Potable Water in Conjunction with Shipping Containers as Housing

Anybody seen this? be aware there is four pages of info.

Chris

The LifeStraw was a device I was trying to recall a couple of weeks ago as a personal water filter. It has some serious potential for this application, and is a whole lot cheaper than bottled water. Limitation is 700 liters of water. How to you get people to throw it away and acquire a new one when it has been used up? I have seen other announcements of this product. I find it difficult to believe that $2.00 per unit is the correct price...I want one or ten or 100...

Another good approach, but not quite priced for the economically challenged...UV sources generally have about 1 year life expectancy, befrore the lightwave frequency drifts out of the effective range...Great work, Chris

Just in case anyone missed it on the main thread:

Were this a CR4 usual thread, it is fully understandable that folk search about for perfect technology and new ways.

It is also useful to identify the end picture and retro engineer, so stage 1 is not full tear-down to move to stage 2, and so on.

However this is now a Haiti thread – so has a finite context.

The water problem in Haiti is a catchment infrastructure absence despite a huge rainfall.

The Haiti water (and irrigation) infrastructure was broken and will be broken again, if not by hurricane or earthquake, by same cost of maintaining a foreign technology by a country with nothing and 85% of the population living on what they can daily steal.

Water is not a technology intervention opportunity, in fact it's a technology intervention caused disaster – to wit – a bled dry and now salt degrading aquifer, polluted and silted reservoirs, dead pumps and shattered mains.

Basically it was and is irresponsible to think in terms of technology that is not sustainable on local resources, or dirt simple and cheap to import, until a local production / skill-set, can be established.

But - No matter how you look at desalination it does not fit Haiti.

It is uncompetitive with free rain.

It is a continuing overhead.

It is reliant on imported technology.

Its infrastructure makes the same earthquake and hurricane vulnerable mistake.

Can Haiti do this?

Multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) is a water desalination process that distills sea water by flashing a portion of the water into steam in multiple stages of what are essentially regenerative heat exchangers. Reverse osmosis plants are the most common type, but multi-stage flash distillation plants produce over 85 percent of all desalinated water in the world.

Such plants can operate at 23-27kWh/m³ of distilled water

In addition, MSF distillation plants, especially large ones, are often paired with power plants in a co-generation configuration. Waste heat from the power plant is used to heat the seawater, providing cooling for the power plant at the same time. This reduces the energy needed by one-half to two-thirds, which drastically alters the economics of the plant, since energy is by far the largest operating cost of MSF plants.

Reverse osmosis, MSF distillation's main competitor, requires more pretreatment of the seawater and more maintenance, as well as energy in the form of work (electricity, mechanical power) as opposed to cheaper low-grade waste heat.

Can Haiti do this?: Nanofiltration

I could sell them an alternate powered system tomorrow – but even Wiki sees: "However, there remain issues as to how these developing countries will be able to incorporate this new technology into their economy without creating a dependency on foreign assistance."

And when the next hurricane or earthquake or parts problem, disables any part of the system or mass storage or distribution – Haiti is back at square1.

What Haiti can do is a solar energy powered solution that replaces wells.

When I put up the tarp solution and local capture/use – it was a considered solution on all above, including the now and future Haiti context

Tarps* = canvas = grow Jute or Hemp or abacá or Sisal – make your own canvas and rope – then cloth and thread = export the eco products to westerners running out of oil.

Do read the links carefully – relate the crops to Haiti topography, soil types, erosion problems and climate zones (altitude). Note such as fertilizer demands (imports) and markets, product ranges, by-products and specs like UV resistance and even rot.

*Yes the water solution and Haiti sustainable future solution is in that one word.

^_Kyzine

Garthh,

very true about the state of the water aquifer is fully described in the 1995-99 USACE water report.......Florida has the same problem and the US Knows better?

Besides MSF systems, the big Thermo-copressor units from MECO and Aquachem can do the same with a little less power /M3 around 16 to 21Kwh/M3 and can work from cold...heating helps and reduces the Kwh requirements to around 12 to 18 Kwh/M3.

Yes RO too expensive and needs well trained people from the get go.

The best thing for Haiti would be a series of distillation plants filling a number of large tanks (Modu type tanks) with flexible bladders inside...won't collapse/break in a quake (EPDM types last twenty to thirty years if left alone)...could build slightly below ground. Then use tanker trucks to fill portable Frac-tanks in community areas, where people can easily come and get water (give each family/house hold a an easily moveable 50 liter plastic container with a removable top and a carrying handle ring of steel (so two people can carry or place loop of rope around each handle up and with a bar thru and on there shoulders...backs are stronger)

Then no need for piping infrastructure...sorry to say may also need communal toilets like Chris288 suggested...composting or use Honey suckers to drain and then sanitize and make compost somewhere else with refuse/garbage etc.

Geoff Daly NH

As far as water infrastructure I am leaning toward CWs recommendations.

On other scores I am recommending evacuation to a manageable level.

Nothing we have in the bag, or on the way will work for the numbers of people in harms way.

Planes and ships making relief deliveries need to carry away people.

Between food and water and shelter and the state of the land in Haiti, I see no hope of anything working if an evacuation is not facilitated.

Numbers do not add up.

Okay, the way they add up indicates to me an evacuation off the island is recommended.

Unfortunately the outlook of Haiti is working with what they've got for the most part.

Which is Haiti's sister country?

I didn't write the post

I just copied it over here

I never post as guest

I thought I would bump the discussion in an effort to put it back on the daily digest.

As always feel free to copy or link to the other discussions:

The original thread Shipping Container Housing is over 1500 posts long

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/49244#newcomments

New Thread as a Compilation:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/52324/Alternate-Methods-of-Emergency-Housing-as-it-Relates-to-the-Crisis-in-Haiti

How to Install & Anchor Shipping Container Housing:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/50522#newcomments

Methods For Installing Doors & Windows In Shipping Container Housing:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/50523#newcomments

Drainage, Sanitation & Other Issues Related To Shipping Container Housing:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/50525#newcomments

Potable Water In Conjunction W/ Shipping Container as Housing:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/50537#newcomments

What Shelter Designs Work Using Corrugated Iron

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/50850/What-Shelter-Designs-Work-Using-Corrugated-Iron

Scrap ships as housing

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/51898/Ship-Breaking

The new Blog started by Clemson University:

http://www.seed-haiti.net/?page_id=2

Bioneers Forum

http://connect.bioneers.org/forum/topics/alternate-methods-of-emergency

Please feel free to contact me should you need any help with any of CR4's features

Here is some of the contact information for the various political entities:

The Whitehouse:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

The US Senate:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

The US Congress:

http://www.congress.org/

or

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

The holder of the purse strings:

http://www.usaid.gov/contact.html

Here are some numbers Transcendian came up with to call with polite communications as people die. See if you can get something good to happen.

Try Beau Mills at 919-859-5999

Try Merorores at 212-370-4840 Haiti Mission to the UN.

Try Unicef at 1-800-486-4233

Try Countryman & McDaniel at 310-342-6500

Try Christian Lopez of Latino Housing Development at 716-881-7051

Try 212-963-1234 and see who you get and what they want you to do. It's the number for the UN.

Try 509-229-800 and ask for Kenneth H/Merten. He's one I aint got to bothering yet. See if he knows Raymond Joseph at 202-332-4070. (check number.) For USAID try 202-712-4007, ask for Mike.

Try 202-271-4416. Bette Cook.

The list is not in order. Mr. Lopez is attempting to get shipping container housing to Haiti, and deserves support. Countryman and McDaniels have information and contacts we need. We do need the UN to act right, but making that happen will be tough. USAID has already told us to go to hell, and all US Government agencys seem to defer to them

awesome.. but does it come with a manual instructing one how to poop in a bag?

And what language options for the instruction manuals? Actually, sue, this is a tremendous idea, but I am not sure how you sell the idea to Haitians, who have lived in a world where flush toilets are a sign of wealth...In other places, burying waste is common practice, but i wonder about Haiti...

Thanks guys. But I was thinking of its use for people in dire straits, as in the immediate aftermath of earthquake, hurricane, etc., when sanitary services may be disrupted and wanton disposal of, um, disposables can result in health hazards.

It could be a stop-gap _{(poor choice of words?)} measure until sewer infrastructure is restored.

Instruction manuals! Great! Then they can have reading material, too, while they....

Interesting and quite a balancing act to use directly

I think it would be much easier to have a bag like this, and to hang it on the hooks below the seat of your one-hole chair. (double bag when necessary) When finished, both liquid and solid in the bag can be sealed up and personally transported to a nearby black composting container. the chair can also have a simple curtain to draw around it for privacy.

Chris

carrying on with that idea... make it so the bag is not transported within the container shelter by... well you get the idea. I guess there should be an access door on the outside as well.. so that if you are using the 'facilities' during a storm, that the bag doesn't get ripped off and blown around the neighborhood. With an arrangement like this, you could even store several bags in the box.. or for that matter, if you wanted, you could have a pit below the container for a traditional outhouse style..

but I like the idea of walking it to the compost container... there is a certain awareness and sense of personal responsibility that comes with that action.. and if everyone else is doing it, it won't have any stigma except good stewardship attached to it, when the 'product' is used for growing food.

This is starting to look like the "honey pot" under the bed down on my grandparents' farm from many, many years ago...

yeah... the things you have to do to get a ga round here...

it begs the question...

SurveyMonkey can be used to gather all sorts of information to make better decisions, gain a competitive edge, or simply make life more entertaining

http://www.surveymonkey.com/

Have you used it? what are the costs? can we survey the Haitians? what was your experience with them please?

Chris

I haven't but it came out of discussion today with a web designer and his advisement to another for dissemination and demographic probability rather than speculation. Apparently it's well thought of as such a tool.

So there it is mate

Forget the "printed instructions" on the pooper bags because the vast majority in Haiti can't read remember??? Instead, use pictographs.

Have a great sunny day!

It may be a moot point, but about 53% of Haitians are literate. That's not a vast majority, but a majority nevertheless.

Sue, thanks for the correction in my posted figures. Somewhere else in the original Shipping Containers for Housing/Shelter blog someone posted that the illiteracy rate was somewhere between 80 -to - 90%. I wish someone had verified these numbers. Unfortunately I got caught unawares, so MY BAD. It's good to see that your figure is much better, and relieves my mind some.

Again, thank you!

Soitenly!

.Just as background Im project lead for project proposal for Haiti; I came accross this site link through Garth. One of toughest part of the planning is water, sanitation and flood control..Somehow they are all part and parcel of the solution- not the problem. The water comes down from the sky as clean potable water no? Thats represents million$ of water treatment infrastructure savings. So far what Ive got (feel to correct or point out discrepancies):

640sqft roof area for a 4-5 person family home =59.457946m2

Average rainfall 54in to 78in per year <-------------revised as per statistics compiled for south of Haiti. http://www.oreworld.org/images/r_1993-2008/1993-2008%20in.pdf http://www.www.eoearth.org/article/Water_profile_of_Haiti

=1.3716m\365 days= 3.76mm to 5.43mm a day gutters sized for peak intensity 50mm/hour- cisterns sized for max. capacity

----------------------------------------------------------

223liters to 302liters \day FROM 600sqft ROOF AREA RAIN CAPTURE

500sqft living area =46.45152m2 4.6m2 per person therefore space for 10 maximum 223/10=22.3 to 30.2 liters per day insufficient for daily use but an improvement to

Haiti average water use stats OF 15LITERS PER DAY PER PERSON (http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=757)

Ideally there should be approx. 100 liters per person better than or equal to China's present per capita use.

Rain capture must be extended with communal cisterns or wells.

To size the gutters correctly. answered thanks to Chad's suggestions (http://haitirewired.wired.com/group/engineering) and the NewZealand/Australia gutter box online calculator http://www.roof-gutter-design.com.au/testing/downpipe.html (thnks google) turns out that one 6 six inch downpipe and 16sqin.gutter for one 600sqft sloped roof is very sufficient to handle a 4inch/hour rain intensity.

Question 1: Assumptions above correct?

Question 2: Cistern sizing= water volume on roof from max one hour intensity rainfall expected from region. Overflow to nearby catchment lake..

Question 3: Great now I have 55gallon tanks full of rainwater with some bird poo and a swimming pool size pond of water from last months monsoons. How do I make it drinkable? A three layered approach

personal: lifestraw (con: they wear out how do you get another?)

family: ceramic filter in pitchers?

house: can I build a sand, charcoal filter inside a 55gallon drum? that can be cleaned and refurbished? Captain Moosie had some posts for large scale requirements..how does sand filter sizing and maintenance work for 4-6peson household scale?

community (30buildings):cisterns plumbing sand filters (wait wasn't that water clean???????) so far good? NO! because according this report:

http://www.cwsagh.org/downloads/rainwater_harvesting.pdf its cheaper to drill boreholes than set up cisterns with related plumbing!! Now what? throw away that almost clean water..Flush tank water? to where ? there's no sewer mains to flush. And the boreholes dry up then what? drill another?

Bwire and Kyzine did most of the work on water for Haitian by Haitians at household and village scale. Spread sheets in Excel exist for these calculations - have Garth give you Kyzines gmail address.

Using your 59 m² area, and one family, not a village:

Note storage for the dryer season is nearly equal to half of a 40 ft container

Storage for the flow rates are larger than 50 gallon drums would easily hold. However plastic lined containers can be made for this purpose. Filtration is best in two parts. First by a filter made from shade cloth to catch leaves and similar. Second by the pottery solution - which Haitians can make.

Sterilization can be by chlorine or as Bwire suggests iodine or if none are available by boiling. But rain water that is free of most organic matter is better than most town supplies, if it is caught and stored properly.

You may be interested in this thread for ideas and principals of capture and storage.

Alternate Methods of Emergency Housing as it Relates to the Crisis in Haiti

Great see email for file request;

Pls bear with my dumb questions :

Bird poo on the rooftops=trace toxins -chlorine or iodine deals with this?

Storage for dryer season: volume=half a 40ft ISBU how about supplementing with a well (drilling cost a fraction of cistern and plumbing cost)

My research has indicated that ground water in Haiti has been pretty much contaminated as a result of deforestation and over-extraction. I have some MIT studies that supplement this assessment for those interested. Wells do not appear to be a viable solution in the metropolitan areas...

One of the "products" I offer here in Panama is rainwater systems for capturing, treating and maintaining quality of rain water for potable water applications. The system is only applicable to rural environments- urban environments have way too many air contaminants (mostly from internal combustion engines). We collect the rain water from roofs (never off the ground) in large cisterns. The cisterns are sized to meet the requirements for the dry season- I use 150 gallons per day per person (which is quite high, but appropriate for "upsacale" installations that can afford the systems). A second tank, called the "day tank" serves as the primary source of potable water. The water in the cistern and in the daytank is recirculated, with an ozone generator between them (the ozone-treated water flows in to the cistern- idea being to control biological growth in the main storage tank). The water from the day tank is passed through an activated charcoal filter before final use. Properly engineered, the water produced is significantly safer than water available from other sources (including "properly treated" municipal water).

The most expensive parts of the systems we provide are the pumps and the electricity to operate them. The ozone generator and recirculation pump could actually be run from a solar panel, although this is not generally a cost-effective solution if other sources of electricity are available. The activated carbon is also quite expensive, but tends to last quite a long time, if the filter is properly sized.

The systems I design and install most likely are not directly applicable to Haiti, because of the cost of equipment and the maintenance costs. However, I can recommend sizing your cisterns to meet dry season requirements- you can catch enough water in buckets under the roof leaks to cover the rainy season. Do not think in terms of 55 gallon drums- use bladders. Install the bladders such that they expand as water is collected, and contract as water is extracted- minimal exposure to air. "Bird poop" is an over-blown concern- however, rat and squirrel poop may not be. Ozone is the most effective oxidizer (i.e., anti-bilogical agent) avaliable today, but must be used appropriately- no residual, like chlorine, but also no nasty byproducts (such as one encounters with chlorine).

Flood control is a matter of reforestation. This is not something the NGO's are going to approve, because it reduces the opportunity for major construction projects. Trees reduce run-off, resulting in recharging subterranean aquifers (the water actually slows down enough to soak in to the ground). Forested areas near the major streams also help reduce pollution by controlling how much contaminated topsoil gets washed in to the streams.

Sanitation- have a look at constructed wetlands. Use nature's own processes where you can.

For further, more detailed discussions, contact me by PM.

That was my thought when analysis is brought to its logical conclusion in terms of cost : Boreholes cost less but dry up, catching rain is more expensive when treated but letting nature do its own sand filter trick saves a ton of $$$money: the missing part in the life support system is the trees. Now the calculation is how many trees needed to catch the rain long enough to refill acquifers?

A trick is a catchment artificial lake surrounded by trees. I found out that Haiti had this all along: the lake Pandiassou project does exactly that and more. Im thinking a gabion retaining wall ditch to direct flood waters to a lake.

But for the drinking water: not exactly a turn key system: so your ozone system is still a good option. Maybe a pump connected to the lake to fill a cistern on demand through your charcoal filter and ozoned.

Question 3: Great now I have 55gallon tanks full of rainwater with some bird poo and a swimming pool size pond of water from last months monsoons. How do I make it drinkable? A three layered approach

personal: lifestraw (con: they wear out how do you get another?)

family: ceramic filter in pitchers?

house: can I build a sand, charcoal filter inside a 55gallon drum? that can be cleaned and refurbished? Captain Moosie had some posts for large scale requirements..how does sand filter sizing and maintenance work for 4-6peson household scale?

community (30buildings):cisterns plumbing sand filters (wait wasn't that water clean???????) so far good? NO! because according this report:

http://www.cwsagh.org/downloads/rainwater_harvesting.pdf its cheaper to drill boreholes than set up cisterns with related plumbing!! Now what? throw away that almost clean water..Flush tank water? to where ? there's no sewer mains to flush. And the boreholes dry up then what? drill another?

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/50537?Pg=1#comment535867

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/50537?Pg=1#comment525968

Ok Ok mark this solved:

between what cwarner7_11 said and Captain Moosie & Co. said and what my dad did last summer and what Brother Armand did in Haiti for thirty years with artificial lakes (not to mention Russia's answer to NASA's space pen) I'VE GOT THE ANSWER:

Flood water-->gabion wall ditches-->lake-->pumped-->ozone filter system--->TRevi swimming pool covered cisterns---->pump-->house drinkable water plumbing--->waste gray water---flushing--to closed concrete septic tank--->pump-->biodigester-->|everything sanitary air tight in concrete lined pits.

The problem was scale: correct me if Im wrong :hoping this works for about 20 houses to 30 houses and fill in the capacities for total pump wattage to see if a few 10kw wind generators can run the thing and have juice left over to boil 20 pots of rice each night. For bigger scales ask Captain Moosie to call the GOH because that's way out of my league.

What did my dad do last summer? what Warner was saying except in reverse and maybe a lot cheaper: use a swimming pool to store drinking water (rather than use drinking water to fill a swimming pool). My dad at his cottage would pump water from a stream into his swimming pool where it gets chlorine clean.

You guys have so many good answers I couldn't put together all those shiny parts. There's enough left over for a city.

Constructed wetland (CW) study:

Right of the bat: to consider: what are the effects of open water on spread of Malaria through mosquito vector?

A good study of CW is LEED own referenced Maryland Stormwater Design guide

How it applies to Haiti is another matter. But the above document covers a lot of items esp.the Appendix on bioretention and water quality.

Just thought this thread wouldn't be complete without this document.