Dear Dr. Thammarat,

Thank you for sharing your research, as being a young Environmental Engineer, I am very interested in your project. I also want to ask couple of questions about your research.

What is the scope of aimed pathogen removal. For example are you planning to deactivate worms/eggs?

In addition to the methods that you have mentioned, are you planning to combine these with conventional technologies such as activated sludge?

Regards,

Gökce

Hi John,

Many thanks for the message. You may contact Prof. Kyu Hong Ahn if Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) who has a vast experience in the field of wastewater treatment technology. He is a former faculty member of the Environmental Engineering program at AIT.

His email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Best,

Thammarat

Dear Mr. Mughal,

Thank you very much for your kind message to my post on the forum which I am very pleased to hear from a prominent senior alumni of AIT from Pakistan. Throughout almost 50 years of the Environmental Engineering at AIT, we are very proud of couple thousands of graduates who are effectively working in the field as you have been doing to date.

In the Gates Foundation sponsored project, we have undertaken the field investigations in those 3 countries in Southeast Asia but our technology development is not limited for this region. We are also looking forward to testing the developed technologies in a country who may interest in the decentralized wastewater management systems. Pakistan could be a potential field testing if a strong need is derived from your government or key stakeholders.

Best regards,

Thammarat

Dear Dr. Thammarat,

It was nice to see your post on this forum. I do come across with your name on AIT newsletters. I’m also an AIT graduate. I did my M. Eng. in Environmental Engineering in 1975.

The project: Sustainable decentralized wastewater management in developing countries; looks interesting. Presently, the scope is limited to 3 countries, namely Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It should have included countries, like Pakistan and India, for more ambient temperature variations.

Currently, in Pakistan, in the municipal sector, the centralized wastewater treatment is being practiced, though, I personally feel, decentralized system approach may be adopted, as far as possible.

Nevertheless, I wish you success. If you need my help in the project, please don’t hesitate to contact me (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Regards,

F H Mughal

Hello Sammarat,

It is nice to meet you, and I heard about your organization recently from Roshan at BMGF. I am wondering if you have any contacts from your sector in S. Korea. I am networking with my S. Korean contacts to identify leaders in this field, and thought I would also ask you.

Thank you for your consideration, and I wish you well in your important work.

All the best, John

..........................................
John Etgen | Senior Vice President | Project WET Foundation
www.projectwet.org | 1001 W. Oak Street, Suite 210; Bozeman, MT 59715| john.etgen11 Skype |

Project WET: A Global Journal Top 100 NGO

Dear All,

I would like to present to you a brief info of our project which has been granted from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Title of grant: Sustainable decentralized wastewater management in developing countries (Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand)

Subtitle: Reinventing innovative decentralized systems and technologies for full or partial treatment, and disposal of human excreta and wastewater from dwellings and businesses in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Name of lead organization: Asian Institute of Technology
Primary contact at lead organization: Dr. Thammarat Koottatep (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), Environmental Engineering and Management, School of Environment, Resources and Development
Grantee location: Pathumthani, Thailand
Developing country where the research is being tested: Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam

Short description of the project:
The project seeks to reinvent technologies for decentralized wastewater management that is Naturally Acceptable and Technological Sustainable (NATS). The project focuses on innovation in decentralized systems and technologies using a market-led approach for full or partial treatment and disposal of human excreta and wastewater from dwellings and businesses.

Goal:
The ultimate goal is to use a market-driven research approach to catalyze commercialization of a novel and innovative decentralized system to radically improve sanitation for the urban poor. The goals are anchored by scientific, technical and market evidence.
To create sustainable and scalable social impact, the developed system is envisaged to be:
(i) Novel
(ii) Decentralized
(iii) Viable
(iv) Sustainable
(v) Superior

Approach:
The project follows a Market-Driven Approach with the first two phases focusing on creating innovative platforms and its design and implementation, while the third and final phase concentrates on commercialization and communication.

Objectives:
1. Invention and prototyping of Decentralized Wastewater Treatment Systems (DEWATS) technology that treats and discharges a pathogen-free domestic effluent, and ready for reuse products.
2. Field testing of prototype technologies for single families and apartment blocks or for community wastewater management.
3. Securing commercial ventures with industries for mass production and commercialization.
4. Increase regional academic expertise in innovative DEWATS technologies.

Phases: The first phase is aimed at creating a platform for innovation with focus on generating ideas, screening them and then developing and testing the concept. The second phase is focused on design and development of lead options. This includes developing a marketing strategy, analysis of business model and product development. The project culmination will commercialize the lead options.

Targets: The project has quantifiable targets, which includes among others development of thermal septic tank, microwave and microbial fuel cell, nano-disinfection and solid-liquid separation devices. Besides, technology identification of odor-free and pathogen-free effluent, with a 50 per cent reduction of fecal sludge, and production of ready-to-reuse market-friendly products is the other main target. Other targets include peer-reviewed publications, and identification of market factor, market and technology landscape analysis, identification of target buys, analysis of unmet needs and compilation of dataset of performance of existing systems.

Start and end date: September 2011 – October 2016
Grant type: Other
Funding for this research currently ongoing: yes
Research or implementation partners: Thammasat University, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, and Ramkhamhaeng University.

Current state of affaires:
Due to a devastating flood in Thailand in late September 2011, the planned activities of this research project have been deferred for almost 9 months. On 31st of May 2012, after returning and renovating parts of AIT campus, Phase 1 of the project officially commenced with an endorsement by the Foundation WSH program. To date, the project has undertaken the preliminary field investigations on DEWAT and FSM systems not only on technical aspects but also on marketing and socioeconomic factors in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. These findings could help providing the meaningful considerations for the research on technology development that is focusing on thermal septic tank, microbial fuel cells as well as innovative FSM logistic model.

Links, further readings, etc:
Webpage: natstoilet.com

Documents in SuSanA library: www.susana.org/en/resources/library/details/1798
(includes presentation and paper at FSM-2 Conference in Durban in Oct. 2012)

Presentation at FSM-2 Conference:
www.susana.org/images/documents/07-cap-d...hnology-thailand.pdf

Video of me giving this presentation:



AIT news in March 2013 “Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation floats idea of AIT as Creative Platform for sanitation R&D”: www.ait.ac.th/news-and-events/2013/news/...-for-sanitation-r-d/

AIT news in September 2012 “Big Gates grant to develop a better toilet”: www.ait.ac.th/news-and-events/2012/ait-i...m=gates%20foundation

AIT news in September 2012 “AIT awarded research grant on sustainable decentralized wastewater management systems”: www.ait.ac.th/news-and-events/2012/ait-i...m=gates%20foundation

Hi All,

Let me introduce myself. I am Thammarat Koottatep from Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand where I have been working for some 20 years. In late 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation kindly granted a project namely "Sustainable Decentralized Wastewater Management in Developing Countries" to AIT but unfortunately the devastating flood in Thailand caused gigantic damages and the delay of project commencement. Later in May 2012 our project successfully kicked off the planned activities which implement a "Market-driven innovation" approach. You can find further information at a subsequent post.

Back to self introduction again. Since my undergraduate to PhD, I have been working and studied in the area of "Environmental Engineering" with an emphasis on wastewater treatment and appropriate sanitation systems. With this background, it allows me to work on several international/regional field research projects, one of which is the Swiss-funded National Center for Competence in Research North South (NCCR) Program for almost 12 years as a regional coordinator in Southeast Asia. Currently, I am Associate Professor at the Environmental Engineering and Management of AIT which host the said BMGF-sponsored project.

I look forward to chat and discuss with you all!

Thammarat