Liam McCarton, director of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Ireland and Lecturer at the Technical University Dublin, visited us in Kameswaram village with his wife Jackie. Engineers without Borders (EWB) is a global organization that seeks to implement engineering solutions to societal issues. FIN has been partnering with EWB-Ireland for two years, to explore and promote innovative solutions to problems linked to the WaSH sector (water, sanitation, and hygiene). In this regard, EWB has developed a module on FIN that Irish students pursue to design innovative solutions to respond to WASH challenges in Kameswaram.
Here’s what Liam said to us. His three main suggestions are: (i) to run a knowledge, aptitude, and practice or KAP survey before a project; (ii) to document the process; and (iii) to establish a sustainable financial model. These are great ideas. Now, yes we did run a KAP survey years back and its results are mainly presented in my article on sanitation challenges in Kameswaram. We will repeat that. Yes, we have documented the process of making an ecosan but we need to update it including all the innovations we have added to the basic ecosan model. We hope our collaboration with the National Institute of Technology – NITPY will help to bring down costs. But, on the third – we haven’t been successful so far, probably because we do not have any volunteers who have undertaken to do this seriously and we do not have the money to pay a qualified person to develop a financial model. And I am caught up in day-to-day management. Still, thank you very much Liam – all your points are very well taken! Let’s see how we can implement them this year!
Click on the photo below to watch his experience video!!
