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The filters will be cased in either concrete or plastic shafts.

Rainwater from the drained area is fed into the inlet (marker 1), which is at the lower end of the shaft. A deflector plate sets up a radial flow.

At place marked 2, sedimentation of particles, especially the sand faction and above, takes place in the hydrodynamic separator. This is due to turbulent secondary flows within a radial laminar flow regime.

The settlable solids are collected at point marked 3 via an opening in the silt trap chamber. This chamber is evacuated periodically, via the by-pass central tube at intervals.

Four filter elements are located within the filter shaft (part marked 4). As waters flow upwards the finer particles are filtered out, whilst the dissolved pollutants are precipitated and absorbed. The filter is easily backwashed, and if completely clogged or exhausted, is easily replaced (often once per year).

At point marked 5, is clean water above the filter elements passing to discharge via an oil trap assembly. In the event of major spill, free floating oils etc are retained here. Normal concentrations of dissolved oils are retained within the filter elements.

We are thrilled to announce that we have today submitted to Billion Dollar Business Alliance (BDBA) our offer to build filters next to water ponds that BDBA are currently building in Kenya.

Our offer is based on fact that cleaning of water is not part of activities BDBA is doing. They are harvesting rainwater for agriculture and, apparently, they assumed that farmers would not use the water for domestic purposes. Our contribution to the BDBA project will enable beneficiaries of the ponds to use the water for drinking as well – for a large number of the beneficiaries, this will be their only water source.

We have also offered to build toilets in toilet-less homes and along roads that are within areas that drain water to the ponds. This will reduce pollution of water that will end up in the ponds. The SANI SOLAR toilets sun dry faeces and urine to form fertiliser that the farmers will need.

We sent our offer through BDBA’s Maimbo M. Malesu of World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). ICRAF, WFP and Government of Kenya are members of the BDBA.

“Kenya Roads Board acknowledges that the task (RaHa has) been assigned is a nobble one and important”

KBR EXECUTIVE DIRECOR

Eng. Jacob Z. Ruwa, OGW

The assignment referred to is installing SANI SOLAR toilets on roads, to be used free of charge, in line with recent directive by the Kenya Ministry of Health aiming to improve public access to better quality toilets.

Businesses operate to turn profit, and customer footfall is the lifeblood of retail and leisure sectors. Yet however alluring the window display, however good the sales pitch, people need first to feel drawn into the area. People respond to, and recognise, areas that show a strong brand image, a sense of civic pride, where it is obvious from the road furniture, local environment, and signage that people are welcomed, that their needs are understood and catered for. 

In other words, sense of destination – the extent to which a destination has met a visitor’s needs and made a strong and positive impression – is vital to secure repeat trade and sustainable economic development.

Public toilets as part of road furniture is therefore, important for local shops and businesses too.

USA based, Building Tomorrow, Inc., joins with RaHa in bringing toilets in Kyassonko Primary School and water in St. Timothy Bunyere Primary school.

Olivia Schneider, Program Associate of Building Tomorrow has just written to RaHa confirming there support.

As of May 2018, Building Tomorrow has opened 62 fully operational schools in Uganda, providing enough learning space for over 20,000 students and counting. Through their Thriving Schools Program, they have enrolled over 24,000 formerly out-of-school children back in school.

Altogether, through both their Building Tomorrow Primary Schools and Thriving Schools Program, Building Tomorrow serves over 101,000 students each and every day.

They continue to push towards completing their Educate51k plan as part of the Clinton Global Initiative, a five year, $12 million plan to provide a safe, local, permanent, quality and supportive learning environment for an additional 50,980 children across Uganda. And everyday they work to achieve their vision of a world where every child has access to an inclusive, quality education.

This Madaraka Day, we were invited to renovate toilets that have been used for only 6 years. 6 years is a very short period of time for toilets to require renovation. Something must have been done wrongly.

To avoid making the same mistake, we ask: what happened, especially to the walls and floors?

A lack of good toilets affects not only the quality of our schools, it also reduces the dignity and quality of our lives. After all, they are one of the basic facilities that we depend on. Good quality provision instils confidence in public facilities as a whole, helps to inspire positive impressions, and contributes to many other important aspects of life.

It is important that children have the confidence that the facilities they need are available when they are in school – children rightly expect accessible, clean, safe and well maintained toilets.

Yesterday, Ben Phillips twitted “No one is coming in a cape, coming from outside, to save us. But together we can save ourselves.” “There is no justice, just us. That might sound sad at first but there is a huge power in “us”.”

When you nominate the water starved for water, toilet-less for toilets,… etc; others will promote rainwater harvesting and rainwater protection; and the your nominee gets water and or toilet. If you are an organization, your nominee gets water and toilets when you Makerainsafe for you.

Ben is Launch Director of the Fight Inequality Alliance. He was Campaigns and Policy Director for Oxfam and ActionAid International. He has lived and worked in four continents and 11 cities including New Delhi and Washington DC, as well as with children in poverty in East London. He has led programmes and campaigns teams in Save the Children, the Children’s Society, the Global Call to Action Against Poverty and the Global Campaign for Educationd.

He began his development work at the grassroots, as a teacher and ANC activist living in Mamelodi township, South Africa, in 1994, just after the end of apartheid.

He is based in Nairobi.

Wakili Samuel Keter (on left on photo) nominates himself for RainSafe to #FightInequality. With the RainSafe, he will #makerainsafe for himself so that the municipal water he currently uses may be used by the underserves. 

Additionally, he nominates Lelaitich settlement scheme in Soin Ward, Sigowet/Soin Constituency Kericho District because they are a water starved village. Due to this nomination, Lelaitich will get a rain water harvesting system as solution to their water starvation.

Representatives of Lelaitich, Johana Mutai, Elisha Yegon, Joshua Kirwa, Benson Cheptiony and David Mutai agree to prepare the foundation and provide all unskilled labor required.

Samuel and the representatives propose that the County Government of Kericho should also #FightIequality by marking the solutions with their name or logo free of charge. Lelaitich will get the solution as soon as County Government of Kericho agrees to mark the solution.

We acknowledge the big contribution from Aiesec UoN towards #FightInequality. They are influencing organizations to #makerainsafe, consume the safe rainwater and even allow others to use their (organizations’) excess safe rainwater. When the organisations (eg hotels, banks, mobile phone service provider etc) do this, they free a lot of municipal water. The free water is used by the underserved communities at a much lower price.

Allowing others to use their excess safe rainwater reduces use of plastic water bottles, which end up blocking drains, among other things. Needless to say that flooding within towns and cities is partly due to the plastic bottles.

Aiesec UoN does #FightIequality in this manner on twitter – they are writing personalised posts and sharing the posts widely. They are also ‘carrying placards’, writing ordinary letters as a group, holding face to face meetings with representatives of the organizations etc

To #makerainsafe is at no cost to the organizations. It is an opportunity for the organizations to #FightInequality in a huge way.

See the self-explanatory letter of approving Sani solar toilets