Sub-project 2: Decent housing

Summary 

This subproject aims building capacity to plan and manage decent housing with efficient and adaptive sanitation, energy and water supply systems, making use of sustainable materials and construction techniques, and adoption of feasible and affordable treatment and resource recovery technologies, creating an enabling environment through policies, guidelines and well-defined institutional arrangements.

The following subtopics are covered:

·         Clean and safe water: investigating techniques for rainwater harvesting, conservation strategies and water quality improvement, alternative water sources and quality surveys.

·         Resource recovery: mapping different types of wastes that have potential for resource recovery, conducting laboratory and pilot scale experiments on optimal generation of sanitation products using various waste-faecal sludge mixes for optimal biogas generation, briquettes and fertilizers, and conducting techno-economic evaluations (with artificial intelligence) and development of strategies for upscaling.

·         Renewable energy: exploring the potential renewable energy alternatives, testing the technologies via mini grid approach, investigating applications such as solar energy (photovoltaics and solar heating), windmills and biogas production, options to integrate renewable energy systems with water sanitation, and upscaling of renewable technologies.

·         Circularity in the built environment: investigating existing material flows in order to critically reflect on the environmental impact and to detect potential improvements or alternatives for lower impact construction.

On each of these subtopics, a PhD researcher is appointed in joint cooperation between Ardhi University and the Flemish universities.  Also 2 masterstudents are supported by the project.

Pilot sites we are working on are Kimbiji ward, Municipality of Kigamboni