The TIDES project (Transportable Infrastructures for Development and Emergency Support) is a research effort to encourage information sharing and develop Communities of Interest to support populations in stressed environments. TIDES is one part of a broader effort called STAR (Sustainable Technologies, Accelerated Research). Phase I of TIDES included demonstrations in Oct-Nov 2007 at the National Defense University (NDU) and the Pentagon’s center court.
STAR-TIDES promotes affordable, sustainable, support to stressed populations-post-disaster, impoverished, or post-war, whether in a domestic and foreign context for a short- or long-term operation, with or without involvement of the military. It is an international research project to promote unity of effort among diverse organizations where there is no unity of control. As such it seeks to build bridges across boundaries between business, civil society and government stakeholders who are working toward common goals. The principal means are: (1) trust building and social network development, (2) sharing information and “sense-making” approaches and (3) low-cost logistic solutions.
STAR-TIDES focuses on seven infrastructures: shelter, water, power, integrated solar and combustion cooking, cooling/ lighting/heating, sanitation and information & communications technologies (ICT).
Researchers have used Google Earth to create a simple, inexpensive mapping tool to help fight vector-borne diseases like dengue in resource-poor countries.
In two cities in southeast Mexico, Merida and Chetumal, the team recorded data about infrastructure – such as the location of health facilities and water sources that may serve as breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
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The researchers say the Google Earth has several advantages, being low-cost and simple to use, with high quality satellite images available in urban areas – though they note that satellite image quality is poorer for rural areas.
The software can be operated on a desktop computer and requires only brief access to Internet to download the satellite images – an advantage for countries suffering from poor Internet access.
Furthermore, the researchers say, the tool can be combined with other free health mapping tools, such as the WHO’s HealthMapper, and the data is easily interchangeable between different mapping software packages.
The research was published in the September 2008 issue of Bulletin of the WHO [693KB]
Ron Rivera liked to call his ceramic water filters “weapons of biological mass destruction.” For 25 years he traveled to poor villages throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia teaching local potters to make what appears to be a big terra-cotta flower pot but is in fact an ingenious device for purifying water. In 1998 he joined Potters for Peace and became where he became Coordinator of Filter and International Projects.
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Mr. Rivera died on Sept. 3 in Managua, Nicaragua, after contracting falciparum malaria, the most dangerous form, while setting up a water-filter factory in Nigeria, said Kathy McBride, his wife. He was 60.
Read more: William Grimes, New York Times, 14 Sep 2008
Potters for Peace and Potters without Borders have set up memorial pages here and here.
See a presentation video on ceramic filters by Mr. Rivera’s below.
Westra, M.T. and Holtslag, H. (2008). How to make a tippy tap : a hygienic hand washing device with running water. Enschede, The Netherlands, Werkgroep OntwikkelingsTechnieken, University of Twente and Leiden, The Netherlands, Connect International. 7 p.
This document describes how to make a Tippy Tap, a simple handwashing device with running water. The Tippy Tap consists of a 5 liter container hanging on a horizontal stick. The container can be tipped by pulling a rope through the cap. The rope is attached to a stick lying on the ground, which is pushed down by foot. As only the soap is touched during hand washing, the device is very hygienic.
One the earliest Tippy Tap designs was published in Dialogue on Diarrhoea (no, 54 Sep-Nov 1993). In 2005, Lifewater published an adapted version: “Tippy Tap II“.
A similar device – the Canacla – invented by the Belgian Jacques Vanhercke, has been introduced in Senegal, Rwanda and Morocco. However the web site of the NGO promoting the Canacla is currently unavailable [Handwashing: new water-saving technology introduced in Rwanda, Source Weekly, 28 Nov 2007]
Dhulikhel municipality constructed a community-based wastewater treatment plant cum biogas at Srikhandapur-9, in Kavre district that generates cooking gas for locals, fertilizers for farmers and ultimately sends clean water into the river.
Six-horizontal reed bed treatment systems [wetlands] of 175 cubic meters and two-Bio-gas reactors of 75 cubic meter capacity each have been installed over four-Ropanis of land adjoining the sewage pipe of over 200 households for collection of wastewater.
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The UN-HABITAT [through the Water for Asian Cities programme] and Dhulikhel Municipality supported Rs. 53, 00,000 and Rs. 17, 00, 000, respectively. Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO) provided technical assistance and training to locals in maintaining the system. The locals volunteered with masonry and contributed over Rs. 10, 00,000.
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The plant generates over 30-kilogram cooking gas and equal amount of fertilizer everyday when the plant becomes fully operational [in October 2008].
Lea, M. (2008).Biological sand filters : low-cost bioremediation technique for production of clean drinking water. Current protocols in microbiology ; suppl. 9 ; p. 1G.1 – 1G.1.28. DOI: 10.1002/9780471729259.mc01g01s9. Posted online May 2008
There is “conclusive evidence” that one low-cost household bioremediation intervention, biological sand filters, are capable of dramatically improving the microbiological quality of drinking water. This unit describes this relatively new and proven bioremediation technology’s ability to empower at-risk populations to use naturally occurring biology and readily available materials as a sustainable way to achieve the health benefits of safe drinking water.
This protocol provides guidelines for the selection, design, construction, operation and maintenance of biological sand filters. Options for pretreatment filtration and post-treatment disinfection (chlorination and solar disinfection (SODIS)) are provided, as well as a modified design for arsenic removal.
A pilot and demonstration activity (PDA) funded with US$ 49,500 from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) examined the feasibility of setting up a factory in Thailand’s Tap Sakae district to produce activated carbon from coconut and palm oil shells that can be used for industrial water pollution control and low-cost water filters.
Based on an assessment of the legal, institutional, technical, economic, and environmental issues related to the establishment of the plant, the team led by Prof. Thierry Lefevre, Director of the Centre for Energy Environment Resources Development (CEERD), produced the following recommendations:
Replicating the project elsewhere in the ASEAN region, which is richly endowed with coconut shell and oil palm shell (feedstock resources)
Establishing large activated carbon plants, with a minimum production threshold of 6-7 metric tons of Activated Carbon (AC) per day, to ensure acceptable level of economic feasibility, as the technology requires high capital investments
Establishing a Training Center within the AC plant to train coconut growers and coconut charcoal producers in improving quality of coconuts and coconut charcoal
Involving the local community and related associations as direct stakeholders and shareholders to reinforce the project’s long-term sustainability
Assessing the development of a water and/or gas filter production line associated with the activated carbon production facility, as local and international markets of water and gas filters are already well established
Working in cooperation with manufacturers of water and gas filter systems, rather than competing with them on the water and gas filter systems manufacturing field
Securing the financial resources to implement the project’s next phase which will allow the project to move forward
