Community-Based Water Treatment System Design for Aileu, Timor Leste

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Affordable Household Water Treatment System in Timor Leste
MARCH 27, 2019
Student’s Name
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Executive Summary
This project is a partnership project with international NGO's. It is laid out for the
improvement of the community system which is in a village called Aileu and is in Timor
Leste. This project is mainly reaching out to the people to catch opportunities to empower the
communities and sustainably meet the basic needs of the human beings. This EWB challenge
tries to help the community by accessing the basic needs on education, clean water, sanitation
and household water treatment. The basic objective which the community agreed to
scrutinize the probability of improving the household water treatment system in community’s
area. The community laid their hands forward to agree with the development of the designs
put forward by the engineers to solve the major problem in their community system.

Table of Contents
Background on EWB Challenge..............................................................................................................3
Background of the Communities...........................................................................................................3
Affordable Household water Treatment System...................................................................................3
Identification of Stakeholders Relevant to the Design Area..................................................................4
Identified problem statement...............................................................................................................5
References.............................................................................................................................................6

Background on EWB Challenge
The term EWB challenge refers to the Engineers without Borders which is a non
governmental organisation. It commenced on 2007 promoting to improve the communities
with better engineering designs (Willetts and Gero, 2016). This program is basically for the
first- Year University students who aim at improving conceptual designs for the deveopment
and contribution to the real-life international development project. The designs which are
implemented in this project are given to the local communities so that they can implement in
their society. Those students who join the program form a group of 4-6 people and work on
the solutions for the designed product based on water supply, waste management, and
transport and on sanitation. It tries to take as many as engineering students, young graduates
and experience engineers to form a team with the mission to solve out the programs, design
the ideas and execute them properly which is faced by the normal people (Luh and Bertram,
2019). EWB is reaching out mainly to the student faculties and to the universities as they
understand and can relate to the issues which are increasing.
The EWB Challenge has reached to all the possible universities in the worlds and especially
in Australia helping as many as communities as possible. So EWB Challenge is trying to help
out in large numbers.
Background of the Communities
Aileu is the main town which is in north-western part Timur Leste. This town focuses on
binding with the NGO's, water facilities and much more. The main topic which is discussed
in this project is about the household water treatment which is causing problem to the
community. The most crucial aspect mainly in Aileu community is the household water
treatment. The water system must be treated properly to improve the treatment in rest of the
country (Kayser et al, 2019). The focus needs to be on the water which is being delivered to
the households and before reaching there, the water must be looked as there must not be
much of germs as that would take a huge toll on the lives of the people.
Affordable Household water Treatment System
In many parts of the country the water is used for drinking mainly comes from unsafe,
impure storage facilities. Drinking water if not treated properly in households may cause
serious diseases and even health issues. To prevent the waterborne diseases some treatments

needs to be executed. The removal of contaminants from the water is quite effective in and
low of costs. One of the basic and low of cost treatment is by using chlorination. Chlorination
just needs to be dropped in the water vessels which reduce the waterborne diseases and
makes the water free of germs. By spreading this simple technique can help at large and can
reduce the diseases.
Source: (Sutherland, 2017) Source: FAOSTAT 2015
Identification of Stakeholders Relevant to the Design Area
The treatment of the household water needs to be affordable and in proper quantities in Aileu
community which lacks in water treatment. So, the stakeholders will be helpful to portray the
usefulness:
STAKEHOLDER IMPACT IDENTIFIED INTEREST /
INFLUENCE
Water Suppliers The water suppliers need to
focus on the water which is
being supplied.
Interest medium, influence
low
Water Supply Authority The water supply authority Interest high, influence low

must be alert about the water
which is safe for drinking as
well as which is
contaminated with germs and
might cause diseases
(Sutherland, 2017).
Household Users The household users may not
understand the difference
between the hard water and
drinking water. So, the
chances of getting affected
will increase. To stay on the
safer side, they might use
filtration techniques. So,
there might be high
probability of diseases. To
stay on the safer side, they
might use filtration
techniques.
Interest high, influence low
Farming Users The farmers while using the
water may not be familiar
with the condition of the
treatment and it will directly
harm the crops or the plants
which in turn will be a great
loss to the country.
Interest medium, influence
low
Identified problem statement
Household water treatment is the main cause of concern for Timor Leste as water is the
crucial part of our lives. So, the techniques and the designs which are laid out by the

engineers are put forth for the control and improvement of household water. Many people die
because of lack of water. The solutions for the treatment of water in household are:
 Chlorination: It is the process of adding chlorine to the water to kill the germs present
inside the drinking water.
 Disinfectant/ Flocculant powder: it is an acidic solution which is of sodium
hypochlorite mixed in water, which helps to treat the water and make it suitable for
drinking (Amado et al, 2017).
 Ceramic Filtration: it is an inexpensive and effective type of filtering water. The
process includes poring of ceramic in water, filtering it and removing the dirt
completely.
 Slow Sand Filtration: The process is quite complicated, and it requires going through
1 or 2-metre-deep are used to treat surface water from 2000 to 4000 litres.
 Solar Disinfection: it is a type of water purification done using solar energy after
which the water turns safe for drinking.
References
Amado, M. P., Ramalhete, I., Amado, A. R., & Freitas, J. C. (2017). Inclusive housing
program: The case of Oé-Cusse region in East Timor. Frontiers of Architectural
Research, 6(1), 74-88.
Sutherland, D. (2017). Observations and lessons learnt from more than a decade of water
safety planning in South-East Asia. WHO South-East Asia journal of public health, 6(2), 27.
Kayser, G., McElroy, S., & Benmarhnia, T. (2019). The Role of Inadequate Water and
Sanitation on Economic and Social Determinants of Child Mortality: A Global Analysis
Across 43 Countries. Available at SSRN 3311853.
Luh, J., & Bartram, J. (2017). Challenges to achieving the sustainable development goals:
water treatment. In Chemistry and Water (pp. 597-621). Elsevier.
Willetts, J. R., Murta, J., & Gero, A. (2016). Water and Sanitation Entrepeneurs in Indonesia,
Vietnam and Timor-Leste: Traits, drivers and challenges.