Sanitation for Cambodia

Volume 7 Number 12 December 12 2011 - January 8 2012

The gas capture and storage system designed by the University team has many long-term benefits for a Cambodian community, including improved health, better sanitation methods, sustainable practices that are relatively easy to maintain, and the economic benefits of generating gas for lighting and cooking.
The gas capture and storage system designed by the University team has many long-term benefits for a Cambodian community, including improved health, better sanitation methods, sustainable practices that are relatively easy to maintain, and the economic benefits of generating gas for lighting and cooking.

A partnership between University of Melbourne engineering students and Engineers Without Borders is laying the foundation for sustainable, effective sanitation for the Phat Sanday community in Cambodia. Kate O’Hara reports.

A year-long project to design and develop a gas capture and storage system for floating communities living on the Mekong River in Cambodia has won a 2011 Melbourne University Credit Union Dreamlarge Grant for four Engineering students.

The project – to build a biodigester - was a partnership effort with Engineers Without Borders (EWB) and the NGO Live & Learn Environmental Education based in Tonle Sap Lake. Students Alexander Thompson, Toray Altas, Henry Craig and Matthew Andrews were presented their award at this year’s Vice-Chancellor’s Engagement Awards.

Building on a biodigester project initially conceived by University of Western Australia students as part of the 2009 EWB Challenge and now currently being developed by EWB and Live & Learn in Cambodia, Mr Craig says the Melbourne student project was to develop gas systems for a sustainable waste treatment system.

“The challenge was to develop and implement a capture and storage system for methane gas created by the biodigestion of waste from floating households and pig farms. The gas can then be used for a wide variety of applications like cooking and lighting.”

Much of this year was devoted to researching the project, consulting with EWB’s in-country volunteer to understand the local context, and building and testing the prototype in Australia.

Through the $5000 Vice-Chancellor’s Engagement Grant and in-kind support from EWB, the team travelled to Cambodia in September. Mr Craig says this was an essential part of the project.

“The whole point was to make this system completely sustainable and able to be built and maintained with locally-available products and skills.

“The opportunity to visit the community, undertake consultation and test the prototype in situ made a huge difference. As it turned out, the availability of one particular product was an issue, so we had to re-think a key component of the prototype.”

The teacher of the local floating school in Phat Sanday village is championing the idea of the biodigester project and gas capture system. The prototype will be attached to the school and, Mr Thompson says, the hope is that through education the community will be able to create generational understanding about how it works.

“The community don’t necessarily make the connection between sanitation and the health of those who live on the lake,” he says.

“So aside from the technicalities of creating the system, there are also some significant cultural challenges which need to be considered.”

Mr Thompson says previous programs have discovered that having a local member of the comm                             unity take the project on as a business case is a far more effective way to ensure ongoing use and effectiveness of the system.

“Finding out the specific nuances and operations of the local community through consultation is incredibly important for these projects.

“If we can show the community they can save $1 a day on gas by using this system, they are more likely to embrace these ideas and see the project as a real resource for the community.

“The people of Phat Sanday are highly enterprising and can see great value in this system.”

During the team’s visit to Cambodia, they gained appreciation for community consultation and the benefits of working in partnership.

They also learnt a little about life on the lake.

“We stayed in the community for a few days,” Mr Craig says, “sleeping one night on the lake, rocking around – some of us slept in hammocks, some on the floor – with all the local wildlife, including rats.”

The team’s interpreter, a project officer from Live & Learn, had her own brand of fun by convincing one particularly phobic team member they shared their accommodation with a non-existent snake, and the 5am wake-up call by the nearby monks’ chants made the experience even more memorable.

Aside from these cultural experiences, Mr Craig also says the opportunity to partner with EWB has helped to broaden the team’s career aspirations.

“Generally EWB works with experienced engineers in-country. Personally, I’d never considered the possibility of a career break still doing something career-related, and using your skills and knowledge in a humanitarian setting.”

EWB’s in-country representative Rob Hughes has worked on a number of projects in Cambodia over the past two years and says the University team played an essential role in the biodigester project.

“As a relatively young organisation, EWB continues to grow through engagement with universities around Australia,” he says.

“There is a growing number of highly skilled engineers and students who are interested in contributing to EWB humanitarian projects. A big challenge for us now is to establish sustainable support structures so we can create these types of opportunities.”

The team was invited to make a presentation about the project at the recent imagineering – the Humanitarian Engineering Conference 2011, a joint event hosted by EWB and Engineers Australia. The students are now ready to take their skills into employment, internship and exchange in 2012.

www.ewb.org.au/
www.livelearn.org/