Location
Tufutafoe, Savaii Island, Western Samoa
Community Description
Tufutafoe is a remote rural village of 300 residents. Water consumption from current pour-flush toilets is currently excessive, and groundwater is polluted from unsealed septic pits.
Project Description
This project involves the construction of a dry composting toilet at the community center of the village, and an educational program to teach the families of Tufutafoe and surrounding villages to construct their own toilets.
The technology to be used is a double vault composting toilet with one stool that can alternately be placed over either vault when one is full (this is where the composting happens). This version has a urine diversion option that requires a slightly different stool and the addition of small rubber tubing. Urine diversion can be done where the location’s geography (rocky, sandy, etc.) allows for a toilet side garden.
The latrine will be constructed by the village and Peace Corps volunteers, all providing free labor. The village and/or fellow Peace Corps volunteers will also contribute sand, gravel, transportation costs, food for laborers, and Mineral of Natural Resources pathogen testing fees.
In conjunction with the Samoan Ministry of Health, a demonstration will be prepared to show the benefits of the composting toilet, and to teach the village how best to use it.
The successful completion of this model is expected to lead to follow-up projects at the primary school and at individual family compounds.
PCV Jennifer Koch will oversee the construction, and control the budget, timetable, and quality of the work. Further, she will direct the educational process and extend the beneficial results into the future.
Project Impact
The village of 300 people, and others in surrounding areas, will learn about dry composting technology and adopt the new human waste disposal model.
The approach will result in improvement in the quality and quantity of the available water supply by remediating the groundwater source. It will also result in a safe natural hummus to fertilize tree crops.
Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Jennifer Koch
Comments
This project has the ability to demonstrate the effectiveness of a different technology to the entire island. The model project concept allows the community to participate in the construction, learn the new technology, evaluate its effectiveness, and replicate the construction where needed.
This is more than just the construction of a toilet at a community center. The visibility of the project and local participation can be expected to lead to the dissemination of a proven technology that will resolve existing water supply problems in the community.
Dollar Amount of Project
$500.00
Donations Collected to Date
$500.00
Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 – This project has now been fully funded, through the generosity of The Soneva SLOW LIFE Trust as a part of their Clean Water Projects initiative.
We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Peace Corps Volunteer Jennifer Koch of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund other Peace Corps projects in Samoa.
This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.