Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Development of an Improved Arborloo to Promote Sanitation in Rural Environments
EPA Grant Number: SU835514Title: Development of an Improved Arborloo to Promote Sanitation in Rural Environments
Investigators: Thorn, Brian , OConnor, Airin , DeLeo, Anthony , Burley, Evan , Hyde, Greg , Wilson, John , Eppolito, Jonathon , Rojano, Joseph , Bentley, Katie , Gebo, Kevin , Liebman, Lori , Keehfus, Mac , Coffey, Michael , Conklin, Nathan , Morabito, Patrick , Cruz, Pedro , Zheng, Raymond , Svintozelsky, Samuel , Brownell, Sarah , Snell, Victoria
Institution: Rochester Institute of Technology
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Phase: I
Project Period: August 15, 2013 through August 14, 2014
Project Amount: $14,992
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet (2013) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development , P3 Challenge Area - Safe and Sustainable Water Resources , P3 Awards , Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Objective:
Nearly half of the people living in developing regions still lack improved sanitation . Even though increased access to improved sanitation is called out as a United Nations Millennium Development Goal, progress has been spotty. For instance, in Haiti sanitation coverage actually declined between 1990 and 20 I 0, from 24% to 17%. The overall objective of the work performed for this project is to refine the design of an outdoor latrine system (the "arborloo") in order to make it suitable as a commercial product in rural areas of developing countries. Widespread adoption of such devices could dramatically improve the sanitation of rural communities and the health of their residents. In addition, local manufacture and maintenance of the arborloos can provide economic opportunities to the residents of these rural communities. The work undertaken in the course of this project included the following:
- A systematic literature review on sanitation implementation case studies was performed. The cases were evaluated to identify barriers to adoption and sustained use of sanitation technologies. Results from this review informed the system designs that followed.
- Two multidisciplinary teams of engineering students designed a total of four prototype arborloo bases and tested them according to engineering requirements that they developed from an assessment of customer. One team focused on the development of inexpensive and lightweight concrete bases while the other team worked to develop an inexpensive plastic base. Each team followed the engineering design process including activities of project planning, needs assessment, writing engineering requirements, functional decomposition, brainstorming, feasibility analysis, development of a complete design drawing package with bill of materials, writing test plans, and construction and testing of prototypes against specifications. Each team was able to complete a process based lifecycle assessment of their prototype designs. These assessments describe the environmental impacts that arise across the lifespans of the bases as currently designed. The results from these lifecycle assessments serve as baselines, and enable the identification of opportunities to improve the environmental performance of the bases in subsequent trials. As they moved through the design process, the student teams also managed risks, tracked problems and documented their work on RIT's Edge website throughout the year-long course.
- A multidisciplinary design team worked to develop a wind testing protocol that could be used to test the robustness of the arborloo structure to the high wind conditions prevalent in rural areas of Haiti. They followed the same design and documentation procedures as the teams described above.
- A faculty/student team from RJT was able to travel to Haiti and work in support of this project. The team met with our Haitian partner organization to conduct a series of focus groups related to the social and economic acceptability of the arborloo with local community organizations. They were also able to retrieve information about the · preferences of local residents for various arborloo design characteristics like color and shape.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
Literature review of case studies: A total of 53 reports were reviewed to help identify barriers to adoption and sustained use of sanitation technologies in developing environments. The cases were divided into sanitation projects that achieved their goals of improving sanitation and those that did not achieve the stated goals or that achieved them but with unacceptable risks. All cases were examined to determine the critical issues that impacted the success of impkmentation. The review suggested that slow expansion of sanitation coverage globally is not simply due to lack of attention, but is also impacted by unaddressed social, economic, technical and environmental barriers. Factors that prevented implementation strategies from succeeding generally fell into two categories:
- Technical failures including the malfunction of the technology related to infrastructure deficiencies and the design being ill-suited to the environment in which it was applied.
- User-acceptability related failures such as lack of adoption , discontinued use and misuse of the technology related to social and economic issues.
This review led to the drafting of a series of guidelines for designing and deploying improved sanitation systems in developing environments (see body of report). These guidelines served as basic reference material for the design and development work that followed.
Concrete base prototyping: A multidisciplinary engineering design team was charged with the task of developing an improved concrete arborloo base. The team developed and prioritized potential customer needs, and evaluated various concrete formulations and concrete base designs against those customer needs. The team's concrete mix experiments culminated with the development of a concrete mix that uses material locally available in Haiti to ensure strength while being much lighter than standard concrete. The recipe blends Portland cement, sand, broken coconut shells, waste Styrofoam, Glenium (a performance enhancing water reducer), and coconut fibers for reinforcement.
Plastic base prototyping: A multidisciplinary engineering team was charged with the task of developing and prototyping a plastic base system suitable for arborloos. The team examined currently available solutions (bread crates, plastic milk crate s) that could be modified for use as an arborloo base. In addition, they explored processes for forming plastics into new shapes. The team constructed prototypes of both types. The "deckloo" is a prototype constructed from plastic lumber with a 100% recycled HDPE feedstock. The "vacloo" is a vacuum formed sheet of HDPE reinforced with steel rebar. Comparison of the two systems can be found in the body of the report.
Wind testing: A multidisciplinary engineering team was charged with creating a test bed and developing procedures to test the robustness of arborloo designs to the wind speeds that would be found in a Type I hurricane (95 mph). The wind tunnel testing system at RIT is not capable of generating these high wind velocities, so Similitude Modeling Scaling Laws were invoked to investigate the appropriateness of scale model testing. This investigation demonstrates that the wind tunnel testing device at RIT can be effectively used to test scale model arborloos despite the wind speed limitations. The rationale for this conclusion and sample test results are offered in the body of the report.
Business plan development: A faculty/student team representing the College of Engineering and the College of Business was able to travel to Haiti in order to meet with our Haitian partner organization (Sosyete Oganize pou Lanati (SOL). The RIT team and the group from SOL collaborated to collect data on community perception of arborloos, and catalogue some of the social, economic, cultural, and environmental issues that must be understood in order to develop a business plan to guide the manufacture, marketing, and maintenance of arborloo systems. A first draft of the business plan has been completed.
Conclusions:
Informed by an extensive background study on sanitation in developing countries, multidisciplinary teams of RIT students have developed inexpensive prototype arborloo bases that could be manufactured and deployed in rural Haiti. Subsequent refining of the base designs, coupled with privacy shelters that are robust to climate conditions and meet customer needs will create a low cost, attractive sanitation system that can be widely deployed in developing regions. A business plan for introducing this product is being developed. Such a system will have a dramatic effect on community health and welfare.
Supplemental Keywords:
Arborloo, improved sanitation, pit latrineRelevant Websites:
Peter Morgan's Arborloo Book (PDF) Exit ( 16pp, 1.77 MB)
Information on Phase I design activities may be seen at the following websites:
Concrete base team: http://edge.rit.edu/edge/P14416/public/Home Exit
Plastic base team: http://edge.rit.edu/edge/P14415/public/Home Exit
Wind test team: http://edge.rit.edu/edge/P14414/public/Home Exit
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.