AKYAS. Sustainable sanitation solutions for slum residents

In sub-Saharan Africa, about 72% of the urban population live in slums. 60% of Nairobi’s population, about 2.5 million people live in slums. They often have no toilet facilities or one latrine is shared by up to 50 shacks. Children are at high risk of water-borne and respiratory illnesses. Girls and women suffer from pathogen-related illnesses, gender-specific health problems, violence, and indignity. 

  Akyas is a zero water, zero energy, affordable and sustainable sanitation system that transform the human waste into safe organic matter that can be used as soil enrichment material.

USAID has identified poor sanitation and rapid urbanization as critical 21st century challenges. 

Nairobi slum communities

• Appropriately 2.5 million people living in 200 slum settlements in Nairobi, representing 60% of Nairobi’s population.

• Slum communities have limited or no access to the public sewerage and waste disposal systems. Hand-constructed earthen channels act as open sewers. Sewage often comes into contact with drinking water pipes.

• In the Kibera slums of 250,000 people, one pit latrine is shared by up to 50 shacks. Once full, boys are paid to empty the latrine into the river.

• Residents often resort to ‘flying toilets’ (human waste disposal using plastic bags) contributing to outbreaks of cholera and diarrhoea.

Global 

• Over 1 billion people, about 25% of the world’s urban population, already live in slums without adequate sanitation. The will increase as more people move to urban centres seeking economic opportunities.

• It is estimated that by 2050 over two thirds of the world’s population will live in cities, up from 54% today. 

• 90% of this increase will be in Asia and Africa where the sanitation infrastructure cannot meet the demand.

• The typical toilet uses over 6,800 gallons of water per person per year

AKYAS has two main beneficiaries

1)     underserved people in urban and peri-urban settings, particularly children, young people, women, and people with disabilities.

2)     Medium-high income people and households choosing to reduce their environmental impact.

For the MIT Solve challenge, we are focusing on the first group, more specifically the slum residents of Nairobi. In Nairobi, 60% of the population are living in slums occupying just 6% of the land.

AKYAS will provide safe and affordable sanitation services and facilities in public and shared areas in the slums, such as schools and bazaars, with a main focus on women and children. Phase One of the initiative is to provide children with clean and safe toilets in schools located in Nairobi slums. Data from India and sub-sahara Africa have shown that there is a clear link between health and education outcomes for children, especially for girls and the provision of private sanitation facilities.

We aim to co-design and pilot the new toilet facilities and supply chain with the local authorities, NGOs, and slum communities in Nairobi. The partnerships with local authorities will help us to reach out to the local slum communities.

AKYAS approach is based on valuing both the solid fecal matter and urine as a potential organic resources not as a waste, all what is needed is a some processing to convert them into a safe and value added products.  

AKYAS provide a new approach for sanitation services, a decentralized system, self-contained toilet that consumes 0 water, 0 energy and does not require infrastructure, providing onsite treatment of the human waste. AKYAS technology is based on a Separate, Store, Treat and Transform concept:

Separate- Hardware interface:

We separate the human feces from urine at the point of discharge, in order to prevent the contamination of the urine with pathogens that exist in the feces. Treating faces separately from urine allows AKYAS to fully utilise the unique properties of each waste substance.

Store- Technology and Hardware:

The urine and feces will be stored in a different container.

Treat- Technology:

The core technology of AKYAS is a powder mix that neutralizes gram-negative bacteria in human feces in less than 10 days and reduces foul odors. This is a cheap, effective, and environmentally-friendly method of disinfection.

Transform- Technology

The disinfection and composting process utilizes the properties of human feces to convert fecal waste to safe soil enrichment material and organic fertilizer, Biomass and compost or Biochar. AKYAS main advantage falls in the flexibility of the end product, based on the served population and the highest product value vs transformation cost.

All users are participating in the technology of transforming everyday human waste into value-adding fertilizers while saving water, treating waste, reducing treatment costs and eliminating water-borne diseases. Part of the AKYAS solution involves development of a market-based platform for users to sell the subproducts for additional income.  

AKYAS is flexible, scalable and adaptable product, its designed as a portable toilet, Also it fit as a public toilet even for the use in Buildings, The bag it self can be designed for a single time use or multiple usage.

AKYAS can be deployed at different scale, AKYAS can be deployed for a community of 10, 100, 1000 or 10,000 or more, the difference between the scale of the community is the supply chain management complexity.

Current sanitation systems are generally centralized systems that use a large volume of water, require extensive infrastructure, and a large amount of energy to operate. 

AKYAS is a revolutionary concept, where we are decentralizing the toilet to provide sanitation using no water, energy or pre-existing infrastructure. AKYAS’ core technology is based on onsite treatment of human waste utilising a powder mix that neutralizes the pathogens in the human waste in less than 3 days. The powder is made of natural compounds and minerals, and the sub-product is a safe premium soil conditioner from treated human waste can be used to grow food, substituting the use of synthetic fertilisers to improve crop yields. 

AKYAS further creates value from waste through transforming it into products that the community needs (Biomass, Biochar, fertilizer and compost). Transforming waste to value is an additional way that AKYAS is innovative as compared to traditional sanitation and waste management methods.

A chemical formula that nuetrlize all the pathagons in the human waste in 3 days. The powder mix is made of natural minerals and salts that exist in nature. The powder mix neutralizes all the pathogens in the human feces and converts it into safe organic fertilizer rapidly. The powder mix will not cause soil toxicity as it will be absorbed immediately by the plants and consists of naturally-occurring substances that are safe and essential for the plant growth.

In addition, AKYAS single-use toilet bags are made from a biodegradable material that will degrade with time and convert into nutritional substances in soil. 

One of the main advantages of AKYAS is that the form that the product takes is adaptable. The core principles of separating urine from faeces, utilising the AKYAS powder mix to disinfect faeces and transform it to useful subproducts like fertiliser remain, but the design of the bag and supporting system can be modified according to the preferences of different user communities. 

https://drive.google.com/file/...

In Nairobi Kenya,  2.6million people live in slums, which is around 60% of the city population. It is estimated that only 30% of the city population have access to safe sanitation. 

2019 - we will serve 3500 school students.

2019-2020 (1 year) - we will serve 15,000 beneficiaries per day in schools and a public bazaar within the slum areas in Nairobi (I've changed this)

2019-2024 (5 years) – Serve 500,000 slum residents per day in schools and public areas

Create 500 jobs in the circular sanitation economy

We have identified the following key milestones for2019-2024.

2019 – 2020

•       reach minimum a 5000 daily user.

•        Demand creation and marketing strategy design in slums in Nairobi.

•        Test business model and sanitation supply chains

•        Scale strategy design

•        Partnerships with local community organizations, local authority, research institutions, UN-Habitat and key stakeholders in the sanitation sector

•        Establish cross-sectoral advisory board with strong global footprint in the circular sanitation economy

•        Secure adequate and appropriate financial and human resources

2019 – 2024

•        Implement scale strategy – localizing solution to fit new context and user needs

•        Scale out sanitation solutions to other slums and informal settlement across Kenya, Ethiopia, and Uganda

•        Partnership with major manufacturers and distributors

•        Demonstrate clear impact on health and wellbeing outcomes for vulnerable groups

•        Partner with national and municipal governments to scale up AKYAS sanitation solutions.

•        Serve 500,000 slum residents per day

•        Create 500 jobs in the circular sanitation economy

•        Validation of business model

•        Validation of circular sanitation economy supply-demand loop

•        Diversification of income stream through the development and sale of premium products for outdoor adventure and eco-tourism sectors and of AKYAS portable sanitation kits for humanitarian and natural disaster emergencies.

The barriers that we foresee in the next year are:

Legal:

In some countries, there are regulations that do not include sanitation systems that do not require water, and the use of treated human faeces as fertilizer.  

Cultural: The way that people access sanitation is culture-specific, and the need to facilitate behaviour change to adopt the AKYAS products will be challenging.

The barriers over the next five years:

Legal: Similar barriers as earlier mentioned.

Cultural: There will be additional challenges as AKYAS will be scaling to more communities and countries with different cultures, which may require different approaches.

Technical: The challenge lies in creating sustainable business models tailored to each of the communities that we serve such that the potential for the circular economy is maximised. 

Technical and financial & Regulatory barrier:

Legal:

AKYAS concept needs to be approved by the local authorities. To achieve this, AKYAS will need to first provide evidence that the products are safe for use. We will obtain accreditation by international standards such as ISO standards, as well as endorsements from collaborating universities. In addition, by showcasing the outcomes that AKYAS can achieve in other countries, we hope to be able to convince relevant authorities on the value of AKYAS.

Cultural and technical: 

At each community that AKYAS serves, the initial implementation will be done in close partnership with community organisations and members. The roll-out of AKYAS will be combined with education sessions to raise awareness. 

Bara Wahbeh- full time

Layth Wahbeh- full time

Sophia Tan- part time

Mandy Mui- part time

Eman Shukri- part time

Robyn Lui- part time

Bara Wahbeh (Jordan) holds a masters degree in Environmental Science, Bara is the visionary person in the team, He is the one who innovate and experiment theories, being a visionary means Bara is a dreamer as well, AKYAS team provides Bara with the right support to keep AKYAS product simple, feasible and doable.

Dr. Sophia Tan (Singapore)  has a Medical degree, but decided to get a masters degree in Public Health in order to have a bigger impact on the community and the people around her (One Doctor can help one person a time, a Public Health policy maker can help an entire neighborhood a time). Dr. Tan is responsible for the Grants management and Business development for AKYAS.

Mandy Mui (HongKong) obtained her master's degree in Architecture from Hong Kong and brings in her expertise of physical design. Mandy can convert the team thoughts into physical prototype, pilot and then into an actual product. 

Layth Wahbeh (Jordan) is an engineer with a passion for excellence in work and management, Laith has +10 years of experience in mass production and packaging technology. His main responsibilities will falls in the  customization process of existing production line to fit with AKYAS product needs.

Dr Robyn Lui (Australia) is a social entrepreneur, and social policy and innovation expert with experience in over 15 countries and post-conflict situations. She headed the innovation programme at UNICEF Jordan and worked with IDEO to develop training on human-centred design for lean social ventures.

AKYAS has the following partnerships:

UN agencies

-Accelerator Program run by UNICEF and the Jordan University of Science and Technology 

- SDG Impact Accelerator pre-accelerator program in Istanbul, Turkey

Local authorities

-We are discussing with the Ministry of Environment in Jordan the potential of piloting the AKYAS powder mix in the sludge treatment process in wastewater treatment plants

https://drive.google.com/file/...

AKYAS has a hybrid revenue model that combine fee-for-service, service subsidization, and livelihood creation.

Our path to financial sustainability is built on 4 pillars: 

1.  Income diversification - reduce reliance on external funding and expand revenue streams by mobilising household, private and public finance

2.  Sound strategic and financial planning - adopting good governance practices and timely financial reporting

3.  Build a trustworthy and ‘value for money’ brand with our users, partners and stakeholders.

4.  Build alliances with organisations, foundations, businesses, lNGOs and multilateral agencies that share a similar mission.

Solve can help AKYAS build partnerships with credible organisations to validate the product and achieve recognition among local authorities. This is crucial to AKYAS overcoming the legal barriers in some countries. 

In addition, Solve would allow AKYAS access to partnerships and mentorship in areas of sanitation behaviour change and business development to address the cultural and technical barriers. 

Being a part of Solve would also allow AKYAS to be well-placed in establishing a cross-sectoral advisory board with strong global footprint in the circular sanitation economy, to guide continuing growth and scale.

Local community organisations, local authorities: to establish partnerships for piloting of the AKYAS service among different communities and in different countries, and eventually to become AKYAS customers

Research institutions: to establish partnerships for validation of the AKYAS concept, in order to gain recognition and accreditation

Other stakeholders in the sanitation sector: partnerships for collaboration in provision of sanitation services, tapping on expertise in sanitation behaviour change and to learn from their experiences

International organizations, UN agencies: to establish partnerships for eventual scaling up of AKYAS sanitation solutions

With the Innovating Together for Healthy Cities Prize, AKYAS aims to do the following:

Pilot Testing

We aim to design and implement pilot testing successfully in 2 cities (including Nairobi) in collaboration with local partners and community members in Kenya.

Research and Development

-To submit a patent application

-To obtain industry certification of AKYAS products such as ISO 30500 and product safety certifications

-To conduct tests in the expansion of AKYAS’ mineral powder mix to explore options of: i) integration with biodegradeable bags; ii) production of other useful subproducts like bio-charcoal; iii) continuing research to refine the mineral powder mix in terms of efficacy in neutralizing pathogens

Expansion and scale

-To obtain letters of interests from 3 or more organisations over 2 or more countries to collaborate on delivering sanitation solutions to the respective communities they serve

More than 20% of girls in Africa drop out of school due to the lack of safe and private toilets. Their inability to deal with their emerging puberty safely and privately makes staying at home their only option. Without a strong education and the chance to learn, the likelihood of more young girls being lost to child marriage and teenage pregnancy rises, stunting the opportunities that would otherwise be there's for the taking.

This fate leaves these girls to continue to live in poverty and perpetuates their dependence solely on men. The lack of toilets in school specifically leaves girls unwilling to attend, as the embarrassment of having no available clean and safe sanitation facilities means that these young women will most likely miss one whole week of valuable learning out of every month.

AKYAS will provide safe, clean and private sanitation facilities to these young women.

More than 20% of girls in Africa drop out of school due to the lack of safe and private toilets. Their inability to deal with their emerging puberty safely and privately makes staying at home their only option. Without a strong education and the chance to learn, the likelihood of more young girls being lost to child marriage and teenage pregnancy rises, stunting the opportunities that would otherwise be there's for the taking.

This fate leaves these girls to continue to live in poverty and perpetuates their dependence solely on men. The lack of toilets in school specifically leaves girls unwilling to attend, as the embarrassment of having no available clean and safe sanitation facilities means that these young women will most likely miss one whole week of valuable learning out of every month.

AKYAS will provide safe, clean and private sanitation facilities to these young women.