Energy access for all is the seventh Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) put forth by the United Nations in 2015. This initiative has been taken on by many non-governmental organizations (NGOs), national governments and communities alike. Traditional approaches to cooking often rely on three-stone fires (or other open wood fires). The smoke from these open cooking fires is known to cause significant negative health impacts, thus access to cleaner energy sources is especially important for to improve cooking conditions. One alternative cooking fuel is biogas, which has the advantages of smoke reduction, and decreased reliance on and impact of firewood collection. In this article, we develop a method of analyzing the feasibility of biogas projects for rural communities. The method enables both evaluation of an ideal digester design for specific environments and determination of the scale, cost, and yields of a biogas plant. For example, in a cooking application 1-m3 of biogas can be compared to 1.3 kg of firewood or approximately 10 minutes not spent collecting firewood. Such evaluation is critical to help communities and organizations determine whether or not this type of project is ideal for their environments. All too often, development project concepts are funded prematurely, before the realization that the implemented technology does not function properly or is unsustainable for specific applications. The feasibility analysis we describe is a contribution to the literature because it provides a condensed, simplified resource that enables development practitioners and communities to readily evaluate whether or not a biogas energy solution is appropriate and sustainable for their setting prior to investing valuable resources and time into implementation.

This paper focuses specifically on the development of a water balance model that will support agricultural decision making for the irrigation field and water supply tanks. The study based on an irrigation system within Kathiraveli, an isolated war affected village in north-eastern Sri Lanka. The irrigation system is used to deliver water to approximately 100 farmers. Estimates or measurements of water availability at the start of the cultivation period are able to be combined with estimates of likely future inflows based on previous rainfall to determine optimum crop selection and crop area allocation. The model consists of three modules: a crop water requirement calculator, a water tank balance model, and a model which simulates the storage in the permanent wetland attached to the irrigation tank. Due to limited budgets and timeframes to obtain input data, a careful balance between accuracy, complexity and cost needed to be reached to ensure that the model can be accurate for its intended use. To do this the model was ran initially under baseline conditions. A sensitivity analysis was then performed to assess the importance of major variables; the outcomes of this study was used to prioritise the collection of field data.

As we develop practical, innovative and sustainable technology solutions for resource-constrained settings, what can we learn from the Appropriate Technology (AT) movement? Based on a review of academic literature over the past 35 years, this article identifies, and chronologically maps, the defining tenets and metrics of success advocated by scholars. The literature has gradually evolved from general musings into concrete lessons learned, while the definitions of “success” have transitioned from laboratory success into practical application and long-term usefulness. Nonetheless, juxtaposing this scholastic history with actual projects reveals three major gaps in AT philosophy related to a lack of 1) bilateral knowledge exchange, 2) emphasis on venture scalability, and 3) integration of implementation strategy through the project lifecycle. This article argues that rethinking and repositioning AT with a human-centric narrative emphasizing sustainability and scalability is imperative in order to revitalize and accelerate the AT movement and to achieve the large-scale impact it was expected to deliver.

A collection unit and reflective concentrators were used to thermally preheat water to at least 70 °C for thermal pasteurization prior to a solar disinfection stage. The device is offered as a novel combined cycle to be used for either solar thermal pasteurization, during seasonalpeaks in solar irradiation, or as a solar preheat for UV solar disinfection which would occur in a flow-through solar disinfection trough. Inexpensive materials were used in order to simulate in field functionality and applicability to rural regions with low solar input. Solar incidence at Oregon State University, with latitude 45.5°, was recorded during trials conducted during May 1 to June 10 for the purpose of directly scaling the water treatment volumetric flowrate of the device for any future tests in other locations. This scaling by solar irradiation makes this dataset useful for other locations with higher or lower solar input and needing more or less treated water. The simple gravity-fed continuous system presented in this article makes use of a large cold water reservoir, a shell-and-tube heat exchanger, and a solar collector. The system, operating at flowrates of 100-150 mL/min is able to reach outlet temperatures of 74°C. The system is projected to produce 55 L of purified water daily when operating on a sunny day with peak UV radiation above 700 W/m2. System cost was $55 with an added optional $15 for the shell-and-tube heat exchanger.

Arsenic in drinking water is a hazard to human health and is a known carcinogen (Mass 1992). Resource Development International – Cambodia (RDIC) has researched, developed, and manufactured simple ceramic water fi lters (CWF) which have proved to be extremely effective in removing pathogens from water. These fi lters however, do not remove arsenic from water, which exists in the source water at levels above the World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline of 10μg/L. The aims of this literature based study were to investigate conventional and non-conventional arsenic removal processes, and to discuss the options for applying an arsenic removal technology to the CWFs produced by RDIC. It was found that conventional arsenic removal technologies are diffi cult to implement in the context of household water treatment in a developing country. This study suggested that non-conventional arsenic removal technologies shall be more effective and that field studies must be undertaken to verify the success of such methods.

The filtration properties of Indian fabrics were measured using modified respiratory protective device (RPD) tests, to match conditions in Indian quarries. Results were compared to those of dust masks meeting Australian and International standards. Four layers of loose weave fabrics were found to perform best, but would still be insufficient for use at sites with highly hazardous dusts.

SANTULAN is an Indian Non-Government Organisation working to provide advocacy, education and health facilitation access to basic human rights for stone quarry workercommunities in India. Engineers Without Borders (EWB) volunteers were employed to workalongside SANTULAN’s existing programs and to conduct research into the water and sanitationissues faced by the stone quarry communities. This case study was developed based on fivecommunities located near the Wagholi Township. It consisted of the assessment of the existing watersources and sanitation conditions and evaluating their subsequent health risks, in order to determinewhether they are a violation of human rights and whether recommendations for improvement canbe developed. Information was gathered based on observation, interviews/surveys with communitymembers and SANTULAN staff, meetings with the Gram Panchayat (Local Self-Government) andwater quality testing. Overall, it was found that the stone quarry communities do not have adequateaccess to clean, safe and reliable drinking water provisions, nor do they have adequate sanitation.Consequently, this poses significant health, financial, environmental and social consequences for thecommunities. India strongly supports the right to water and sanitation and has a duty to respect,protect and fulfil these commitments. However, in the case of the stone quarry communities, theseobligations are not being met. This research will provide valuable support for SANTULAN in theform of documentational evidence to feed into an advocacy based approach for improving access tosafe water and sanitation for stone quarry communities.