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Update: Ecologically Safe Toilets for Tsunami Communities

Thursday, 9. October 2008By R S Arun Kumar, Former Executive Director, World Toilet Organisation

Sanitation in Aceh

Given the degree of the damage inflicted from the 2004 Asian Tsunami, the focus was on swift reconstruction in order to get the lives of the local people back in gear. Sanitation was habitually given insignificant thought, with only some simple and temporary solutions provided.

The post-tsunami reconstruction program consisted of an upgrading of living conditions including the establishment of appropriate and sustainable sanitary facilities. The Government provided technical specifications for septic tanks, and post-treatment in the form of leachfields as the minimum acceptable standards (Badan Standarisasi Nasional 2002).  While this is a positive development, there were also issues posted to the reconstruction committee:

Installing sanitation systems on the low-lying coastal communities in tsunami-affected area such as Aceh, presented some unique technological and environmental challenges:

• Groundwater tables in the resettlement communities are very high, typically between the heights of 0.4 m to 1 m or higher after recurring precipitation, making the reconstruction process more difficult and dangerous.
• The flat coastal topography provides very few opportunities for gravity flows into drainage channels or  centralized piping networks;
• Soil conditions vary from site to site; the tsunami had caused damage to low-lying topography and native soils proved difficult to identify in many locations; and
• Soil types range from gravels, sands, clay loams to sticky clays. Soils in low-lying areas remain waterlogged for many days after precipitation. Also some soils are free draining while others have slow percolation rates.

The Project

In order to introduce alternatives to better address these challenges, the World Toilet Organization (WTO) introduced a project - ‘Ecologically safe toilets for the Tsunami affected communities in Meulaboh and Banda Aceh, Indonesia in 2006. Using funds from the Tidal Waves Asia Fund (TWAF) managed by Singapore Red Cross Society, this project aims to provide sustainable sanitation systems for tsunami-affected communities in at least 13 sites within Meulaboh and Banda Aceh.  Together with the Indonesia Toilet Association (ATI) and BRR, the sites were identified and include focal points like community centres, mosques, schools, civic halls as well as orphanages, kindergartens and recreation areas.

By providing community sanitation infrastructure, the project aimed to restore normalcy back into the daily life of local communities while at the same time introducing the concept of ecological sanitation. In the process of setting up permanent sustainable sanitation infrastructure, the project also acted as a training ground for local engineers, architects, contractors, and communities, strengthening their capacity to design, construct and maintain environmentally sound and sustainable sanitation systems.

The Implementation

The project consists of 2 components: training and construction.

The project, in the process of setting up permanent sanitation infrastructure, trained local engineers, architects, contractors, and communities, and strengthens their capacity to design, construct and maintain environmentally sound and sustainable sanitation systems further on.

The training objective was to have a minimum of 20 participants per training program, which was made up of decision makers, professionals, community representatives as well as individuals such as the local architects, contractors and engineers. These participants were involved in practical training for design, selection, construction and maintenance work across 13 locations as part of their “on-the-job” training. The training programme was tailored to help the participants gain substantial knowledge and skills in sanitation. Local engineers, architects, contractors, community development workers and decision makers now have additional knowledge and skills, which allowed them to make a difference in the sanitation sector in Aceh.

World Toilet College (WTC) was contracted the training program. WTC is the training institute catering the needs of sanitation knowledge transfer and was set up in November 2005 in Singapore. WTC conducts courses and training in subjects involving restrooms and sanitation, both in Singapore as well as the rest of the world. The others courses offered by WTC include: The Restroom Specialist Course, School Sanitation and Hygiene Education, Disaster Sanitation and Restroom Design Course.

1. Training at Banda Aceh, from 30 Oct to 9 Nov 2008

This 10-day training course was held in the campus of University Syiah Kuala, in collaboration with the Department of Architecture. The training was targeted at two groups: the primary target audience and the secondary target audience. The former was made up of members of organisations such as BRR and local government and community representatives of tsunami-affected areas.

2. Training at Meulaboh, from 16-18 Jun 2009

The three-day course aimed to raise awareness and provide an overview on the importance of SusSan amongst engineers, architects, designers, builders, contractors and students. It focused on the following key areas such as: sanitation problems; concept and experiences of SusSan; criteria for designing SusSan systems and issues of operation and maintenance of SusSan systems.

Singapore Red Cross Society funded 90% of the project cost - effectively S$ 831,906 out of the total project budget, S$ 924,340. In all, seven community toilets were constructed in Banda Aceh, and six in Meulaboh. The locations are as follows:

1. Neusu Park, Banda Aceh
2. Lhoknga Beach, Banda Aceh
3. Kaye Kunyit Boarding School for Girls, Aceh Besar
4. Unsyiah kindergarten, Banda Aceh
5. Indrapuri Community Centre, Aceh Besar
6. Syiah Kuala Community Centre, Aceh Besar
7. Monmata Boarding School for Boys, Aceh Besar
8. Peribu Village Community Centre, Meulaboh
9. Babusallam School, Meulaboh
10. Babusallam Community Centre, Meulaboh
11. Samatiga Orphanage and Mosque, Meulaboh
12. Min Drien School, Meulaboh
13. Arts Centre, Meulaboh

The WTO Field Team conducted the feasibility and pre-assessment study at all the locations during which different stake-holders of the project were consulted. Consultation was done to determine the need analysis, the user profile, the type of toilet, treatment system and the training with regards to operation and maintenance.

WTO took a cautious approach to project implementation since they were the first Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) undertaking such a project, as opposed to most other agencies in the area that were focused on household sanitation systems. WTO was aware of the challenges, technical as well as societal aspects and addressed each of these step by step. The initial important question to ask ourselves is: Why do we need a public toilet?   The approach was two fold.  Firstly, it was necessary to provide information on the role and importance of public sanitation, and secondly, to present a range of alternative sanitation systems which would be affordable, culturally acceptable, easy to install and use, and required low maintenance.

Stakeholders including various community representatives, local government officials and the BRR were identified from each of the 13 project locations to carry out sanitation awareness through discussions and informal meetings. Some stakeholders also participated in the Sustainable Sanitation Course to gain technical training on operation and maintenance issues in order to ensure on-going operation and maintenance by the community. Over time, people realised how leaking septic tanks (Cin Cins) seriously contaminates groundwater and the importance of a good sanitation system. They too began to understand that relying on one ecological sanitation system to change the environmental health of the entire community is not possible without the co-operation and unity of every family within the community.

The steps adopted in the project implementation are enlisted below:

1. Planning and taking the local context into consideration
2. Community involvement and re-defining the plans
3. Prioritizing activities and objectives as defined by the project frame-work
4. Creation of demonstrative units
5. Re-visiting and streamlining of the planning process
6. Community involvement and scale up
7. Project documentation and monitoring

Technology

Different technological interventions were introduced with the basic principle of anaerobic decomposition (including technologies such as biogas reactors, baffle reactors and bio-filters) and aerobic systems for post-treatment (including technologies like constructed wetlands and vegetated gardens)

The project thrived, and success was attributed mainly through two angles – One, meeting the stated objectives of the project; and two, creating a change of approach towards sanitation. The first criterion was successfully met, with toilets constructed and handed-over at all the 13 locations. The second criterion is of a long-term nature, but we got some initial indications through the local communities. For instance, the staff at the kindergarten said that it’s easier for them to teach hygiene habits to the children now, and the staff at Lhoknga Beach said that it pays to maintain the toilet well. These long term impacts on changing the perspective of people towards sanitation is indicative at all the project location, which can be considered a measurement of the effectiveness of this project.

Lessons Learnt

Every location was viewed as a brand new project, with a new set of challenges that required fresh approaches.  Having raised some awareness and interest, people were curious to know what other ecological sanitation options exist and which would be most suitable for them. This is important since it is known that different sanitation systems works differently at different locations, and various environmental and societal issues will determine the type of toilet and treatment system most appropriate for a certain location.

Planning in the given context – both political as well as geographical and the scale of the disaster – is very important. Though recce trips were made by different organisations before the project implementation, it is important to take a step back and see the relevance of the proposed project and the existing scenario of the development. This is an important step, both to the project committee as well as the beneficiary.

It is also important to showcase your sincerity through actions and good examples in order to gain the confidence of people involved in this project (both committee and beneficiary). After all, action speaks louder than words!

Finally, the reconstruction committee helped the local community attained the ownership of this reconstruction project by involving them in the different reconstructing process. This generates a deeper sense of responsibility in them, thus creating satisfaction within the community and will help to sustain the project in the future. A 2000 year old Chinese poem summarizes this thought beautifully:

Go to the people

Learn from Them

Love Them

Start with what they know

Build on what they have

But of the best leaders

When their task is accomplished

Their work is done

The people will remark:

"We have done it ourselves"

• World Toilet Organisation (WTO): Ecologically safe toilets for Tsunami affected communities in Meulaboh and Banda Aceh