Hi Jelliah,

Thanks for your interest in our project. Currently, I would most like to have help demonstrating the my designs for Waterless Urinals for women and girls are feasible and culturally acceptable in Kenyan schools ... so they can hopefully be implemented in the school  near Mombasa this Fall.

I will write to you in an internal message. 

Best wishes,
Chris

Hey,
My name is Jelliah. I'm based in Nairobi Kenya.
I am interested in helping and learning too.
Thanks

Dear Boniface,

Thanks for your offer to participate in our project at a school in Mombasa. You will certainly be a big help.

Please check your email inbox, as we can communicate more directly there.

Best wishes,
Chris

Dear Chris,

I would like to express my interest in your wetlands treatment project in Mombasa.  

I am Boniface, a local in the coastal area of Kenya. I am conversant with the city of Mombasa and the areas around it. I am also a natural resources management graduate and therefore I can help with the sourcing of the filter grass species.

Currently, I am a master's student in sanitation at Meru University of Science & Technology in Meru, a town in the central region of Kenya. The program is in partnership with the Global Sanitation Graduate School and IHE-Delft. I am learning the ropes of sanitation management and particularly on-site faecal sludge and urine management in urban/informal settlement settings.

To participate and help with the whole project would be a golden opportunity for me to experience the setting up and operation of innovative wastewater treatment technologies. I, therefore, ask for the opportunity to be part of the team that you will work with come September (fall) this year.

Kind regards,
Boniface Mwadime
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Dear Calistus,

Thanks for your interest in our project. Congrats on your important work in Tanzania. If I can ever help you to brainstorm or design new projects, please let me know. About the football pitches that you do, I have long thought that this would be a great opportunity for re-use/treatment/aquifer-recharging of treated wastewater, via subsurface perforated hoses (or even drip lines). Vetiver is potentially another candidate species to plant in our wetland in Mombasa. 

Dear Dean,

Our plan is for the initial treatment of this blackwater to take place in a Vermifilter (with an ample sand layer in the bottom). The second stage is via a Vertical-flow Treatment Wetland (I like the term Vegetated Sand Filter). Then the odor-free, colorless water will be pumped back up to an overhead tank for flushing the same toilets again, in a closed-loop way. If the recycled water is not of the desired quality, we can add other stages to the treatment. We need to remember that drinking-quality water is not needed for flushing toilets. In fact, it is a shame to flush toilets with drinking water, given that so many people in the world do not even have enough to drink. (The water lost to evapotranspiration from the plants will be replaced by adding greywater.)

One of the key elements in our system is that we want to keep the urine as separate as possible. To do this, we will have Waterless Urinals and Urine-diverting Flush Toilets. We are arranging to acquire Laufen Save! UD Toilets, plus I have figured out how to add a funnel to SATO squat pans to catch the urine separately. Keeping the urine separate will greatly facilitate the elimination of odors from the treated blackwater and the earthworms will likely be "happier" to be free from human urea. The urine can be used to fertilize fruit trees and other crops on-site and elsewhere.

Best wishes,
Chris 

Hello Chris,
Could you describe the proposed system please?
How will primary treatment be undertaken? Anaerobic DEWATS/septic tank or vermifilter?
Or will the vermifilter be secondary treatment followed by wetland tertiary?
What happens to the water after the wetland?

cheers
Dean

Hello Chris
I'd like to help and learn. I'm a bio-technologist and I've a small business offering plant based and mechanical aerated WWTP. In 2018 I had significant success using Vetiver grass on hydroponic setting to treat hatchery wastewater. I have supplied WWTP for households, hotels, a school, apartments and offices. Capacities ranged from 1,000 l/day - 160,000 l/day. For more info and pictures visit website: www.xpengineering.co.tz
I reside in Dar es salaam, Tanzania (503.6 km from Mombasa, Kenya).
Regards
Calistus

Hi everyone,

I am advising long-distance on the construction of an innovative Closed-loop Flushwater Recycling System (with a Vermifilter and a Vegetated Sand Filter Wetland) for the toilets of a school with 300 students near Mombasa, Kenya. Is there anyone located near there (or would like to go), who would like to participate? We are especially interested in finding someone who has experience with a recycling system of this magnitude and/or knows where we can get Antilope Grass (Echinochloa pyramidalis) and/or Common Reed (Phragmites australis ) near there. Also anyone who just wants to help out and learn.

The work will take place this Fall 2022.

Best wishes,
Chris Canaday