Dear Sir,

My name is Börje Brandt and I have developed a concept to decrease the water usage with up to 3.500 % calculated on the average Swedish usage of 175-200 liters of water per day and per person. The use of water (loss of water) can be as low as 2.5 – 3.5 liters of water per person and day. The loss of water can be used to irrigate the household crops and vegetables. This concept will clean recycle and reuse water for showering, washing hands and do the dishes for single households situated in regions with water scarcity.

From a Swedish perspective there will be a drop from 65.000-73.000 liters of water per person and year down to around 2.000 liters of water that will be used for showering, washing hands and do the dishes.

For people living in developing countries, who need to conduct walkabouts every day and often several times per day to collect water, this system or concept will enable the people and families so they have to refill their water supplies just once a week. In that way, the woman of the household (who often is the one collecting water) can participate in other productive economic activities and the children can participate in educational activities.

This system will improve sanitation, improve health and provide a better life for people living in regions with water shortages and severe water scarcity.

UN had calculated that more than 1.8 billion people would suffer of water scarcity due the year 2025, but right now at least 2.7 billion people in 201 river basins faces water scarcity for at least one month each year, according to a new report published in journal PLoS ONE. UN has also reported that by 2030, almost half of the world’s population will live in water-stressed areas.

We need to better protect and minimize the use of clean potable water. For areas that we don’t need to use potable water we need to use recycled water instead, so in that way we can use much smaller amounts of fresh and potable water and utilize it just for drinking purpose.

With this water cleaning & recycling system there would be:

• Decreased stress on the groundwater resources.
• Decreased stress due conflicts between countries and also domestic conflicts of water ownerships between farmers, industry and the public usage.
• Decreased stress on the environment due less transportation's with water trucks.
• Deceased stress on the very often very bad sanitation piping systems.
• No need have buried sanitation pipelines if you will use topsoil toilette solutions.
• Decreased stress on the environment due we will promote the use of natural/organic and bio-degradable products for hygiene, cleaning and detergents usage.
• Will handle bacteria and parasites due a solar heating solution, and also a 100 % bio-degradable solution that kills bacteria and parasites.

In this concept (to construct a prototype) I have a Professor in land and water resources engineering from KTH (School of Architecture and the Built Environment) in Stockholm and a Professor and a associate professor from the University of Uppsala in air, water and landscape sciences. An associate professor from the University of Linkoping has also committed collaboration with this concept.

In developing countries with severe water scarcity the households will be enabled to have one more adult in productive economic activity and in that way supplement the household income.

Calculated on a monthly cost of 3 - 3.5 GBP (due for example micro-credit loans) and that an adult earns on an average basis around 0.6 – 0.9 GBP per day giving the household an opportunity to bring in 12.5 – 18.5 GBP extra per month. A deduction for the monthly costs gives the household an extra income of around 9 – 15 GBP per month.

An outsourced production line in developing countries are calculated to produce a water cleaning and recycling system unit to a cost of 467 – 565 GBP exclusive VAT, and with micro-credit loans (15 years/1%) the goal is to have a monthly cost around 3 - 3.5 GBP.

My quest & search is; if your organization would be interested in supporting my efforts to construct a first prototype for the benefits for common households in developing countries that are suffering from severe water scarcity today and in the near future?

I need to locate funding from municipal, governmental or private collaborators for the first prototype of the water cleaning and recycling system for common households situated in regions with severe water scarcity.

Maybe there could be a collaboration with the university in your region?

Due we don't have any water scarcity or problems with our groundwater there are no Swedish authorities who are interested to support my efforts.

For any comments/questions or for exploring strategic partnerships, please contact me directly.

With very best regards from Sweden

Börje Brandt
Regulus teknikutveckling
Storgatan 6J
SE-93431 Kåge
Sweden
Phone: +46 910 53485 or +46 70 3607580
Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Skype: boerje.brandt

Hi Felix,
Good to read abou this very interesting issue from Ghana on this forum. It would be nice if you can briefly introduce yourself to the forum: more about himself, where you work or what you doing or maybe the project you are working on in relation to this Ada issue. This is so that at least other forum member will know who is behind the name.

To the sanitation and water quality challenge in Ada: As much as the local people cannot do much about climate change and its multiple implications for health and livelihood, adapting to the situation and mending practises can help.

A multiple approach can help in the situation. This includes finding suitable technologies and sensitising the people. People may be using the "free range" because there is no suitable alternative. So providing a suitable better alternative taking into consideration local situations (technology, cost, culture, etc) is very important. Sensitising the people about the effect of open defeacation will help in the long run.

Technology-wise, UDDTs where feaces and urine are separated and can be collected, treated and reused could be helpful in this case. Since the people of Ada and its environs are predominatly farmers, the urine (and possibly feaces) could be used as ferlilizer. This in the long run could replace the use chemical fertilizers which are also known to have a negative toll on groundwater quality.

There are lots of information (publications) about UDDTs and other technologies on the SuSanA library www.susana.org/lang-en/library.

Thanks

Best regards

Bismark

Hi all,
One effect of sea-level rise in Ghana is the intrusion and flooding of the sea into coastal aquifers and hand dug wells. One community which is more vulnerable to such phenomenon is the Ada community in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.
Water quality analysis done on the water from the wells in the ecological laboratory of the University of Ghana has revealed a great deal of compromise on the quality on water use by the community. Off-course this has its attended health and livelihood implications for the people.
What suggestions can be made to help the people in this challenge? Hydro-carbonate and salt are the dominant compounds in the water leading to gastro-intestinal worms and hypertension among others.
The sanitation condition is also very bad as communities have no toilets and use 'free range' method of defaecation which has also been identified as a leading cause of pollution of water.
What methods and technologies can help and what appropriate measures can be used to extend a helping hand to this people.
Thanks
Felix