Training of engineering students through district-focused internship attachments

Rural areas of Uganda have been experiencing a shortage of adequately trained district technical staff. Many graduate engineers are unwilling to offer their services to the rural areas. Furthermore, those that eventually go to the rural areas are ill prepared and are not readily accepted by the district staff. This has resulted in the inadequate capacity for the technical management of the district’s needs. In order to address this situation, Makerere University with support of Rochfeller Foundation initiated a Pilot Project. Eleven civil engineering students were trained in a pilot district for a period of seven weeks. The training was done on a week rotational basis around the different departments of the district of local government. This paper describes the development of the pilot project and the experience of the students, the districts and staff of Makerere together with the lessons learned and the way forward

Maximising the benefits of urban drainage

Urban drainage has important health, economic, environmental and personal impacts. However current design techniques focus on water quantity issues. A multidisciplinary approach brings more factors into the design process, increasing the benefits of a drainage system, but this changes the design information required and the range of solutions available. The increase in factors to be considered also requires the institutional arrangements to be reviewed, to reflect the wider range of issues involved

Ecological sanitation uptake, knowledge, beliefs and practices in Kabale Municipality, Kabale District

Ecological sanitation is a promising novel innovation being promoted in many developing countries to boost sanitation coverage. This paper aims to share findings from a cross sectional study to assess ecological sanitation uptake, knowledge, beliefs and practices in Kabale Municipality, Uganda. A total of 806 respondents were interviewed, randomly selected from 32 of 77 (42%) villages in Kabale municipality. We held 6 focus group discussions and 10 key informant interviews. Ecosan coverage was found to be 20% (163/806) and 82% of the respondents knowledgeable. Factors reported for the uptake included education, occupation, religion, age, promotion methods, positive beliefs and the geological formation of the municipality

Design of a modified dry toilet ventilation systems to accelerate drying

A study was carried out to develop a modified ventilation system to accelerate drying, which would be useful in shortening the retention period required before faecal matter can be rendered safe for handling. This would result in smaller units and reduced overall costs. The data analysed showed that all the Ecosan systems were operating on natural ventilation, but often with a number of shortcomings such as small vent pipe diameters as well as, improper and weak materials. It was concluded that a minimum vent pipe diameter of 150mm is required for efficient ventilation and better results could be obtained by incorporating a rotary vent turbine. The rate of drying in the vaults could be further increased by the use of one-way glass for the vault covers and insulating the walls, to optimise direct sunlight and minimize heat loss. These conditions are very important, if accelerated drying is to be realised

Training for improved decentralized service delivery - a case study from Uganda

The introduction of decentralization and decentralized service delivery in Uganda placed an increased demand for qualified personnel at the districts and lower levels. Despite this, there were no efforts in the past to enlighten students and trainers at Makerere University about the existing gaps and opportunities available in districts so that the training could be tuned to the needs of the districts. In the year 2000, the Department of Civil Engineering in Makerere University started a pilot project to attach students to the technical departments of the district local governments to undertake internship training for a period of 8 weeks. The students were supervised by staff from districts and the Department of Civil Engineering, Makerere University. The project was financed by the Rockefeller foundation and the World Bank. Since then, 72 students (11 during the pilot and 61 during the full implementation phase) have undergone internship training in 9 districts in Uganda. Eleven (11) Makerere staff and over 90 district staff were involved in the project. A training manual was developed, relevant research to solve technical problems and assist the districts in improved service delivery was identified, and efforts are under way to evaluate the project and quantify the impact

Lessons from co-designing a resource-recovery game for collaborative urban sanitation planning

The aim of this study is to describe the development of an innovative planning tool to promote the knowledge and collaboration needed to overcome challenges in the sanitation sector. A serious game was designed to share knowledge about resource recovery and support attitude-change and collaboration between stakeholders. This study documents the co-design process of game development from conception based on a set of specifications the game should achieve, through iterative testing with relevant stakeholders as players. The resulting prototype of the game showed that it was not possible to include all the original desired specifications in the final game. Stakeholders found that the game was engaging, stimulated creativity and achieved its goal

Assessing the potential to use serious gaming in planning processes for sanitation designed for resource recovery

There is an urgent need for innovations in the sanitation sector to minimize environmental impacts and maximize resource recovery. Uptake of innovations may require changes in established technical practices, organisational norms and/or individual behaviours. Achieving change in any of these areas requires influencing cognitive, normative and relational learning processes. Serious games have been identified a potential tool for planners and environmental managers to influence such learning processes. This study designed the serious game RECLAIM to share knowledge about resource recovery from sanitation and to support attitude-change and collaboration between players. A structured framework was applied to assess if the game: 1) increased understanding of resource recovery (cognitive learning), 2) changed worldviews (normative learning), 3) led to more collaboration (relational learning), and 4) was a positive experience. Proof-of-concept testing of the game in Uganda found that it was positively received. The game provided cognitive learning on environmental and health impacts, resource recovery, and sanitation in general. Players gained an appreciation of the need for collaboration and it was deemed to have the potential to influence worldviews of a larger stakeholder group. Future recommendations include embedding the game in planning processes, including several gaming sessions that would strengthen cognition learning and the potential for changing practices

System assessment to develop water safety plans

Water Safety Plans (WSPs) are risk management tools designed to assure the safety of drinking water. WSPs have the advantage that they help minimise the risks to water contamination through identification and management of vulnerable points within a water supply system, which could allow microbial hazards to enter. This paper discusses one of the crucial elements in establishing WSPs, the system assessment. It outlines findings from fieldwork undertaken on a UK, Department for International Development (DFID) funded project on development of WSPs in Kampala, Uganda