Go2Africa(Ghana) Public Latrine Project Session 2017-2018
Content / Background / Design & Mechanism / Construction Process / Reflection
Background
Go2Africa is a branch of Beyond The Pivot(BTP), a non-government orgnisation based in Hong Kong. Since it’s founded in 2009, Go2Africa has been conducting practices in Ghana for 9 years, in which public latrine project is an important part. The original design of latrine is by Wang Weijen Architecture, which lays a solid foundation to projects in following years and helps thousands of local people through improving hygiene infrastructure. This year our team updated the latrine model according to feedback from local partners and users in collabotation with Dehlet, an ecological dry toilet company, with the aim of enhancing sustainability and durability of latrine.
Original design by Wang Weijen Architecture
2016 Team
2017 Team 1
2017 Team 2
The public latrine project is carried out in the only high school in town. The school has 532 students, among which 272 are females and 260 are males. There are two urinals situated near the classrooms, but the absence of proper toilet facilities have resulted in certain difficulties for students. The common practice adopted by the students at this moment is defecating inside the bushes across the highway. There are certain problems concerning the present practice. First and foremost, students might got hit by passing cars when they attempt to across the traffic. Furthermore, open defecation is posing great threats on public health ranging from the spread of disease, to water pollution – examples include diarrhea, typhoid, hepatitis, etc. Last but not least, it’s of great necessity and urgency to increase students’ awareness, from both habitual and hygienic perspectives and it’s obvious to understand the reasons behind. In light of the problems mentioned above, the significance of a latrine in the school could be easily seen. Without proper interference, the land might simply turn into a free arena for defecation. To better settle these problems, our team chose a site near classrooms at the edge of meadow to facilitate students and planned to build a dry toilet with seven rooms to serve students and staff here.
Project site-a high school in Ghana
Design & Mechanism
According to current conditions of previously built latrines and feedback from our local partner, with regard to sustainability and durability, the original latrine model still has room to improve and perfect itself. Therefore, we updated the design of latrine model this year in collaboration with Wang Weijen Architecture and Dehtlet, an ecological dry toilet company, with aim of extending latrine’s service life and enlarging latrine’s scale, so as to better benefit local community. The major updates are the new waste removal system and ventilation system, as well as larger scale and more durable materials. By redesigning underground part of latrine, we made it waste easily removable. With the adoption of vent caps and PVC pipes, air circulation and ventilation would also be improved inside latrine. The scale of latrine is enlarged from 4 rooms to 7 rooms, with buffer space in the front for enhancing privacy. The construction materials are selective and solid, which will increase the service life and bring a stronger sense of security to users.
Architectural rendering of 2018 Latrine model
Front View Unit-inch Scale-1:30
500.00
14.00
429.00
20.00 54.00
Back View
Unit-inch Scale-1:30
86.00
86.00
42.00
46.00
13.00
6.00
52.00
52.00
8.00
Top View(Ground) Unit-inch Scale-1:30
54.00
28.00
20.00
10.75
13.50
6.00
20.00
60.00
60.00
18.00
70.00
10.00
Top View(Structure) Unit-inch Scale-1:30
12.00
8.00 120.00
110.00
138.46
118.14 2.50 4.00
18.00
11.75
9.00
56.00
0
26.25
6.00
38.20
28.00
30.00
56.00
56.25
23.75
5.00
6.00
10.00
9.00
12.00
.0
24.00
12.00
24
32.50
20.00
14.00
12.00
20.00
128.74
137.51
153.71
120.00
137.00
86.00
8.00
28.00
Section Profile Unit-inch Scale-1:30
Vent cap
PVC pipe
Waste outlet
Waste storage I
Waste storage II
Seperation curtain
Urine discharge
Small stones
Plastic wave board with small holes
Air circulation
Waste removal & Ventilation system
Construction Process
After arrival in Sawla, a small town in northern region of Ghana, we started latrine construction in a local high school. The whole construction process involves three stages: preparation, building operation and handover. In the first stage, we made purchase of all construction materials, met with school staff, selected construction site and negotiated with workers about daily salary. Then we started the 23-day long constrcution period(see detailed construction progress journal in the end of this section). After completion of latrine project, we held an orientation session about latrine maintenance and assigned a school staff as person-in-charge. At the end of project, a handing-over ceremony was scheduled, marking the completion of the project and the transfer of the property.
1 x Zinc sheet A 120x500 inch 1 x Zinc sheet B 139x500 inch
9 x Rafter A 110x4x2 inch 9 x Rafter B 137x4x2 inch
4 x Purlin 429x4x2 inch
8 x Column A 138x4x4 inch 8 x Column B 154x4x4 inch 8 x Column C 129x4x4 inch 8 x Column D 119x4x4 inch 32 x Concrete pier 18x8x8 inch
7 5 5 8 2 4
x x x x x x
Back wall 76.5x55x3 inch Middle wall 81x55x3 inch Front wall 81x55x3 inch Segregation wall A 99x90x3 inch Segregation wall B 81x56x3 inch Side wall 81x56x3 inch
7 x Stair A 54x26.25x8 inch 7 x Stair B 54x38.25x8 inch 7 x Stair C 54x50.25x8 inch 14 x Supporting wall 56.25x24x4.5 inch 7 x Plastic wave board A(with holes) 131x40 inch 7 x Plastic wave board B(with holes) 20x40 inch 7 x Concrete board 72x54x4 inch 14 x PVC pipe 120x8(diameter) inch 14 x Vent cap 7 x Plastic curtain 45x42 inch 7 x Outlet 46x25x18 inch 7 x Outlet cover 24x20x2 inch 14 x Underground wall A 46x25x3 inch 14 x Underground wall B 86x25x3 inch
7 x Pit 86x46x30 inch 32 x Column Hole 8x8x20 inch
Construct
tion flow
Purchasing timbers 26/05
Selecting site 28/05
Clearing grass 28/05
Digging pits 30/05
Making bricks 30/05
Making concrete boards 30/05
Applying sologram 31/05
Brickwork 01/06
Brickwork 02/06
Installing plastic wave boards
Building outlets 05/06
Installing concrete boards
Brickwork 09/06
Brickwork 09/06
Woodwork 11/06
Smoothing walls 11/06
Decorating 12/06
Installing PVC pipes 15/06
Project completion
Project details
Construction Journal May 25
- Met with the school authority and site selection - Purchased woods and stored the construction materials
May 26
- Purchased and transferred cements to the site - Visit the brick workshop and met the brick workers
May 27
- Purchased and transferred the sand for making cement - Cleared the venue for making bricks at school
May 28
- First day of construction, met the masons and workers to discuss the construction plan and progress - Marked the coordinates of the site, removed the grass and smoothed the ground - Purchased and transferred the rocks for making cement board - Measured the coordinates of seven container pit, started digging
May 29
-
Continued with the digging of the pit (5.5/7) Purchased the iron rocks Masons started to model concrete board that placed onto the container (2/7) Measured and cut the woods
May 30
-
Finished digging of the all pits All concrete board were modeled, which would be available to use when dried Brushed the woods with insecticide Plastered the interior of the pits for strengthening (2/7)
May 31
- All pits were plastered and supporting walls were built inside them - Measured the coordinates for all 32 wood pillars - Painted other woods
June 1
- All wood pillars were set straight after finishing digging the holes and pouring concrete inside - Used cement to fill the gap between the pit and the supporting wall inside - Cut the wave-shaped board
June 2
- Worked on the supporting wall above the ground for holding the concrete board (7/7) - Pits were connected with concrete and bricks - Started to work on the staircase - Wave-shaped board were drilled
June 3
- Staircase was leveled - Started to work on the concrete structure of the container at the back - Wave-shaped board were pasted into proper sizes
June 4
- Iron rocks were cut into proper length and fixed together with the waveshaped board - Started the construction of foundation for exterior walls
June 5
- Wave-shaped boards were installed into the container with cement and bricks - Finished the construction of foundation for exterior walls
June 6
- Installed concrete board onto the container (5/7) - Worked on the exterior walls - Plastic sheets were cut into proper sizes
June 7
- Installed concrete board onto the container (7/7) - Worked on the exterior walls
June 8
- Plastic sheets were installed into the container as separation for front and back segments
June 9
- Worked on the exterior walls and rooftop
June 10
- Worked on the exterior walls and rooftop
June 11
- Worked on the exterior walls and rooftop
June 12
- Plastered the ground and walls - Worked on the rooftop
June 13
- Plastered the ground and walls - Worked on the rooftop
June 14
- Plastered the ground and walls - Worked on the rooftop
June 15
- Installed the PVC pipes and wind caps - Finishing touches on everything
June 16
- Handing-over ceremony
Group Photo
Reflection
Analysis on allocation of resources In the past 7 years ever since the high school was founded, students never had access to any decent toilet facility on campus. Through communications with staff of the school from time to time during the whole construction period, we knew that the only type of toilet facility that had existed is urinals that are incapable for bowel movements. Students and staff had to go to the bushes around the school for excretion and dropping, which brought a series of problems including exposure to wild animals and source of a number of infectious disease. Traffic accidents also happened before when people tried to go across the road to the bushes for their physiological needs. Examining this situation, we believe that our latrine caters for the need of the school well. In addition, because our regular team were carrying out educational supporting projects at an elementary school in Sawla, we had the chance to observe the situation there. When we visited the elementary school on June 8, we noticed a series of toilet-like houses. After confirming with the locals we noticed that those were all latrines and most of them were already out of use. Therefore, we realized that firstly, the toilet sources were distributed very unevenly, causing that there were so many that have been built at the elementary school but none appeared at Sawla Senior High. Moreover, the toilet they were used to are all one-time latrine, which means that once the pit is filled, this facility will never be reused again. We roughly conclude that our project fairly meets the local needs.
Compare with Government-funded Projects During construction, we noticed that the Ghanian government were carrying out public-funded toilet facility construction in the northern states of the country, including building toilets in a number of schools of remote areas such as Sawla. The site of one of these facilities lies not far from our project. Through research and conversation with staff of the school and local villagers, as well as the coordinator of the government-funded project, we got to make compare from different aspects between government-run projects and NGO projects. Financially, NGO projects are relatively weaker. Take our project as example, it cost a rough number of no more than 25,000 Ghana Cedis while the government-funded toilet project has a budget of 120,000 Ghana Cedis. The latter one has the financial support from the state government while NGOs can only seek help from the public or other NGOs, which is obviously weaker in power. In the aspect of man power, more finance brought better and more skilled workers. The project may turns out better. Moreover, the government-funded program might be more flexible in schedule, while we as NGOs find it rather harder to extent our construction period because the cost may be harder for us to bear. This put heavier pressure on us, because we’ll have to always keep the work go on with high efficiency. We had to put more pressure on the workers, including extension of everyday working time, reduction of lunch break and higher standard in quality. Given that we can only offer a decent salary, the workers complained a lot, which is another problem we have to deal with almost every day. These are the drawbacks of NGO-run projects compared with government-funded projects. However, some good points also appeared through our observation. As mentioned above, we could only offer a decent salary for the workers. Things turned out more awkward when we did a rough market research after receiving rounds and rounds of complaint from the workers. According to our local volunteers, a market price for labor is 40 cedis daily, while the highest we offered is 20. This is due to lack of prior research, so the consequences——complaints are inevitable. Then, what made them stay in our construction team when there are way better options elsewhere? Through free chatting with the workers, we gradually realised that they stayed because of our local cooperator, Mrs.Vivian Owusu from Light For Children Ghana. She is a native in Sawla and her personality and encouraging experience had made her an idol in town. It is her will of helping her home society and personal influence that convinced the workers to stay with our team, even if we can only pay them little salary compared to other projects.
In addition, government-funded projects have flexible schedules, in other words it means that they might not be strict with the finishing date. The school needs the facility, so we need not only to give the school a definite date of completion, but also we need to stick to plan. This is a matter of efficiency and trust. Through discussion, we realized that even there’re disadvantages of NGO-run projects compared to government-funded ones, some good points can be sought in the former one. The workers are less skilled and not as well educated, and they don’t get paid much, but they are easier to follow our instructions and because the team has a smaller size, it means better communication efficiency and higher passion during hard time of the work, which at last leads to better quality of work. Overall, the whole project, from its very beginning draft blueprint, to the final physical existence, can never be completed without all the joint efforts from advisors, local partners, workers and BTP teammates. The significance of the project is far beyond a public latrine for daily use. It’s about how we make positive changes to local community by bridging advanced design and construction concepts and methods, and local community. Though a single project has limited impacts, we’re still proud that we have made the best use of our existing resources and we hope that our work will not only provide convenience to students’ life, but also enlighten them to think about what they need to do to learn more about the outside world, as well as telling them “there are people caring for you all the time over there”.
Special thanks to(in alphabetical order) 王維仁建築設計研究室 Wang Weijen Architecture
Go2Africa(Ghana) Technical Team 2017-2018 MA Mingyue|XU Ben(Leader)|YU Mengtong|ZHENG Xiaoyi|ZHU Shihang