From Poop to Fuel

Dear Friends and Supporters:

First of all, the Tui’k Ruch’Lew team is wishing you and yours a very happy new year to come. Cheers to health, happiness, and prosperity in 2022! 

Update on the “Poop to Fuel” project 

Good news first: Last year, we raised about 70% of the funds we need to realize the biodigester demonstration project. In addition to our fundraising efforts, we have dedicated the past year to developing the concept for this project. To this end, we have worked together with volunteer experts from various fields, e.g. anthropology, engineering, sustainable development. Over the summer months we developed the workshop programme we will need to actively involve the community in this demonstration project. The active participation of community members is not only important for the success of the project at the school, but also to make alternative sanitation solutions tangible to everyone. 

Workshop series for the “Poop to Fuel” project

1. Organic kitchen scraps are a resource not waste 

This workshop focuses on community participation and raising awareness about natural resources. Community members (parents of the children at the David Lamotte school) will learn that kitchen waste, like human excreta, contains valuable raw materials that can and should be reused. The aim is for pupils to bring kitchen waste from their households to school to feed the biogas plant. This would make Tzanchaj, where the school is located, the first community in Santiago Atitlan to take care of its own “waste” Adding organic waste will be crucial for the carbon-nitrogen balance. We also envision a IoT device that will monitor the pH and the C/N ratio automatically, so that the project manager will be notified when the biodigester is out of balance. 

2. Safe sanitation means a clean environment

The underlying purpose of sanitation interventions is to protect public safety. Together with the participants, we will :

1. Assess the current water and sanitation situation.
2. Assess and prioritize the public health risks associated with poor sanitation.
3. Discuss water and sanitation in the Maya cosmovision.
4. Discuss the value of human excreta as a natural resource.
5. Discuss different sanitation solutions (e.g. pit latrines, septic tanks, drainage systems) and their advantages and disadvantages.
6. Introduce the concept of the biodigester (function, operation, maintenance) and its byproducts (gas for cooking, fertilizer for the fields).
7. Identify possible barriers to successful implementation of the biodigester project.
8. Develop activities to support changes in behavior and practice.

3. The community leads the biodigester project

This workshop focuses on the importance of community involvement. For example, a local woman should run the biodigester in the mid- to long-term. The workshop also encourages the community to become active members in finding solutions for its environmental and health problems. 

Workshop leaders will use human-centered methodologies from Design Thinking and Transactional Analysis. All workshops will be held in the local Maya Tz’utujil language and playful methods and small group activities should help get the community interested in participating. Group discussions will be encouraged. Once we have the community members involved, we will widen the audience and show the system to local authorities like the COCODES, mayors, and indigenous community leaders.

Design planning

This summer, we worked together with an electrical and computer engineering student from Princeton University on a three-dimensional computer-aided design (CAD) for the fixed dome biodigester. Using this model, the amount of gas can be calculated based on different input variables (different proportions of urine/feces ratios, water input, and so on). 

Based on the calculations and the experience of our partners in Honduras and Cuba, we decided on a six cubic meter, fixed dome biodigester for the demonstration project at the David LaMotte school in Tzanchaj. 

Implementation plan

The installation/construction of the fixed dome biodigester will take about 1 week. The timing of the installation is yet to be determined. 

Operation and maintenance will remain with Tui'k Ruch'Lew, but as already noted, we envision a local woman from the community taking over this part at some point. 

Obstacles

The timing for project implementation is not yet fixed. We  continue to face several obstacles:

• David LaMotte School has not received primary school accreditation for 2022. Accreditation was planned for mid-2021. During the accreditation phase, however, shortcomings were discovered, resulting in postponement of full accreditation. We are waiting to see what happens. It is worth noting that the biodigester system can be retrofitted at any time. 
• However, due to COVID restrictions, most likely, schools will be closed throughout 2022, i.e.  in-person classes are still suspended in Guatemala. If no one is pooping in the biodigester, no gas can be produced to demonstrate the circular system. Smooth operation is crucial for a successful demonstration project. 
• Tui’k Ruch’Lew is also faced with serious funding issues. Given these obstacles, hiring someone for the biodigester project (project manager/social worker) would be inappropriate at this point. 

Know that your donations have been set aside. We hope to be able to activate this project as soon as all uncertainties have been eliminated.. 

Wishing you all a wonderful day and a great start to 2022,

Jessica and the Tui'k Ruch'Lew team

Links:

• Watch our promotional video on YouTube.
• Read more about this project on our blog.

Dear Friends of Tui’k Ruch’Lew,

Thank you for supporting our “From Poop to Fuel'' program! Your contribution helps make it possible for TRL to introduce this new technology to the indigenous community of Tzu’tujil Maya -- empowering them to take direct action to protect their beautiful Lake Atitlan.

Let me share the progress on this project with you. In the last months, we have developed the implementation strategy together with volunteers around the world. The brains behind the implementation strategy include:

• an anthropologist from France,
• a social scientist from the United Kingdom,
• a chemical engineer from Venezuela (currently living in the Philippines),
• three students form the University of Virginia with a major in Global Development Studies, and
• myself.

Since December 2020, we are meeting weekly to discuss the sustainable implementation of a fixed-dome biodigester in the context of Tz’utujil Maya culture. Cultural sensitivity and appropriation is key when it comes to introducing new technology for community development that is in line with the environmental and climate Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. 

We know that the provision of a biodigester system alone will not help the community to transform and to increase their resilience. We want the community to be part of the change. We want the community to take ownership of the project. We want the community to be proud of co-creating a system to treat blackwater and organic waste in the community of Tzanchaj. In order to get the community involved, we first need to develop capacity building workshops for the community. 

The technical implementation is a piece of cake, as technical problems are solvable. The social aspects must be considered and nurtured at the same time.

Santiago Atitlan has a brutal history that has left the indigenous community traumatized by the Genocide where civilians - especially those of Maya origin - have been killed as part of the counter-insurgency operations during the 1960-1996. In addition, the continuing systemic oppression that Tz’utujil Maya experience even after the peace agreement between the Guatemalan government and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit, makes community change very challenging. 

Our approach is to engage the local community and conduct workshops to discuss the social and environmental impacts of the lack of sanitation and solid waste management in the village of Tzanchaj in Santiago Atitlan. At Tui'k Ruch' Lew we believe that knowledge is power. 

Thus far we have developed five capacity building workshops for the parents of the David LaMotte school, where the biodigester will be built in November of this year. 

1. The first workshop is about identifying the environmental problems related to wastewater. Using a playful and visual approach, we will assess the current sanitation situation of families and the dangers associated with the discharge of human excreta into the soil and water bodies. In the summary, the facilitator will use culturally appropriate visuals to explain the health risks associated with untreated human excreta.
2. The second workshop provides information on the health risks associated with untreated wastewater and shows an alternative - a fixed dome biodigester. This workshop is accompanied by hands-on activities around biogas. Special attention is paid to the simple construction with local materials and the resulting products:  Biogas for cooking in the school, Solid and liquid fertiliser for the school garden. 
3. In the third workshop, the community members can observe the construction of the biogas plant in the school and ask their remaining questions of the experts. 
4. The fourth workshop deals with the operation of the biogas plant, where the community learns how simply a biodigester works.
5. In the fifth workshop, the permaculture garden is designed together with the children and their parents.

In addition to the workshops around the biodigester, we also strive to bring the little ones of the school closer to environmental topics and to bring some fun into the rather stressful daily pandemic school routine. The boys and girls painted their favourite flowers and animals with watercolours. What a lovely day for young and old. My personal favorite was the chicken, painted by Isai. 

Update on the timeline

The construction of the biodigester will take place in November. This gives us another 3 months to raise money for the project. So far we have raised about 60% of the funds needed for this project. 

We are grateful for your support. If you would like to fund us further, please share our GlobalGiving campaign “From Poop to Fuel”  with your friends and family so that we can realise the model in the community in Tzanchaj that we hope can be replicated to address this issue on a greater scale. Your contribution is direct environmental action to protect Lake Atitlan from further fecal pollution.

Best wishes,

Jessica and the Tui’k Ruch’Lew team