Nov 2021 – Rural Water Supply Network

My name is Reid Harvey. I’m a ceramic industrial designer who has been working in water purification and energy efficient cook stoves for 30 years across Africa and Southern Asia, largely with local village potters.

Forming a candle filter in Burundi. (Photo: R. Harvey)

The current challenges of climate change, the pandemic and supply chain issues have struck deeply in the developing world and low-income communities. I’ve developed community water purification systems using granulated media and refined candle water filter design and production with a view to its open technology and standardization.

My life work has been to empower low-income potters and their neighbors by training them in improved ceramic processes and products. This starts in their use of local materials to make candle water filters and insulating rocket stoves. I have also trained this same population in production of biomass briquettes for use in these stoves. Because the stove gives no smoke at all, use of these briquetrtes as fuel prevents their need to cut trees for fuel or for production of charcoal. Importantly, solid fuel can indeed be burned cleanly.

Recently, while do training in Burundi, I had two breakthroughs in this work. In candle filter production, a new forming process was developed to both speed production and increase product consistency.

In production of insulating rocket stoves, a new process simplifies production of the insulating bricks. The highly energy efficient burn prevents smoke, essentially eliminating indoor pollution. A new design for the insulating rocket stove makes this portable, with upper liners for cook pots of whatever size.

Others might agree that these interventions, training the potters and their neighbors to produce the products they need, can lead to significant impacts in accomplishing nearly all of the Sustainable Development Goals – SDGs.

Building local capacity, the local economy and engaging the community in behavior change appears to be far more sustainable than sending such products into a community and leaving them reliant on external donations for the future.

I’m holding a webinar on Monday, November 22 at 10:00 am, New York time to review the breakthroughs referenced above and gather feedback about implementation strategies that would make these approaches more widespread. The link is below.

I hope you can find time to join this important conversation
Please join us for the webinar, Breakthroughs in Burundi – Innovations in Candle Water Filters and Insulating Rocket Stoves
Join the Zoom Meeting, Monday, November 22, at 10:00am, New York time, https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84767837460?pwd=K2JvU3F6RWtlbUtyODlIaFlaU1lBQT09

Candle water filter and rocket stove production by local potters has not been viewed as viable. This is because of such factors as the quality and consistency of the product and low production output. Two recent innovations in the means of production have significantly addressed these factors.These are nature-based technologies of candle water filters and insulating rocket stoves that will empower those in need with livelihoods. They will reduce their community’s exposure to waterborne and airborne pollution

Disclaimer: Any claims in an RWSN member eXchange article or video have not been verified and any views presented or services provided the individual organisation does not mean that they are endorsed by RWSN or any of it executive partners or Secretariat.

by Meheretu Yonas, Luwieke Bosma and Frank van Steenbergen

Hygiene is arguably the more forgotten component in WASH. Within WASH, water and sanitation systems have received much attention and there have been important programs to promote hand washing and menstrual health and hygiene, rightly so. But several other dimensions of hygiene do not get the attention they deserve, in particular village pests that carry common diseases which they transmit to humans through direct contact, food contamination or other pathways.

Pest rodents (rats and mice) are important carriers of pathogens that cause diseases in humans and domestic animals. Different rodents have different behaviour and have different propensities to transmit those diseases. Some rodents, like the roof rat (Rattus rattus), prefer to live in the houses and storage areas. Other rodents may prefer the fields.

There are about 60 known diseases transmitted to humans and animals by rodents. Examples of diseases and parasites of public health importance include leptospirosis, salmonellosis, giardiasis, murine typhus (rickettsia), capillariasis and other helminths intermittently shed by rodents. For instance, salmonellosis is the cause of 25% of all diarrhoea cases worldwide. Leptospirosis affects more than one million people annually and cause more deaths than Ebola for instance.

We advocate that integrating a Village Level Ecologically Based Rodent Management (vEBRM) approach with the activities of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) helps improve nutrition, food safety and public health in the villages in Africa and Asia. vEBRM requires awareness and understanding of rodent habits and a change in people’s behaviour, as people often create the ideal conditions for rodents to multiply. Hence, vEBRM does not seek to just exterminate the rodents, but to control their access to food, their habitats, and movements and to make use of natural enemies.

Here are three important aspects:

Aspect 1: Rodents damage and contaminate food. They are a major cause of human diseases through a multitude of transmission pathways and infect livestock as well. They may attack people, especially children and the elderly. They consume food stores, damage property and some rodents will spread bad smells and create annoying noise.

Aspect 2: Inadequate waste disposal, grain and cattle feed storage methods aid the proliferation of rodent populations in villages thereby heightening public health issues.

Aspect 3: One cannot do this alone: like community WASH, vEBRM needs a systematic collective effort.

Here are the 10 Key Rules in vEBRM:

Communities should first appreciate the fact that rodents are a problem for both agriculture and public health, and that it is possible to reduce rodent populations to close to zero.
Collaborative, community-based participation is imperative at all stages of household and community-level sanitary and hygienic activities and in the introduction of proper storage and house construction to create a healthy village free of rodents. Adequate cleaning, trash removal and rodent-proof trash containers are necessary.
Establish robust community awareness campaigns to achieve people’s behavioural changes towards rodents, food and grain storage methods and household and community-level waste disposal so that rodents are denied access to food and harbourage.
Ensure regular inspection of houses, storage areas and gardens. Immediately repair openings where rodents passthrough and take shelter, such as fencing and stone-bunds. When observed, immediately remove any harbourage, rat runways, climbing spots, etc. It is important to understand that rodents are neo-phobic and learn the locations of new objects, food sources and escape routes very quickly.
Traditional brooming is a special point of attention: especially hard brooms in rodent infested households have the potential to spread rodent-associated RNA viruses and bacteria by contaminated aerosols and arthropod vectors. Hence:
1. Ensure minimal dust blows while sweeping using water and soft brooms.
1. Use cloth or facemask to cover the mouth and nose.
Construct storage houses and materials in such a way that it is impossible for rodents to enter (Fig. 3). Ensure that roofs, doors, and windows are fit tightly, and gaps and flaws are avoided. When detected, gaps and flaws should be sealed immediately with rodent-proof material. Interrupters may also be used.
Make sure some of the most sensitive household items are protected from rodents:
- Store food, grain, drinking water, household utensils in rodent-proof containers and cabinets to avoid persistent household-level re-infestations.
- Store children/infant food, water and feeding utensils (such as plastic infant/children feeding bottles) in safe containers at all times.
Encourage keeping domestic cats (and dogs) at household level (see Fig. 1) and discourage chasing and prosecution of natural predators of rodents (such as birds of prey, wild cats, mongoose, snakes).
If after all these measures rodent infestation persists: use mechanical killing methods (local and commercial traps), flood rodent burrows, and use proven bio–rodenticides (ecologically sustainable rodenticides originated from plant materials) or selected chemical rodenticides to manage rodent populations. Avoid using chemical rodenticides that have no user application information and production and expiry dates.
Establish and implement strict village (or neighbourhood) bylaws and rules to ensure household and neighbourhood sanitation and hygiene. Use a record-keeping system that lets the community know who are not respecting the bylaws, who are the offenders. Besides, develop and implement community strategy for a solid waste disposal system (including recycling). Additionally, introduce mandatory “one pit waste each, per household and per village” rule in the village bylaws. Organize groups and committees that create awareness about community sanitation and hygiene and are responsible for enforcing the bylaws. Assign responsible bodies for trash removal and maintenance of communal trash containers and trash dumping areas (pits).