First Hydrodosers in Indonesia, Serving Thousands

With a population of over 277 million, the fourth most populous in the world, Indonesia is dealing with a profound shortage of clean water. 

UNICEF reports that 70% of household drinking water is contaminated with fecal matter, while Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources records that 80% of ground water in Jakarta, the country’s capital, is contaminated with E.Coli.

Since 2021, Austin Ho (a then-senior at high school in Jakarta) has been working with AguaClara Reach to lead Hydrodoser installations in Indonesia. The Hydrodoser is AguaClara Reach’s standalone and gravity-powered chemical dosing system. The Hydrodoser can be used for chlorine dosing and water disinfection and useful for communities that have low turbidity water sources. Two years and three Hydrodoser builds later, we are celebrating that thousands of Indonesians in remote communities now have access to safe drinking water. 

Austin Ho (left) and Dr. Monroe Weber-Shirk (right) meet for the first time in person in Ithaca, NY in 2021.

Austin led the installation of three Hydrodosers and worked in partnership with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The most recent build was completed in June of 2023 while partnering with USAID IUWASH Tangguh in the Magelang Regency. This pilot build has since been inaugurated by USAID’s Mission Director Mr. Jeffrey Cohen and Indonesia’s Ministry of National Development Planning. During the inaugration celebration, everyone drank water from the new Hydrodoser. 

USAID Inauguration of Hydrodosers in June 2023.

Community celebration at Hydrodoser Inauguration in June 2023.

The Hydrodoser can treat up 1 Liters per second (15.8 gallons per minute) of flow. Chlorine is added to a 50-Liter chemical stock tank and is dispensed based on the flow rate through the Hydrodoser. During Hydrodoser startup and testing, the free chlorine levels at each house in the delivery zone ranged between 0.1 to 0.3 parts per million, meeting the national standards. Residents were delighted with the results: the water remained odorless and each household will pay less than $1/month for the maintenance of the system. 

In early 2022, Austin also led Hydrodoser projects for two communities in the town of Karawang, a two-hour drive from the capital Jakarta. These projects were in partnership with Habitat for Humanity and were sponsored by Amazon Web Services.

The Hydrodoser installation team in Karawang.

The first Hydrodoser in Karawang in partnership with Habitat for Humanity and funded by Amazon Web Services.

Startup and testing of the first Hydrodoser in Karawang showed that the system effectively brought water containing 960 colonies of Coliform and 250 of E.Coli per Liter down to zero. 

Untreated water quality results tested by a local clinic. E. Coli and Coliforms recorded per 100ml. 

Hydrodoser-treated water quality results tested by a local clinic. E. Coli and Coliforms recorded per 100ml. 

The second Hydrodoser was built nearby the first community in Karawang, which had a similar flow rate. Like the first Hydrodoser in Karawang, the second Hydrodoser reduced the community’s 360 colonies of Coliforms to reported results of zero.

The second Hydrodoser in Karawang. 

The Hydrodosers were able to accurately dose chlorine to the drinking water source, providing a technical solution for the contaminated water problem. However, successful projects also require working with the local community for education and outreach efforts. Community members in Karawang were hesitant to drink chlorinated water, and one of the main issues was that there was no visible different in the water pre- and post-treatment. 

Austin came up with a creative solution to visually demonstrate the presence of E. Coli in the untreated water. He used a Hydrogen Sulfide Test, a bottle containing a strip made of iron and sulfur compounds. E. Coli present in water samples added to the test bottle reduces sulfur and produces black ferric sulfide. During testing and community education activities, the raw (unchlorinated) water turned black, and the Hydrodoser-treated (chlorinated) water remained clear (the strip is yellow). This demonstration, along with a low dosage point of 2 parts per million of chlorine to minimize odor, made the build successful.  

Hydrogen Sulfide Test bottles used for community education activities. Black samples (bottles 1, 3, and 5 from the left) show presence of sulfur-reducing E. Coli, corresponding with untreated water. Yellow samples (bottles 2, 4, and 6 from the left) show no sulfur-reducing E. Coli, corresponding with Hydrodoser-treated water.

With the great success of these three Hydrodoser projects, there are plans to continue working with USAID to expand treatment nationwide. These efforts are sponsored by Regional government institutions (Pemda) and Regional water companies (PDAM). The results of USAID’s work will serve as input for the Minister of Public Works and Housing “to develop and update technical guidelines related to chlorination,” essentially creating policies and regulations for Hydrodoser implementation communities all across Indonesia that are too remote to be served by public waterworks. 

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AguaClara Reach is so excited to have Austin Ho as a partner and advocate for safe water on tap. Thank you to Austin, Habitat for Humanity, USAID, AWS, Pemda, PDAM, and the Ministry of National Development Planning.

New 24 L/s AguaClara Plant in Waslala, Nicaragua

May 23, 2022 marked the start of operation of the newest AguaClara plant in Waslala, Nicaragua. This project represents the culmination of more than 5 years of organization, networking, fundraising, design, sourcing supplies, and a full construction project, to make the dream of safe water on tap for more Nicaraguan communities a reality.

Waslala is located in the North Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region of Nicaragua.

Image of the 24 L/s AguaClara plant in Waslala, Nicaragua. Water flows from the right (entrance tank) through the flocculator channels (middle) to the clarifier bays (left).

The journey started on January 9, 2017 when AguaClara Reach Technical Director, Monroe Weber-Shirk, gave a presentation on AguaClara technologies for a delegation of Nicaraguans including representatives from the towns of La Concordia and San Rafael. This event included a tour of the 16 L/s AguaClara plant in Morocelí, Honduras.

A delegation of Nicaraguans touring the AguaClara plant in Morocelí, Honduras in 2017.

Some time later, WaterAid representatives learned about AguaClara technology on a tour organized by Water For People of the San Rafael del Norte AguaClara plant, and by January 2020, WaterAid planned to construct a 24 L/s AguaClara plant in Waslala. They reached out to Water For People to learn how the plants at San Rafael del Norte and La Concordia went from idea to successful operation. A year later, WaterAid approved financing for the Waslala plant. 

WaterAid engaged Agua Para el Pueblo (APP) to design and build the Waslala plant and to train the plant operators. During the design process, APP requested an improved entrance tank design from AguaClara Reach that would have lower flow velocities (for more precise chemical dosing) and a shallower tank to make the trash rack easier to clean. AguaClara Reach used the AguaClara Infrastructure Design Engine (AIDE) to quickly create an improved entrance tank design and shared it with APP, who integrated it into their existing AutoCAD designs for a 24 L/s plant. 

Entrance tank with raw water entering at the left, passing through a trash rack, and then exiting at the far end through the linear flow orifice meter (LFOM), as indicated by blue arrows.

APP also worked to create a complete project site design including all structural and architectural components. The Waslala project site presented a hydraulic challenge due to the location of Waslala’s water storage tank at the top of a knoll. Since AguaClara technology is powered by gravity, the plant needed to be located at a higher elevation than the water storage tank. Placing the AguaClara plant on top of the water storage tank wasn’t feasible because it would have required extensive reinforcement of that structure. The solution proposed and implemented by APP was to elevate the AguaClara Plant on a concrete platform. APP produced the final design in February 2021.

Side view of the north side of the Waslala AguaClara plant showing the entrance tank, two flocculator channels, and four clarifier bays. The tanks are elevated above the original ground surface.

Construction began on August 10, 2021 under supervision of an APP engineer, technician, and foreman, and was completed less than a year later.

Now, the Waslala AguaClara plant is bringing safe water on tap to the community of over 1,000 families.

Interview with Rosa Godoy, AguaClara plant operator.

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The Waslala project illustrates how community-scale infrastructure often requires a network of organizations with complementary strengths to bring a project from idea to reality.

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Water For People connected organizations and shared the dream of more Nicaraguan towns with AguaClara plants. WaterAid had connections in Waslala and provided the funding that is one of the most challenging ingredients for successful projects. The Mayor’s Office of Waslala also provided important funding to the project. APP designed and built the plant, provided project management, and trained plant operators. AguaClara Cornell provided the hydraulic design for the plant, and AguaClara Reach provided an improved hydraulic design for the entrance tank. 

AguaClara Reach is honored to be part of global efforts towards safe water on tap.

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Blog Post Authors: Emily Wood and Monroe Weber-Shirk

Campo Verde: The First Community Clone of an AguaClara Plant

Campo Verde is a small community of about ~200 households located in the Divina Providencia of Honduras.  Inspired by clean water in the neighboring town of Cuatro Comunidades, the community of Campo Verde took matters into their own hands and became the first community to construct an AguaClara plant entirely on their own!

The idea for the Campo Verde water treatment plant came from a local business named Briseño that builds affordable housing for marginalized communities. They noticed that the nearby community of Cuatro Comunidates had safe, clean drinking water coming from an AguaClara plant constructed in 2008.  Since both communities are served by the same water source, they realized that Campo Verde could also have access to clean water on tap via their own AguaClara drinking water plant.

Briseño went on to finance the plant, and build it with the help of community members from Cuatro Comunidades, one of whom was a mason who had worked on the plant in Cuatro Comunidades.

Outside of the Campo Verde plant.

Although Briseño and the community did the best they could to build an exact clone, it wasn’t possible to create a perfect drop-in replacement for Campo Verde without a revised hydraulic design. As a result, the completed plant did not initially treat water to the same standard as Cuatro Comunidades. The water board then began to consult with Antonio Elvir, an experienced AguaClara plant technician who has been involved in the construction and operation of dozens of AguaClara plants across Honduras. Antonio also provided basic training to the new plant operators to ensure they are equipped to sustainably operate the plant for the future.

“There were various improvements that needed to be made. The chemical dosing system needed new valves, the sedimentation tanks did not have proper entrance manifolds, and the plate settlers were sitting on the bottoms of the sedimentation tanks. We worked on the chemical dosing system first, and then the sedimentation tanks. After a week’s worth of work, the plant began functioning significantly better.”

— Antonio Elvir

Encouraged by the high quality drinking water the plant is now producing, the Campo Verde water board (and broader community!) are now hoping to add even further enhancements to the plant such as enclosed stacked rapid sand filters.

Campo Verde flocculator

The open source nature of AguaClara technology allows communities to make this happen on their own – although it’s clear that experienced technical support is a critical component for communities to fully realize their clean water investment.  Communities like Campo Verde who are eager to develop clean drinking water solutions are what inspire the entire AguaClara Reach community to continue building better hydraulic designs, capacity building materials, and technical support programs.  It’s when all of these components come together, that communities can position themselves to provide clean drinking water for many years to come.

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Blog Post Authors: Anna Doyle and Skyler Erickson

Thank You, Tata Cornell Institute!

AguaClara Reach as it currently stands, was born out of AguaClara LLC. One of our first partners (as AC LLC) was the Tata Cornell Institute (TCI). TCI was aware of the success of AguaClara water treatment plants in Honduras and wanted to find ways to bring this state of the art technology to India.

In March of 2013, TCI and AguaClara jointly visited Jharkhand, India to meet with  potential partners and visit representative communities that needed water treatment. During that visit, the team was connected to Pradan, an NGO working nationally in India on a variety of rural development projects, including community-built water supply systems. Pradan showed interest in AguaClara technologies, and together we decided to pilot our then new EStars Filters (low flow stacked rapid sand filters) to treat water supplied from lowland sanitary well at two villages - Gufu and Ronhe. Ronhe would go on to win an award from the State for being an exemplary water treatment project.

Our work with Pradan showed that while the EStars Filters were successful, Hydrodosers (automated chemical dosing system used for disinfection) were often sufficient to treat water derived from the sanitary wells. The water was already meeting WHO drinking water standards for turbidity year-round, but needed disinfection to remove waterborne pathogens. Following this, we piloted two stand alone Hydrodosers in the villages of Jolhakarma and Durgunia. Around this time, Gram Vikas was partnering with Pradan on a statewide village sanitation program and was able to see our water disinfection technology in action. They were interested in piloting the systems in the state of Odisha. We initiated the pilot in the village of Lahanda, where, seeing its potential, Gram Vikas sought to implement a plan to build their own capacity to scale the systems to as many of their partner villages as possible.

The completed Hydrodoser tower in Lahanda, India. 

That initial pilot led to our most recent work with Gram Vikas and the Hydrodoser installations in Patimul and Majhi Ukhura, which were inaugurated earlier this year (previous blog posts). With the continued support of TCI, we have been able to focus not only on these installations, providing clean water to 360 people, but also on capacity building and training with Gram Vikas.

Commemoration plaque at the Majhi Ukhura Hydrodoser.

AguaClara Reach would like to extend a big thank you to the Tata Cornell Institute for supporting us early on and in our continued growth in India. Without TCI we would not have been able to position ourselves for long-term growth in Orissa or to establish in-country capacity to pilot numerous new and innovative AguaClara technologies for a variety of communities with diverse needs.

We also cannot forget those who made our early work possible: Pradan and the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust for supporting the first pilots in India in the state of Jharkhand. Additionally, we thank Tata Steel for funding the first Orissa pilot. We thank the Ithaca Rotary Club for supporting our continued efforts to build capacity in-country, and Gram Vikas for partnering with us in our long-term vision for increasing access to safe drinking water on tap globally. 

We’d also like to thank several employees who were integral to our pilot work in Jharkhand: Dhaval Mehta, Sarah Long, Richa Gwalani, Guneet Sandu who helped on the ground in Jharkhand, Harrison Gill who worked from the US on the EStars design for the Jharkhand villages, and Chuck Brown and Sarah Weidel who helped at the US office home base during the Jharkhand pilots. We also want to recognize our past and current employees who have continued to scale the successes from Jharkhand to new frontiers - May Sharif, Subhani Katugampala, Emily Spiek, and Fletcher Chapin.

ACR Employee Fletcher Chapin with an inauguration banner at the Patimul Hydrodoser.

We also thank Shiulu Vanaja, a TCI scholar, for her study showing that women used the time saved in collecting drinking water in AguaClara villages was put towards other pro-health and income generating activities. Thank you all!

On the Road with AguaClara Reach: Hydrodoser Inauguration

After the Hydrodoser installations were completed in Patimul and Majhi Ukhura, the Gram Vikas (GV) and AguaClara Reach (ACR) team prepared for system inaugurations on February 14th. 

In Patimul, the entire community gathered to welcome the Hydrodoser team back with a celebration filled with song and dance. The inauguration ceremony was led by Dr. Joe Madiath, Gram Vikas’ Chairman. After the ribbon-cutting, Fletcher Chapin (ACR employee) gave Chairman Madiath a walkthrough of the Hydrodoser system.

Chairman Madiath during the Patimul ribbon-cutting ceremony.

After the system walkthrough, community members enjoyed fresh coconuts and children gave bouquets of freshly-picked flowers to each GV staff member. Chairman Madiath and Fletcher gave speeches in Oriya and English, respectively. They thanked Apriya Maharana and Debashish Mohapatra (GV employees) for their work and the community members for their kind welcome and enthusiasm for the project. Chairman Madiath reflected that the villagers are “born masons, born architects... born everything,” highlighting the expertise that the community members showed in the fabrication and installation of the Hydrodoser system.  

Everyone expressed excitement for the system completion and hope for its continued maintenance and success into the future. After the speeches, women of the community led a song in Sora, the local dialect. Fletcher thanked the community and said his goodbyes,  bittersweet that their time together had come to an end.

Community members singing during the community celebration in Patimul.

Following the inauguration in Patimul, the team returned to the community of Majhi Ukhura for their Hydrodoser inauguration. There, they were welcomed again with a procession filled with songs and dances, which continued from the road all the way to the Hydrodoser at the top of the hill.

Community members during the Majhi Ukhura inauguration.

Chairman Madiath led the ribbon-cutting and Laxminarayan Panda, the GV cluster manager, gave a speech to the community as people sipped on coconut water. Fletcher shook hands with all of the children while saying his goodbyes to everyone he worked with. Before leaving, he made sure to fill his water bottle with safe water, thanks to the chlorination process of the Majhi Ukhura Hydrodoser.

Commemoration plaque at Majhi Ukhura Hydrodoser.

Together, the Patimul and Majhi Ukhura Hydrodosers serve 360 people with chlorinated water. With the proper care and maintenance, these Hydrodosers will continue serving these communities for years to come.

Our work in India is made possible by our incredible partners at Gram Vikas and the Tata Cornell Institute. Thank you so much for your support. 

On the Road With AguaClara Reach: Majhi Ukhura, India

Hydrodoser Installation, February 2020

After completing the Hydrodoser installation in Patimul, the next Hydrodoser installation was slated for the community of Majhi Ukhura. In order for the system to operate without electricity, through the gravity-power of water alone, it is required to be mounted on a stand. Community members constructed this concrete stand prior to the team’s arrival so that they were able to begin construction of the Hydrodoser when they arrived on January 31, 2020.

Having just completed the Patimul Hydrodoser, the Gram Vikas (GV) and AguaClara Reach (ACR) team was able to efficiently construct and install the new disinfection system in Majhi Ukhura. Their first step was to install the chemical delivery plumbing. Following this, the Hydrodoser was connected to the existing drinking water system for the community. The tie-in involved digging trenches and installing pipe to feed raw, untreated water to the Hydrodoser, and feed disinfected water from the Hydrodoser to the existing water storage tank.

Installation team members connecting the Hydrodoser system to the existing water distribution network.

Construction was completed on February 4th. During start-up and testing, minor system modifications were made to ensure correct chlorine dosing. The Majhi Ukhura Hydrodoser is designed to provide a chlorine dose of 0.2 mg/L to 2.0 mg/L in the raw water. This design addresses two driving factors - delivering a maximum chlorine residual of 2.0 mg/L, capped so that chlorination does not adversely affect the taste of the water, and to maintain a minimum chlorine residual of at least 0.2 mg/L at the farthest tap in the system. Chlorine residual tests were conducted at multiple system taps with results showing the Hydrodoser was delivering the accurate dose of chlorine to successfully disinfect the drinking water!

Hydrodoser chlorine residual testing results (at tap closest to Hydrodoser), showing safe dosage of chlorine for disinfection.

The installation in Majhi Ukhura is another success in the GV and ACR partnership. Follow us next time as we wrap up our field work in India on the road with ACR!

One of Fletcher’s favorite aspects of his job is getting to know members of the communities he works with.

A community member gathering fresh coconut water for the Hydrodoser installation team.

Our work in India is made possible by our incredible partners at Gram Vikas and the Tata Cornell Institute. Thank you so much for your support. 

On the Road with AguaClara Reach: Patimul, India

Hydrodoser Installation, January 2020

AguaClara Reach (ACR) India Program Project Manager Fletcher Chapin arrived in Bhubaneswar, India on January 10th to continue our work with Gram Vikas (GV) to deliver safe drinking water in the Indian communities of Patimul and Majhi Ukhura.

ACR and GV partnered in 2017 to design, construct, and install Hydrodosers in several locations throughout the Indian state of Odisha. The Hydrodoser is AguaClara’s gravity-powered chlorine doser which automatically and accurately provides flow-paced disinfection of low-turbidity water. Ground or spring water enters a building which houses the Hydrodoser, where it is disinfected before heading to the storage tank used for distribution.

Fletcher joined GV manager Joseph Kalassery, GV technician Apriya Maharana, and the rest of the team at their offices in Bhubaneswar. They then traveled to the village of Lahanda to replace a broken design tube in a Hydrodoser system that GV installed in 2018. After working with the operator to replace the tube, the team continued to the next Hydrodoser site in the rural community of Patimul. The Lahanda system operator has since reported that the Hydrodoser is working well following the tube replacement.

On January 17th, Fletcher, Joseph, and Apriya met GV engineer Debashish Mohapatra in Patimul. Upon arrival, excitement grew among community members in Patimul as the ACR water project designed to bring safe water to Patimul was becoming a reality. Community members helped the team unload supplies, and haul tools, pipes, and water system fittings uphill to the building where the Hydrodoser would be installed.

As a nonprofit technical support organization, ACR seeks to promote and facilitate the implementation of AguaClara water treatment technologies around the world. We fulfill this mission by transferring technical expertise to local partners, and with the hard work of GV and ACR team members, work in India has progressed exceedingly well. While in Patimul, Fletcher trained Debashish on the Hydrodoser’s design and operation. GV’s team and Patimul’s community members skillfully constructed and installed the Hydrodoser within three days of the team’s arrival in Patimul. The system was calibrated a week later and began disinfecting the town’s drinking water one week after that, with the system fully functional by January 28th.

Following the Hydrodoser startup, the team prepared to operate the raw water pump, which pumps source water from the well and up to a tank, where it combines with gravity-fed spring water, and is then treated by the Hydrodoser prior to flowing out to the community. The pump operated as intended, water flowed through the pipes and was treated by the Hydrodoser! Plumbing was successful, the team was overjoyed, and everyone celebrated! This Hydrodoser is the first of its kind in Gajapati District, and its completion marks an exciting step for the community of Patimul, GV, and ACR in our joint endeavors to secure safe water on tap.

GV and ACR members with the Hydrodoser installed in Patimul. From left to right: Sudanshu (GV Supervisor), Fletcher, Debashish, Apriya, and John (GV Driver).

Throughout the entire experience of installing the Hydrodoser in Patimul, Fletcher was grateful to experience the generosity of the community. Every day, the team was treated to fresh cups of chai and delicious chicken curry to savor during breaks in the day. Schoolchildren, upon discovering that Fletcher was from the US, were eager to practice their English and converse with him. In the evenings, the team would join families around a fire as they shared stories in Oriya, the native language of Odisha. These evenings became a time for cultural exchange, as Fletcher would share pictures from the US as the community members shared stories of their own.

The next Hydrodoser installation is in Majhi Ukhura, where Fletcher arrived on January 25, 2020. We’ll catch up with Fletcher in our next blog post and provide updates on our work in Majhi Ukhura, India, as we travel on the road with ACR!

Our work in India is made possible by our incredible partners at Gram Vikas and the Tata Cornell Institute. Thank you so much for your support. 

AguaClara Hydrodoser Brings Clean Water to 206 people in Odisha

Keonjhar, Odisha, India

July 15, 2018

Today, the community of Lahanda in Keonjhar, Odisha in India commissioned a water system delivering safe drinking water on tap to 206 residents. The community is treating the water using an invention called the Hydrodoser, developed by New York State nonprofit AguaClara Reach. The Hydrodoser is a gravity-based, sensor-and-pump-free technology that delivers an accurate amount of chlorine to disinfect water, making it safe for human consumption. The simple yet sophisticated technology is making it a viable drinking water treatment option for remote communities that cannot afford conventional, electric-powered water treatment.

The Hydrodoser automatically turns on and off with the water supply, and is made from inexpensive materials including PVC pipes and sheets, flexible tubes, and HDPE drums. “The use of off-the-shelf materials is critical,” says AguaClara Reach Executive Director, Maysoon Sharif. “It ensures that the community can inexpensively and easily replace parts on their own in the future.” For a monthly cost of $1 per household, each community member will receive 70 liters of water per day. This is sufficient to provide safe drinking water for all household needs, including cooking, brushing teeth, and bathing.

AguaClara Reach provides safe drinking water technology and training, working with local partners in the field to implement solutions. In India they worked with local NGO Gram Vikas to fabricate the Hydrodoser. In Lahanda, each household also built a bathroom, including a toilet with running water, and tap stand for other household purposes. Many households have also opted to construct a shower room. These additional facilities help ensure that the entire village will be able to tend to all of their hygienic needs.

The inspiration for the Hydrodoser came from over two years of experience implementing AguaClara technologies in the state of Jharkhand. In 2013, AguaClara Reach — then AguaClara LLC, a social enterprise spun out of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and winner of Best for the World Overall in 2015 and 2017 — spearheaded the deployment of its Enclosed Stacked Rapid Sand (EStaRS) Filters in two villages in the state. The EStarS Filters were meant to be simple enough for local operators to run, while wasting 80% less water and requiring 80% less area to build than the conventional rapid sand filter. An early version of the Hydrodoser was installed alongside the EStarS Filters and also as a stand-alone unit in two other villages where filtration of the water was not required.

“While we were very excited about the potential for the EStaRS, we recognized that in several cases, only disinfection of the water was required,” says Sharif. While working in Jharkhand, she recognized the benefit the disinfection component held on its own. “We noticed that with a few simple tweaks, we could make the chemical disinfection portion easier to install and operate, giving rise to the Hydrodoser you see installed in Lahanda.”

The Hydrodoser pilot was supported by the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Department of Odisha, Tata Sponge Iron Limited, and the Tata Cornell Institute. However, work is not yet done for AguaClara Reach and Gram Vikas. Following the success of the Hydrodoser installation in Lahanda, the two organizations are working to secure funding to deploy at least sixty of these units in the communities in Odisha that need them most.

206 people. 54 households. 1 AguaClara Hydrodoser.

By Subhani Katugampala

Following a 7 hour train journey from Bhubaneswar to Bileipada, you get on the always crowded bus heading towards Joda. You manage to grab the last window seat, making it possible to take in all of the sights on the short stretch of road to the village. After passing the Tata Sponge Iron Ltd factory gates and the truck inspection sites, you begin to see the array of yellow-and-blue toilet and bathing room structures typical of a Gram Vikas village. “Lahanda! Lahanda! Lahanda!” The conductor’s yell is your cue to get off; you have arrived at the village — Lahanda. You walk on the dirt path past one of the six hand pumps that have been the villagers’ primary source of water. You finally reach the place you have traveled long and far for — the Lahanda water tank, home to the AguaClara Hydrodoser.

Circa December 2017: An unpainted Lahanda Water Tank against a cotton candy painted sky.

The Hydrodoser is a simple-to-use nonelectric chlorinator. The Lahanda Hydrodoser is the first of its kind in Odisha, as a project collaboration between Gram Vikas and AguaClara Reach. The Hydrodoser was jointly fabricated in the summer of 2017 in Gram Vikas’ head office in Bhubaneswar. By early August 2017, the system was dispatched to its current home in Lahanda, patiently awaiting four more months for installation. Just like fabrication, installation had its fair share of unexpected problems. However, adaptive innovations in the village ensured the system would still perform as designed. With the system finally installed, the time had come to prepare the operators for operation.

Installation Ready: All of the necessary materials and tools to attach the Hydrodoser to the room.

Purposeful Furniture Additions: A table has also been added to the room. The operators can use it as their workspace to fill out the system logbook, measure bleaching powder for solution preparation, and keep safety gear.

Installation Complete: The AguaClara Hydrodoser fully installed in the room atop the Lahanda water tank. A ladder has been added to increase operator accessibility of the system.

Ventilation and More: Not just good for allowing air flow into the Hydrodoser room, the windows offer scenic views of the neighboring landscape.

Training of the operators has been an ongoing task. Since operator selection in July 2017, there have been 6 training sessions with the operators, with an emphasis on daily operation tasks and responsibilities. The operators have been introduced to the design concepts governing the Hydrodoser system, including but not limited to how chlorine flows through the system, how the system automatically turns on and off, and how to adjust the chlorine dose based on water quality parameters. Even though the operators have been able to display both a theoretical and practical understanding of the Hydrodoser, the real test of system competence remains once the system is finally operational.

Focused Operators: The operators pay careful attention to Gram Vikas Field Engineer Soubhagya Behera who is identifying the Hydrodoser drain plumbing.

Open Training Session: An interested village member attended operator training along with one of the four operators to learn how the Hydrodoser works.

Practice Makes Perfect: Practical training was the main means of instruction after Hydrodoser installation, and Ms. Kasturi Nayak was the first of the operators to volunteer for chlorine solution preparation.

All that remains now is completion of the distribution network and individual household connections. This will finally open the door to start system operation. Although it has taken a long time to get to this stage and there is a long road ahead, this pilot Hydrodoser project is in good hands. Once the operators start running the system, they will begin the new age of water supply in Lahanda. No longer will the people of Lahanda have to spend time carrying buckets of contaminated water to their homes to use for drinking, cooking, and bathing. They will soon be able to access safe water on tap in the comfort of their own homes.

My First Month in Odisha

By Subhani Katugampala

It has now been a month since I arrived in Odisha, India to work with Gram Vikas on a new AguaClara project. By the end of August, the village of Lahanda will be home to a pilot Chemical Dose Controller system. Our first step was to visit the district of Keonjhar to see the progress of Lahanda’s water tank.

From the capital city of Bhubaneswar, we went on a 7 hour train ride to the village. While it was quite long, the train offered stunning landscapes from every viewing point. The area was lush green for the most part, with many crops and animals scattered throughout. At one point, we even came across beautiful mountains that painted the skyline.

The mountainous terrain captured on the train ride to and from Lahanda.

When we finally arrived in Keonjhar, we headed straight to the village to see construction progress of the water tank. Once completed, the water tank will also house the AguaClara Chemical Dose Controller (CDC) system. The project manager, civil engineer, and other Gram Vikas staff and village members walked us through the site, pointing out the eventual location of the CDC system and the constructed wells that will serve as the water source. Lahanda’s water tank is expected to be completed by the end of July.

Lahanda’s future water tank that will house the Chemical Dose Controller.

Gram Vikas’s civil engineer, Sobhagya, in Keonjhar walking up the bamboo steps to show the progress on water tank construction.

The next day, we met with Gram Vikas staff to give them a brief overview of the CDC system. This way, they can start familiarizing themselves with the disinfection technology and facilitate conversations with the village about the operator selection process and community education programs.

Once the presentation was complete, everyone seemed to become excited by how easy the CDC system was to operate, which was amazing to hear! Hopefully, they can spur the same level of excitement in the community so when the time comes that the village is ready to install the CDC system, everyone will be working together to get the system up and running.

Showing the schematics and the prototype of the CDC system.

The full team that will be collaborating on the CDC project in Lahanda.

After unpacking from a hectic two day visit, I realized that I had left my water bottle back in the village. Hopefully, the last time that I leave Lahanda, I won’t leave behind a water bottle; hopefully, I will leave a village that is one step closer to having safe water on tap.

Progress and Adventures in Odisha, India

AguaClara Engineer Carol Serna is kicking off fabrication of the chemical dose controller in Odisha with Gram Vikas. In no time, villages will be getting clean drinking water on tap with the help of AguaClara technologies!

Follow her story here: http://indiaac2017.blogspot.in/2017/05/visits-to-villages.html

AguaClara to Pilot Sustainable Water Treatment Technology for Communities in Odisha

Last year, AguaClara completed four small scale water treatment plants in the state of Jharkhand in India. These plants now provide clean drinking water to over 2000 people. The experience in Jharkhand led us to a deeper understanding of the factors that enable our technologies to have a positive, lasting impact on communities. With these lessons in mind, we spent the earlier part of 2016 seeking out our next opportunity in India. Over the course of our search, we got in touch with Gram Vikas, an NGO based in Odisha, one of the poorest states in the country.

Gram Vikas has decades of experience bringing water and sanitation facilities to small villages. Many of the communities they have worked in receive water supplied by shallow sanitary wells, and the safest, most cost-effective way to treat this water is through chlorine disinfection. Gram Vikas expressed the need for a sustainable chlorination alternative since the solutions on the market today typically cannot be maintained by communities for longer than a year. After hearing their experiences, we decided that AguaClara’s Chemical Dose Controller (CDC) was a simple, elegant chlorination solution that had the potential to overcome the barriers to long term implementation that existing solutions faced. The CDC runs without any electrical input, delivers an accurate dose of chemical even as system flow rates fluctuate, is built using locally available materials, and has minimal operation and maintenance requirements. Thus, we anticipate that villages can run these technologies independently for decades on end.

With insight from Gram Vikas, we customized the CDC to suit the needs of communities in Odisha and chose to pilot this improved chlorination technology in the villages of Lahanda and Kaliabeda. Gram Vikas initiated the project by working with the communities to install latrines with adjacent rooms for bathing in each household. This component of the intervention is critical; the experience of constructing the bathrooms prepares the community to manage the larger water supply project, and the introduction of a sanitation program alongside a drinking water supply scheme maximizes the health benefits for the village.

A newly-constructed bathroom in the Lahanda Village.

In November 2016, we trained seven engineers and one architect in Gram Vikas in the CDC system. These individuals will be responsible for training the community operators and Village Water and Sanitation Committees in the operation, maintenance, and administration of the system, empowering them to sustain the technology in the long run. Gram Vikas is now assisting the communities with the construction of the water supply system, which will continue into early 2017. The NGO has taught local volunteers basic plumbing and masonry work so the community members can contribute their labor to build the water supply infrastructure. We expect to be back on the ground in February to assist with fabrication, installation, operator training, and monitoring.

Gram Vikas has extensive community mobilization and construction management experience, carrying out WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) projects in approximately 100 villages in Odisha per year. Thousands of communities lack access to safe drinking water in this region, and this partnership presents a unique opportunity for AguaClara to make a significant difference where it is most needed.

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