organize for the post training to promote the previous best ecosan practice in the school.

Among the topics covered were:
I) Importance of hand washing in school
II) Unblocking the urine pipes.
III) Urine use as farm fertilizer.
IV) Operation and maintenance

Methods used:
1. Lecture method
2. Question and answers.
3. EcoSan Video show from laptop
4. Discussions
5. Songs and poems rewards scheme.

Pupils in Khaimba Primary school watching a sanitation movie
during a training session.

Sotik Public Toilet with water kiosk and DEWATS (WSTF Project)

by Moses Wakala (Nov. 2010)

Status
Four visits have been made to this site. The Water Services Trust Fund has funded this project from EPP resources for construction of a toilet block, 50 Cubic Meter Digester and 6 by 2m Baffle Reactor.

Main visit activities were:
- Siting and marking of excavation.
- Dome construction training
- Piping in Baffle reactor.
- Sealing of the neck and baffle reactor and training on operation and management.

The other WSTF Projects have not been visited and most of them did not start as planned. There is no coordination between the WSTF and the EcoSan expert and therefore the EcoSan services are not utilized as anticipated.

Setting the Treatment Plant at Sotik Public Toilet

Piping supervision of the Anaerobic Baffled Reactor
at Sotik Public Toilet

Status UDDTs at selected housholds in Western Region

by Moses Wakala (Nov.2010)

During the Monitoring period, ten household unit were selected and monitored for a period of six months. The table summarizes the sites selected and respective activities.

StatusUDDT in households is a success story in Kenya. The demand for similar toilets has been soaring high and higher. The advantages for this toilet like fly-less, odorless and permanency of the structure has outrun the high initial investment cost. Many clients are now using urine on their farms as fertilizer. Exchange visits have been organized to build on the good ecosan and hygiene practices apart from sharing the technology. This has boosted the uptake of the technology in many areas.

- Unblocking the urine pipe using hot water.
During the exchange visits within the CBOs, a number of lessons were shared which included:
- Urine reuse on the farm with specific food crops and trees.
- Importance of mixing solid waste with ash as it decomposes in the chambers etc.

Household toilet in Mumias with reuse of urine as fertilizer on maize farm

A farmer in Khaimba displays his ecosan product on the farm as a result of urine application in banana plantation

Status UDDTs at selected schools in Western Province

by Moses Wakala (Nov.2010)

Urine diversion Dehydrating Toilets were also piloted in several schools as an entry point for the new technology. During the consultancy period, the following schools were visited and evaluated.

Status
It is now clear that the toilets piloted in primary school were not sufficient to give true picture of the technology impacts in the community. This is because of the high pressure on the facility (only few facilities were built) leading to misuse and or negligence. Many toilets that were well constructed were used very well some days after the first trainings done during the EPP program. Many visited toilets are now unattended and neglected. Many were found with blocked urine pipes and fear of handling other peoples waste as maintenance practice. (see other post on Western Region UDDTs - successful and replicated).

Kakichuma Primary School in Bungoma County
is one of the success stories of ecosan promotion
technology in the region. The school with the best
management concept of the toilet. Two such toilets were constructed
by the project in March 2009 and it has been in use for one year now.

SITE	DATE	ACTIVITY	REMARK
Mumias Muslim Primary	7.7	Project monitoring and evaluation	Abandoned toilet with blocked urinals
	12.7	Training on operation and maintenance of UDDT with Environmental club and teachers responsible	After training, better usage is initiated.
			Challenges of anal cleansing addressed.
Khaimba Primary	7.7	Monitoring of facility.	The school had begun well with good use and operation, but later due to change in school management and teacher in charge, the project has been abandoned with blockages and poor maintenance.
	12.7	Evaluation.
	20.9	Ugunja Workshop preparation.
	18.10	Re-training of users on operation and maintenance.
Kakichuma RC Primary	23.7	Post Training on operation and Management	Toilet in good use.
			Minimal use of urine on trees in school compound
Sibumba Primary	23.7	Monitoring	Minimal toilet use.
			Toilet ownership to be addressed.
Namawanga Primary	24.7	Training on reuse and recycling.	Concept still not well taken due to school administration change.
Ngalasia Primary	6.9	Training on urine reuse in farm	Toilets in use

Status Ugunja Public Toilet with waterk kiosk and DEWATS

by Moses Wakala (Nov.2010)

Status
The toilet has been in operation since April 2010. It is now managed by the town council as a pilot project. This is against the articles of Understanding signed between the WSTF, the Town officers and the SIBO regional water company. Negotiations to put the toilet under the water company (SIBO) that is mandated to manage water and sewerage services in the region.

The toilet is offering the following services currently: - Gents urinal at five shillings. - Toilet at 5 shillings. - Cold Shower at twenty shillings.

It has recorded the highest number of 500 visitors on a market day that is twice per week.
Ladies are the constant visitors in the facility as they are the majority doing business in the town.

Challenges
The toilet facility is being run by political leaders with little experience in sanitation. They are only after the income generated and not so much in proper maintenance. The piping of the gas has not been done and planning for the training with the political leadership has become so hard.

Management plans and agreements are meant to bring harmony between parties working together. All parties are to be aware of the implication and understand the parts played by the others in the partnership. In this Ugunja Sanitation Facility, the parties that were to partner in the implementation seem not to be aware of their individual responsibilities and that is the reason for the management wrangles.
It is important to get credited contractors to do the construction work. Many companies apply for the tender but they don’t have the capacity to have a good job as per the plans. As much as capacity building was advocated for in EPP, the contracting farms especially the one that was to do this Ugunja DTS did not do the best job as finishes are concerned.

Recommendations
A) Handing over the management of the toilet to SIBO.
B) Proper assessment of good finishes demanded to make the facility look more presentable and necessary repairs done by the management.
C) Plan a training session on reuse of effluent and gas connection to burners. - Selling of soaps, airtime and sanitary pads at the front operator’s room.

View of public toilet with water kiosk at Ugunja market

Project was visited during the study tour
of the ecosan capactiy developing workshop
in September 2010

Status Meru Prison DEWATS

by Moses Wakala (Nov.2010)

Status
There have been construction technical failures from the early stages as a result of very high water table at the site. A number of repairs have been done on the Digester and Baffle Reactor as a result and this have had a negative impact on the main stake holder’s ownership of the project. The system is now connected to four toilets units serving the warders/ staff. A cow shed with three dairy animals is also connected to the digester with manual feeding unit. The main prison service line is diverted to the municipal treatment plant in town. The system is now operational in evaluation phase with gas being used on one burner (institutional size). The treated effluent is used on the farm as irrigation water and fertilizer for the vegetables and bananas. This treated effluent is first collected in the stabilizing tank that also contains fish before being used on farm.

Challenges
The biggest challenge in this project in Meru Prison is the project ownership. This has been caused by the fact that the site have been repaired twice with minimal expectations achieved so far. It is one of the first such projects implemented in Kenya that did not realize the expected goals from the initial point.

Lessons learned
Following the poor project ownership in the prison, an evaluation of the implementation procedure was evaluated. The material and capital input was the sole responsibility of the donor. Therefore it was taken like the project belonged to the donor and not the prison service. The functionality of the project depended on the effort of the donor. This was also seen during the time of monitoring when a small problem of sealing the neck and expansion chamber was kept waiting till the EPP expert was called to do it. It is therefore recommended that during future implementation of similar projects in such setups, proper engagement between the donor and the beneficiary should be initiated. This should include prior signing of the articles of understanding between the donor, beneficiary/ client and the contractor with proper definition of the responsibility of each party.

Trainings being the core component of ecological sanitation is supposed to be incorporated with construction. Change of staff or management has also affected project ownership and operations. Some successful projects visited have been left an attended due to change of initial leadership that existed during construction phase. It is therefore necessary to plan for post training activities to continually support good EcoSan works and capacity build the community from the existing good examples.

Status Gachoire Girls High School

by Moses Wakala and Christian Rieck

This is one of the working examples in Kenya ecological sanitation initiative. It however faces a few challenges that may need to be addressed following the initial informal set expectations. The major entry point in the school set by the donor and school management was to improve sanitation in school that had depreciated to a critical state. There seem to have been a verbal promise of rebuilding the toilets for the girls which were to be connected to the digester. The school management has not owned the system as fully implemented as they still wait for the toilet construction.

Status

The gas produced at a maximum pressure of 88-90 cm of water column is utilized in the kitchen cooking on two burners. It is mainly used in preparation of teacher’s food and a little cooking of students light food like breakfast. At the time of first visit, the baffle reactor that was an added component in treatment completed in May 2010 had not been put in full use. During the second visit, there seem to be a technical failure in the Baffle reactor that may demand some repair. There is a crack from the slab running downward. There is need for the donor to enhance the understanding that the system works well. Previously there was no reuse of the treated effluent. From the training on reuse, the school is now set to prepare the farm for this purpose.

The constructed wetland (vertical flow) showed serious problems with clogging when it received the effluent from the biogas digester directly. The reasons were the lack of appropriate manually operated batching of the waste water which was not effectively executed by the school management. Moreover the wetland area is too small in relation to the waste water load, hence it became clogged quickly. It has not been modified and reconnected to the DEWATS after installation of the ABR, since project time and funds were finished.

Challenges and lesson learned.

Giving high expectations to clients before project implementation may sound convincing but dangerous if the expectations are not met. Therefore the EcoSan experts should try as much as possible to be realistic when trying to promote this new technology. Gauging the client’s demands and needs should be the first duty done analytically by the expert before the implementation.

View of flush toilets (right), incinerator and two shower blocks behind

Inside of girls toilets (with central flushing)

Girls toilet cubicle (also used for showering)

Students dry their washed clothes on top of the biodigester,
which is underground

Top manhole of biogas digester and biogas piping visible

in the attached testing and mail valve chamber

Biogas piping and appliance in the kitchen (currently used
to cook the teachers food)

Kitchen set up with wood fuel stoves that
can be fitted with biogas burners

Staffs is enjoying the tea, that was cooked with
the biogas stove

This anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) was added at a
later stage to the biogas digester (biogas settler). The
treated water is discharged into the woodlot, but not effectively
used by the school in their surrounding farm.

Constructed wetland (vertical flow) - problems with clogging - not
operation at the moment

UDDT teachers toilets
The UDDT constructed has been left unused except the gents urinal. The toilets are kept locked. Checking the chambers indicated a slight earlier use that stopped before long. The toilet that was meant for the teachers is rarely used now. They have resorted to the pit latrine nearby. The only way forward is to have an exchange program for the teachers to a working EcoSan dry toilet because they seem not to have conceptualized the philosophy.

UDDT toilet for teachers - on the left 1 male und 1 urinal - on the right 2 female
toilets - currently not used by teachers due to lack of training, only
the urinal and the handwash basins are used

Back side with UDDT with urine storage tank (300 liter) and
tap for withdrawal, the overflow of the urine tank goes
into underground infiltration within the farm

Status of DEWATS in Kenya

by Moses Wakala

Follow up activities
Ecosan Promotion implemented a number of Sanitation Projects in different place in the country. The consultant had planned to visit all the Decentralized Treatment Plants done in the project doing Monitoring and follow-up visits. Many projects had not started working at this time of evaluation and monitoring. Initial trainings that was to be done during project implementation had not been done and as such many clients were not aware of the functioning of the facilities. Given that the sites are located far apart in the republic of Kenya, therefore a lot of planning for movement from site to site with a number of logistic problems was met.
The following is a summary table for schools, Markets and institutions that were monitored by the consultant.

PROJECT	DATES VISITED	ACTIVITIES	COMMENTS
Naivasha Public Toilet	15.6	Monitoring	In good use.
	7.7	Repairs and repainting	One burner installed.
	19.8	Monitoring	Gas payment
Kapsabet Town Public Toilet	8.7	Site identification	Work not begun. Contractor turned down the awarded contractor.
	21.10
Ugunja Public Toilet	23.6	Monitoring of the Treatment Plant	Management of toilet still under the council and the MoA has not been honoured.
	7.7	Training of operators
	11.8	Visibility
	27.8
	20.9
Meru Government Prisons	16.9	Training on Operation and Maintaenence of the Digester and Baffle Reactor.	No ownership of the project.
	17.9	Sealing of the Digester.	Main Sewer-line not connected.
		Checking pressure in pipes
Lwanda Kotieno Public Toilet	25.6	Handing over the site to Beach Management and clearing the contractor.	The Beach Management not taken in the need of public pay toilet in town. There is need to involve the Water and Sanitation company to take up the management of facility.
	6.10	Training the Beach Management on toilet use.
	7.10	Follow-up on toilet operation
St Mary’s Lwak Girls	25.6	Kitchen piping.	Pond complete and working.
	25.8	Stoves installation training.	All toilets in good use.
	26.8	Digester sealing	Kitchen piping has been completed.
		Training of operation and maintenance.	Manometer installed.
		Pond supervision.
Ramba Boys	25.6	Pressure test in digester and piping.	Piping in the kitchen to be done by school when it opens next year.
	25.8	Training on reuse
	26.8
Rang’ala Girls high School	30.6	Training on use of the Facility, Operation and maintenance.
Rambula Mixed Secondary School	30.6	Monitoring	Digester pressure is low at 24cm Water column.
	11.8	Pressure test	Need to check for leakages in pipes and digester.
	27.8	Training on use, operation and maintenance.
	20.9	Preparation for Ugunja workshop.
		Visit with workshop team.
		Site follow up
Ambira Boys	17.6	Sealing of Digester Neck.	Toilets in good use.
		Monitoring	Kitchen piping not done
		Pond siting and Reuse training on farm.
Chianda Boys high school	25.6	Monitoring	Kitchen piping not done
		Supervision of other toilet connections
Raliew Secondary School	25.6	Supervision of other toilet connections on DTS.	Pond not done.
		Training on operation and management.	Toilets in good use
		Pond construction siting and design	Water connection to the facility to be done to improve its use.