Demonstration Ecological Sanitation Sites in Milot

This summer a group from Stanford University, including several biologists and engineers will work with SOIL and the local community group SOL (link coming soon) to set up three demonstration ecological sanitation sites in Milot, Haiti.  Each site will have four toilet types installed side by side:

The demonstration sites have a two fold purpose. The primary goal is to provide the community with a range of sanitation options. It provides a resource for community involvement and participation, by serving as a site for community input and evaluation. The second purpose of side by side installation is to facilitate ecological and public health research. The initial demonstration sites will be constructed at two schools and a public place where people do not currently have access to sanitation.

Community evaluation

The project sites were chosen to maximize community involvement in the project by working in schools and a centralized community area.

A recent report by CARE indicates that up to 45% of schools in Haiti do not have access to safe, reliable sanitation services. Lack of sanitation and cuts down on school attendance and can be a source of disease.

 

We decided to work in schools to observe the efficacy of an ecological sanitation approach in schools and to give the children a chance to participate in the project, empowering the students to understand and participate in solving community health and sanitation problems. The demonstration sites provide a hands-on educational tool for classes focused on ecology, agriculture, hygiene, health and sanitation.

During the 2006-07 school year, students at the schools will be divided into groups and each group will use one of the four toilets for a week then switch to the next toilet the following week. At the end of each week students will have a group discussion about the week’s toilet. At the end of four weeks the students will be asked to write an evaluation of the four toilets. Together with the project organizers the students will prepare a community presentation to discuss what they liked and did not like about the toilets.

Working in schools also serves as a way to reach the wider community. Students will naturally share their experiences with their families, thereby increasing dissemination of knowledge and techniques.

 

 

 

The public area in the community of Lory was chosen at the request of the community. Very few people in the area have toilets and the community is interested in experimenting with innovative new options.

Research

The demonstration toilets are a starting point for a much wider program, coordinated by SOIL, which seeks to establish collaboration between academic institutions and grassroots communities in Haiti. This project was designed to simultaneously provide services that are community owned and operated, and to develop relationships between rural communities in Haiti and academic researchers, to answer important public health and environmental research questions.

This project is being developed in partnership with Stanford University, with funding from Stanford’s Presidential Fund for Innovative International Studies and the Collaboratory for Research on Global Projects. Four departments at Stanford University are involved in this project:

The study was initiated by Sasha Kramer (link), Rodolfo Dirzo (link), Ralph Greco (link), two ecologists and a medical doctor at Stanford, all with a shared admiration for Haiti. The project was also developed in collaboration with the Stanford group Engineers for a Sustainable World. The collaborators are interested in comparing different ecological sanitation approaches to determine the environmental and public health implications of different toilet designs, and to adjust the toilet designs in response to community preferences and environmental and sanitary performance.

After the initial sites have been established, students from Stanford and project coordinators will:

·        Work with the community to ensure local acceptance as well as verify that the designs are structurally sound, seismically resistant and implement environmentally friendly design practices.

·        Monitor nutrient loads in the toilets throughout the composting process.

·        Monitor pathogens in the toilets throughout the composting process, and prior to the use of compost as a fertilizer.

·        Monitor runoff of nutrients and pathogens below each below each toilet.

·        Evaluate the fertilizer potential of toilet compost through agricultural trials in collaboration with local agronomists.

·        Participate in the development and analysis of a public health and sanitation survey in collaboration with local surveyors.

The relationship between Stanford and Milot is important in that there is the opportunity for exchanging knowledge. Stanford students have incredible enthusiasm, specialized knowledge and access to educational resources. Impoverished communities in Haiti have tremendous courage, resilience and understanding of the relationships between social and environmental issues. This partnership provides a wonderful opportunity for these two communities to learn from one another.