: Together Association for Development and Environment

Discussion Forum

Cost of Treatment plant, monthly fees to household, community outreach

By Team Blue Posted on Mon 16 Jan 2012, almost 13 years ago

Dear Sameh,
I've been reviewing all your documents and find your model/work very interesting. I would like to get clarification on a couple points:
- Cost of the treatment system for 10,000 people. Is it $25/person or $80/person? If I'm not mistaken both numbers appear in your business plan.
- Monthly fees. I recognize you are still conducting your research in this regard but I see $1, $1.2, $1.5 and $2. Is it going to be close to 1 or 2? What are the factors that play into this number?
- Community Outreach. If my understanding is correct, your staff is predominantly engineering and finance/administration with 2 people working on community awareness. To convince a group of villages, 4-5 villages and close to 1,500 households, to "buy" in to your treatment plant requires a fair amount of community outreach and education. Is it a political sale where the leadership of the villages has to be convinced and there isn't a need for every household to buy in? Or do you have to liaison with local groups to work with the community?
- Is there government funding available given that your solution is 1/5 (1/20?) the cost of the current solution, if it is even made available to the remote villages?
- Was the spike in your funding in 2009 primarily because of funding for the Jakob village treatment plant?
- What do you think the PWX network can offer Together Egypt?

thanks,
Madan

Cost of Treatment plant, monthly fees to household, community outreach

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Tue 17 Jan 2012, almost 13 years ago

Dear Madan
Thank you very much about this comment .
• Cost of the treatment system for 10,000 people. $25/person this numbers come from the unit it implement in 2009 .
• Monthly fees now 1 $ this collect by partner in the village ( CDAs ). we are organize with the community this year will be $1.2 and every year will up until we arrive to $2 .
• All this staff work with Together but we have a volunteer work with us (committee community ) to help the staff to community mobilizations . we have a good liaison with local groups to work with the community and before we work with any village we preparation work plan to train the committee leader to help the staff to implement all the activity with the people .
• The government didn’t have any fund for sanitation system to support NGOs because all the government strategy to work with the company , until now government didn’t trust of the NGOs .
• The fund of Jakob village treatment is the biggest fund come in our association but I work consultant with many association in Egypt before we establish Together Association .
• I think the PWX network can help me to present my idea in many country in the network , I winning many experience from specialist person in the network , we can implement the new model together in Egypt , support us with any foundation he like to work in Egypt .

Thank you , please send any comment .
Sameh Seif

Maintenance and future project questions

By Manna Energy Limited Posted on Tue 20 Dec 2011, about 13 years ago

Dear Together Association,

Your projects look like they have helped hundreds of people gain access to water sanitation and improve quality of life.

Can you explain how the maintenance of the sewage treatment systems is funded? Do the users pay a monthly fee?

Do you expect the current political situation in Egypt to have an impact on future projects?

Thanks,
Jennifer

Maintenance and future project questions

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Tue 20 Dec 2011, about 13 years ago

# Generating a continuous revenue stream
Towards the end of the planning stage, a monthly operating fee which is to be paid by each participating household is agreed on with the community members. This fee must be sufficient to cover the running costs outlined above. Consequently a system of fee collection must be established. Responsibility and accountability for the fee collection lie with the operating manager who is supported by the accounting/administration staff. The operating manager will provide regular reports to the local overseeing committee about the development of revenues, including the timeliness of payments, the addition of new households, and the sufficiency of revenues to cover costs.
Together association will be responsible for sustainability and the monthly fees that will be collected from each family, and will be responsible for supervision, payment of wages and the payment of monthly maintenance fees. Together Egypt’s experiences show that in a village of approximately 10.000 people, a fee of $1 per household and month is sufficient to cover running costs.
# Growth Opportunities
Working together with CDAs and local governments has proven to be an effective way to achieve a high level of local involvement and establish a network of support. In addition, these channels can be used to generate interest in other communities, therefore enabling an expansion of the business beyond organic growth from adding subscribers within a single community. Growth is therefore achieved by sharing experiences, providing proof of successful implementation, and enabling other communities to establish their own operation by implementing our business plan as described above. Our previous successes furthermore show that the inclusion of local citizens during all stages of the operation leads to further multiplying effects via word-of-mouth and helps to generate a sense of ownership within the community that can lead to support through funding as well as the provision of manpower during the implementation process.

# Establishing an organizational structure
Together Egypt believes that there are two options in order to sustain operation and maintenance of the system, once it has been installed completely:
 By establishing an independent committee or NGO which is rooted in and controlled by the local community. Its responsibilities include operating and maintaining the system as well as generating revenue by collecting the previously agreed-on monthly operating fees.
 By turning over control of the system to the local government (for example in form of a water and waste management holding company), which would be in charge of operation and maintenance as well as fee collection.
Together Egypt highly encourages employing the first option, as we are convinced that this would create a stronger, more direct community involvement and greater sense of ownership among the local population. As has been previously outlined, this is key element in Together Egypt’s strategy and essential to the success of our business model.

Maintenance and future project questions

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Sun 25 Dec 2011, almost 13 years ago

Together association will be responsible for sustainability and the monthly fees that will be collected from each family, and will be responsible for supervision, payment of wages and the payment of monthly maintenance fees. Together Egypt’s experiences show that in a village of approximately 10.000 people, a fee of $1 per household and month is sufficient to cover running costs.
# Growth Opportunities
Working together with CDAs and local governments has proven to be an effective way to achieve a high level of local involvement and establish a network of support. In addition, these channels can be used to generate interest in other communities, therefore enabling an expansion of the business beyond organic growth from adding subscribers within a single community. Growth is therefore achieved by sharing experiences, providing proof of successful implementation, and enabling other communities to establish their own operation by implementing our business plan as described above. Our previous successes furthermore show that the inclusion of local citizens during all stages of the operation leads to further multiplying effects via word-of-mouth and helps to generate a sense of ownership within the community that can lead to support through funding as well as the provision of manpower during the implementation process.

Design question

By Blue Planet Network Posted on Tue 20 Dec 2011, about 13 years ago

Welcome to PWX!

We look forward to your participation in the exchange.

I am most interested in your treatment system and what modifications have you made.

Can you share more info what what system you have followed and what have you experimented with?

What were your sources of knowledge?

What is your monitoring process and water quality check?

Thanks,
Rajesh

Design question

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Tue 20 Dec 2011, about 13 years ago

On-Site Wastewater Treatment Plant for Jakob Village
In El-Fashn – Bani Suef Governorate
Starting up results

1. The Treatment Plant
The treatment unit contains declination chamber with galvanized steel screen, three parallel settling tanks that receives wastewater from the screen, settles the settable solids. Water stay 2-8 hours in the settling tanks then goes to air injection chamber to increase Oxygen for the bacteria. Water leaves to Gravel Bed Hydroponics Filters that treats the organic matters by aerobic bacteria. Clear water then goes to shallow maturation pond for solar treatment then goes to the drain. The sludge produced in the settling tanks spreads and dried in drying beds, the drainage water from the drying beds collects in a sump that contains portable submersible pump to deliver water to the air injection chamber.
To through treated wastewater to any drain, water quality must be according to the Egyptian law
Egyptian law parameters that allow to through treated water to the drain are shown in the following table.

Temperature ° C Less than 35
PH 6-9
BOD mg/l 60
COD mg/l 80
DO mg/l Not less than 4
TDS mg/l 2000
TSS mg/l 50

Bani Suef Water and Wastewater Company is responsible for operating and maintenance these systems, so we asked them to follow up the treatment results from Jakob wastewater treatment plant after starting up the plant the started taking samples from 24, February 2010 and the following table show the history of the results of Jakob wastewater treatment plant
Treatment plant started up on first of January 2010

Date Raw water (influent) Effluent
Temp ° C PH BOD mg/l COD mg/l DO mg/l TDS mg/l TSS mg/l Temp ° C PH BOD mg/l COD mg/l DO mg/l TDS mg/l TSS mg/l
24/2/2010 23.1 7.1 300 538 536 324 22.8 8.5 41 140 4.2 612 84
31/3/2010 23.2 7.5 NA 568 660 224 23.8 8.0 NA 103 4.0 776 56
20/4/2010 29.4 7.19 538 985 954 344 32.5 8.05 52 77 4.5 732 26
25/5/2010 26.2 7.2 540 980 960 350 27.5 8.3 45 70 4.3 750 25
20/6/2010 27.5 7.5 520 960 980 320 28.1 8.2 41 66 4.2 820 22
22/7/2010 29.5 7.3 570 955 1100 360 28.5 8.2 50 68 4.1 815 35
20/8/2010 29.3 7.2 502 940 985 340 28.3 8.1 38 62 4.3 810 32
22/9/2010 28.5 7.4 530 970 1200 332 28.5 8.3 50 55 4.2 750 60
20/10/2010 29.1 7.2 490 890 986 328 27.9 8.2 45 51 4.5 735 42
Result analysis
The treatment plant results is improving from month to month according to growing the reed plant in the gravel bed filters and the following table shows the organics percentage removal
Date BOD removal % COD removal % TSS removal %
24/2/2010 86.3 74.0 74.1
31/3/2010 NA 81.9 75.0
20/4/2010 90.3 92.2 92.4
25/5/2010 91.7 92.9 92.9
20/6/2010 92.1 93.1 93.1
22/7/2010 91.2 92.9 90.3
20/8/2010 92.4 93.4 90.6
22/9/2010 90.6 94.3 81.9
20/10/2010 90.8 94.3 87.2

ADVANTAGES OF THE SYSTEM
1. Minimal land requirement
2. Harmonious with nature in appearance and dynamics
3. Proven technology
4. Cost of operation and maintenance lower than traditional technology
5. Good pathogen removal from die-off and natural biological processes
6. Effective with a wide range of water plants
7. High levels of treatment possible by increasing planted area
8. Uses gravity feed to reduce use of energy

Design question

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Tue 20 Dec 2011, about 13 years ago

Please see attach the Report Site Wastewater Treatment Plant

Design question

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Wed 21 Dec 2011, about 13 years ago

Please see attach the Report Site Wastewater Treatment Plant

On-Site Wastewater Treatment Plant for Jakob Village
In El-Fashn – Bani Suef Governorate
Starting up results , he treatment unit contains declination chamber with galvanized steel screen, three parallel settling tanks that receives wastewater from the screen, settles the settable solids. Water stay 2-8 hours in the settling tanks then goes to air injection chamber to increase Oxygen for the bacteria. Water leaves to Gravel Bed Hydroponics Filters that treats the organic matters by aerobic bacteria. Clear water then goes to shallow maturation pond for solar treatment then goes to the drain. The sludge produced in the settling tanks spreads and dried in drying beds, the drainage water from the drying beds collects in a sump that contains portable submersible pump to deliver water to the air injection chamber.
To through treated wastewater to any drain, water quality must be according to the Egyptian law
Egyptian law parameters that allow to through treated water to the drain are shown in the following table.

Design question

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Fri 23 Dec 2011, almost 13 years ago

Dear Rejesh

please if you have any comment send me eny time , Thanks

Ownership and maintenance question

By Blue Planet Network Posted on Tue 20 Dec 2011, about 13 years ago

I look forward to getting your projects on PWX (after membership) and learning more specifically about the details.

Meanwhile, can you expand on your model?

Your treatment plants appear to be built by funding external to the community.

What was the community contribution?
What was their involvement during the construction?
What is the ownership and role after completion?

Thanks,
Rajesh

Ownership and maintenance question

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Tue 20 Dec 2011, about 13 years ago

Targeted customer group & stakeholders
Potential direct customers of Together Egypt are individual households in villages and small towns in rural regions of the country. Egypt’s population amounts to roughly 83 million people, 57 percent of which (47 million) live in rural areas. 10.8 million of the rural population lives in poverty and while 98 percent have access to an improved source of water, only 52 percent have access to improved sanitation facilities According to the United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development, the majority of the rural population lives in Upper Egypt (where Minya Governorate is located), where there is an increased poverty rate and poorer access to safe water and sanitation compared to the national average.
Furthermore, in a majority of villages sewage is presently disposed of by directing the water directly into simple holes in the ground. As a consequence, sewage waste can pollute the groundwater, which is used for drinking, other household needs, and agricultural purposes, resulting in a lack of hygienic living conditions. Despite these deficiencies, government investment plans in the next decade will likely focus on larger communities in more urbanized areas (as discussed in the previous sections).
As a result of these issues and based on our experiences with first implementations of our system, we are convinced that the targeted households should be very receptive to the idea of employing our solution, which offers them access to a very affordable sewage system that would greatly increase their quality of life. Important factors to consider when analyzing the potential target group in an individual rural community are the size and layout of the village, the households’ current investments in sewage and sanitation systems (if existing, often stand-alone septic tanks), and the citizens’ needs and preferences with regard to water disposal.
Further major stakeholders impacted by our solution are rural communities as a collective, through local governments as well as community development associations (CDAs). These stakeholders have the opportunity to benefit from an overall improvement in living conditions for their citizens as well as from employment and community involvement generated by operating and maintaining our business model.

Inputs / Activities / Outputs / Outcome
Inputs
 Smart sanitation system for villages in small governorate
 Staff team the technicians and administrators
 Land licenses needed from government institutions
 Funding
Activities
 Awareness campaign
 In Kind and/or Cash contribution campaign
 Full survey for the village's street and open spaces
 Construction of the collection system and pump station
 Training, i.e. operating and maintaining the sanitation system
Outputs
 Superior and affordable water sanitation system
 Improved public health
 Village employment
 Cheaper source of organic fertilizers
 Establishment of a local NGO that will be responsible for the community to collect fees, operate and maintain the system
Outcome
 Improved health
 Increased productivity
 Cleaner environment
 Cheaper water treatment fees (vis-à-vis current setup or government proposed system) for the community
 Self-sufficiency
 Empowerment
 Convenience

Ownership and maintenance question

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Wed 21 Dec 2011, about 13 years ago

Targeted customer group & stakeholders ,,,,
Potential direct customers of Together Egypt are individual households in villages and small towns in rural regions of the country. Egypt’s population amounts to roughly 83 million people, 57 percent of which (47 million) live in rural areas. 10.8 million of the rural population lives in poverty and while 98 percent have access to an improved source of water, only 52 percent have access to improved sanitation facilities According to the United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development, the majority of the rural population lives in Upper Egypt (where Minya Governorate is located), where there is an increased poverty rate and poorer access to safe water and sanitation compared to the national average.
Furthermore, in a majority of villages sewage is presently disposed of by directing the water directly into simple holes in the ground. As a consequence, sewage waste can pollute the groundwater, which is used for drinking, other household needs, and agricultural purposes, resulting in a lack of hygienic living conditions. Despite these deficiencies, government investment plans in the next decade will likely focus on larger communities in more urbanized areas (as discussed in the previous sections).
As a result of these issues and based on our experiences with first implementations of our system, we are convinced that the targeted households should be very receptive to the idea of employing our solution, which offers them access to a very affordable sewage system that would greatly increase their quality of life. Important factors to consider when analyzing the potential target group in an individual rural community are the size and layout of the village, the households’ current investments in sewage and sanitation systems (if existing, often stand-alone septic tanks), and the citizens’ needs and preferences with regard to water disposal.
Further major stakeholders impacted by our solution are rural communities as a collective, through local governments as well as community development associations (CDAs). These stakeholders have the opportunity to benefit from an overall improvement in living conditions for their citizens as well as from employment and community involvement generated by operating and maintaining our business model.

Re: Ownership and maintenance question

By Blue Planet Network Posted on Mon 26 Dec 2011, almost 13 years ago

How are CDAs formed in Egypt? Are they created by local gov't? Or is it common for communities to come together?

Do CDAs reach out to you or do you seek the ones in your areas?

Thanks,
Rajesh

Ownership and maintenance question

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Sun 25 Dec 2011, almost 13 years ago

Organization, Team, and Model

By Blue Planet Network Posted on Mon 26 Dec 2011, almost 13 years ago

Thank you for the above information - you have painted a good picture of need.

Can you please tell us a little about your organization (i could not find the information on your website):

- how large is the core team?
- what is the extended team? do you have a set of consultants you work with?
- what is your organization structure? are you all in one location?
- how do you (or plan to) work with others (similar vision to yours) to work in other areas of Egypt?

Regards,
Rajesh

Organization, Team, and Model

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Mon 09 Jan 2012, almost 13 years ago

Thank you for all this comment.
Please see attach of Organizational_structure_for_together.
• Now the staff 21 full-time and 7 par- time and 200 volunteers.
• We have 5 person consultants work with us , in environment & houses & sanitation & loans and awareness .
• The team in many location in many Governor ( El Minya & El Fayom & Qana & Bany Sweif ) .
• We plan to work all the upper Egypt (villages) we will put the work plan with GIZ Egypt .
Thank you very much .

Organization, Team, and Model

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Wed 11 Jan 2012, almost 13 years ago

Dear Rajesh ,

i hope you fine ,
please see a new attach of Together Egypt Business Plan .

Thanks

Re: Organization, Team, and Model

By Blue Planet Network Posted on Wed 11 Jan 2012, almost 13 years ago

Thank you, the attachment helped me get a better picture of your organization.

Regards,
Rajesh

Re: Organization, Team, and Model

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Wed 11 Jan 2012, almost 13 years ago

Dear Rajesh

wellcom any time . please if you have any comment send me .

I hope to meet with you , see you soon , Thanks

Regarding the odor or bad smell around the sewerage systems

By Humana People to People India Posted on Thu 19 Jan 2012, almost 13 years ago

Dear Sameh,

I would like to ask you if there is any bad smell around the sewerage tanks.
Is air injection is sufficient to remove the foul smell from the sewerage tanks??

are you adding any other chemical or agent to reduce the foul smell?

How you design the septic tanks looking sizes, based on size of villages or people staying in the village??

what is cost for setting up waste water treatment system for one village?
How much water you can get for irrigation purpose?

Its really good to know more about your project.
thanks
Kusum

Regarding the odor or bad smell around the sewerage systems

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Thu 19 Jan 2012, almost 13 years ago

Dear Kusum
Thank you very much for all this comment .
No any bad smell around our the sewerage tanks.
We are used The Air machine to pump a lot of air in the sewerage tanks to have many Bacteria ,
No any chemical in all the system and all our model .
We build all the design and the septic tanks sizes about the people staying in the village
what is cost for setting up waste water treatment system for one village?
The cost in all the document setting up waste water treatment system for two village to caver about 10000 person about ( 25 $ for person )

The water we can get for irrigation about 80 M3 per day .

Regarding the odor or bad smell around the sewerage systems

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Thu 19 Jan 2012, almost 13 years ago

Please see the new presentation about the Sanitation System.

Thanks , sameh

Regarding the odor or bad smell around the sewerage systems

By Humana People to People India Posted on Fri 20 Jan 2012, almost 13 years ago

Dear Sameh,

thanks for giving information on the points.
I have gone through all your reports and presentation, it is good to see a new model for treating waste water.

can you say more about your funders.
You said you receive donations? do you apply a project proposal to the funding agencies?

BR
Kusum

Regarding the odor or bad smell around the sewerage systems

By Together Association for Development and Environment Posted on Sat 21 Jan 2012, almost 13 years ago

Dear Kusum

Thank you for all point , i hope to meet with you to explain ever think about this Model of the sanitation system . about the fund , we writ the proposal to company here in Egypt ( Hermes foundation ) it help me to caver all the cost of the project implment in the villages . Thanks , Sameh seif