Rural WASH Project: results from baseline survey of 33 districts in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe experienced a decade long economic decline that adversely affected access to water and sanitation services. The spotlight of the effects of this decline has mainly been on urban centers with little being discussed on the situation in rural districts. This paper highlights the findings of a survey conducted in 33 rural districts which aimed to determine the status of the water sanitation and hygiene situation. It highlights the situation in regards to access to services, operation and maintenance as well as the capacity of institutional structures to coordinate and manage water sanitation and hygiene issues. The paper showcases how the results have been used to influence programming of a large rural WASH programme in Zimbabwe

Improving WASH services in Zimbabwe: experiences from a rural WASH project

Rural WASH Project (2012-2016) was implemented in rural areas of Zimbabwe covering 33 of 60 rural districts in five provinces aiming at improving WASH services. This project was built over four thematic areas of WASH infrastructure, demand led sanitation & hygiene promotion, Public Private Partnership for Operation & Maintenance, and WASH sector governance. The project achieved almost of all the planned results by end of October 2016. The project resulted in massive capacity development of government and community based structures for sustainable delivery and management of WASH services. For the first time in the history of Zimbabwe, demand led sanitation mainly without subsidy was successfully implemented resulting in construction of over 107,048 latrines, and achieving 2,555 Open Defecation Free villages. The project is now being scaled up in other districts and provinces under the 2nd Phase of the Project

Rolling out Zimbabwean approach to demand-led sanitation in most vulnerable communities

Rural WASH Project (2012-2016) is being implemented in 33 of 60 rural districts in five provinces of Zimbabwe aiming at improving WASH services. One of the major components under this project is the implementation of demand led sanitation and hygiene promotion which focuses on elimination of open defaecation through promotion of household sanitation technologies confirming to national standards. The approach is a hybrid of traditional CLTS, and PHHE and Zimbabwe technology specific sanitation approach. The results from the implementation for the last 23 months suggest a major breakthrough including construction of 57,542 household latrine and 525 ODF communities. It also demonstrated a strong potential of achieving sanitation SDG before 2030 if replicated nationwide with maintaining the current level of efforts. This paper describes the evolution of sanitation approaches in Zimbabwe and share unique experiences from the implementation of the demand led sanitation

The Power Board of the KM3NeT Digital Optical Module: design, upgrade, and production

The KM3NeT Collaboration is building an underwater neutrino observatory at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea consisting of two neutrino telescopes, both composed of a three-dimensional array of light detectors, known as digital optical modules. Each digital optical module contains a set of 31 three inch photomultiplier tubes distributed over the surface of a 0.44 m diameter pressure-resistant glass sphere. The module includes also calibration instruments and electronics for power, readout and data acquisition. The power board was developed to supply power to all the elements of the digital optical module. The design of the power board began in 2013, and several prototypes were produced and tested. After an exhaustive validation process in various laboratories within the KM3NeT Collaboration, a mass production batch began, resulting in the construction of over 1200 power boards so far. These boards were integrated in the digital optical modules that have already been produced and deployed, 828 until October 2023. In 2017, an upgrade of the power board, to increase reliability and efficiency, was initiated. After the validation of a pre-production series, a production batch of 800 upgraded boards is currently underway. This paper describes the design, architecture, upgrade, validation, and production of the power board, including the reliability studies and tests conducted to ensure the safe operation at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea throughout the observatory's lifespa

Autothermal reforming of palm empty fruit bunch bio-oil: thermodynamic modelling

This work focuses on thermodynamic analysis of the autothermal reforming of palm empty fruit bunch (PEFB) bio-oil for the production of hydrogen and syngas. PEFB bio-oil composition was simulated using bio-oil surrogates generated from a mixture of acetic acid, phenol, levoglucosan, palmitic acid and furfural. A sensitivity analysis revealed that the hydrogen and syngas yields were not sensitive to actual bio-oil composition, but were determined by a good match of molar elemental composition between real bio-oil and surrogate mixture. The maximum hydrogen yield obtained under constant reaction enthalpy and pressure was about 12 wt% at S/C = 1 and increased to about 18 wt% at S/C = 4; both yields occurring at equivalence ratio Φ of 0.31. The possibility of generating syngas with varying H2 and CO content using autothermal reforming was analysed and application of this process to fuel cells and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is discussed. Using a novel simple modelling methodology, reaction mechanisms were proposed which were able to account for equilibrium product distribution. It was evident that different combinations of reactions could be used to obtain the same equilibrium product concentrations. One proposed reaction mechanism, referred to as the ‘partial oxidation based mechanism’ involved the partial oxidation reaction of the bio-oil to produce hydrogen, with the extent of steam reforming and water gas shift reactions varying depending on the amount of oxygen used. Another proposed mechanism, referred to as the ‘complete oxidation based mechanism’ was represented by thermal decomposition of about 30% of bio-oil and hydrogen production obtained by decomposition, steam reforming, water gas shift and carbon gasification reactions. The importance of these mechanisms in assisting in the eventual choice of catalyst to be used in a real ATR of PEFB bio-oil process was discussed

Barriers to inclusion in the WASH sector: insights from Uganda

In the WASH SDG Programme, Gender Equity and Social Inclusion (GESI) is a transversal topic in the different phases of the programme. As such, there was a GESI assessment done in 2018 during the inception phase of the programme to identify who is left behind and which barriers the socially excluded groups are often facing. From this assessment, our assumptions and expectations on barriers to inclusion were challenged by the relationships and differences we found in the field. In order to make sure “no one is left behind” it is vital to research why and how certain groups are excluded. We have to know the root causes of exclusion to reach inclusion and have to be context specific. There could be different types of barriers hindering socially excluded groups (e.g. social/cultural, economic, technical, political and technological) and these need to be well understood in order to address and remove them. WASH (Eau, ASsainissement et Hygiène) programmes need to go beyond inviting marginalised groups to participate in meetings. Attending a meeting does not naturally translate into the voices of the marginalized being heard or will not contribute to removing the barriers that hinder social inclusion. Incorporation of GESI into the WASH programme cycle can help addressing gender and inclusion differences and change these relations over time

Development and Performance Evaluation of a Manually Operated Groundnut Roaster

A manually operated groundnut roaster was developed and evaluated. The present Institute for Agricultural Research, Zaria (IAR) roasting equipment consists of a frying pan and an IAR charcoal fire wood cooking stove. The roaster was designed to help local processors obtain uniformly roasted products, with acceptable roast color. The performance of the roaster was carried out using IAR groundnut species known as SAMNUT 11 as specimen. The roaster was found to have a roasting capacity of 0.92 kg/min which is above the (IAR) roaster that has a roasting capacity of 0.28 kg/min. The roaster was found to have efficiencies of 98.3%, 98.6%, and 98.9% at 25%, 50% 100% loadings, respectively. The parameters that affect the roasting capacity include: heat from charcoal, crop moisture content and crop variety