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The Akumal Village School Baño Project
Since 1993 we at CEA have touched many local and visiting children through a number of our programs such as our Artist in Residence Program, a program that invites artists to come down for a month and provides access for local children to a variety of art techniques. Our Environmental Education Program provides the children in area schools basic knowledge about the environment, recycling, hygiene and more. Our most recent program is the Akumal Village School Baño Project. The Sam and Charles Foundation, founded by Lisa and David U'Prichard in memory of their fathers, has provided the funding for the bano project.
Our efforts at CEA to be contamination free at Akumal by 2005 have met with success in the Playa Akumal community. Recent studies show that the water contamination has been reduced with each wetland built. click here to read our recent water quality report. However, the Akumal Village, whose water flows directly toward Playa Akumal on it's way to the ocean, has few bathrooms and no sewage treatment. To introduce advanced waste treatment technology, how they are built and used to the Akumal Village community, we are using the funds from the Sam and Charles Foundation to build sewage treatment system models for the Kindergarten and primary school students. The basis for the concept is how to use the bathroom, to help develop good hygiene through handwashing and to demonstrate to the families that they, too, can have affordable systems that work.
This project has not been without obstacles. We have overcome concerns of some of the parents that their children might fall into the toilets, and we have had to educate them in community meetings that environmentally sound systems are better than the existing choices, defecating in the jungle or digging a hole in the backyard. Why? We shouldn't contaminate the water. We have had many delays from family emergencies to Hurricane Isadore.
The Kindergarten bathrooms are almost complete. They are 'normal' flush toilets and the waste will be treated in a wetland designed by David Whitney. North American Wetland Engineering is providing an aeration system and expertise in sizing the wetland system. A handwashing area is located outside the toilet area and a mural is planned for the wall above showing why handwashing is important. These banos will demonstrate the flush toilet and septic tank system with treatment in a wetland that are used in Playa Akumal. The cost of these toilets and the maintenance required will be demonstrated to the residents who may want to have a flush it down 'normal' bathroom.
The composting toilets that contaminate no water and the constructed gray water wetland for the primary school should be completed by the end of this year. the residents of the community will have the opportunity to see how these systems compare in cost to construct and maintain. The end of this project will mark the beginning of a much larger project, to see that each residence and business has a bathroom and the waste treatment of their choice and that they can afford to build.
We wish to take this opportunity to thank The Sam and Charles Foundation for their generous donation to build the baños and National Fish and Wildlife Fund for helping to fund the videotaping of this process, in addition to the Internet component. With the funding received it is hoped that the process and product can guide many other communities to implement wise waste management practices for the health of their community and the environment.
We will keep you updated on the progress of the Akumal Village School Baño Project.
For more information click here
To find all the links to related stories and information please click here.
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