After the visit of the first lady, Mrs. Guebuza in 2008 to the FACT-ADPP project in Cabo Delgado, it was now the turn of the president of Mozambique himself to visit Bilibiza, on Saturday the 4^th of June. He was very impressed by the farmers clubs, the jatropha production and the oil processing factory.  Bachir Afonso, one of the project leaders of the FACT-ADPP pilot project in Jatropha,  was explaining and handed him an informative paper. Some farmers from the clubs were present and showed products from their fields at an exposition made by ADPP.  Bachir explained the challenges ahead and asked the president for support, amongst others  from the University Eduard Mondlane to help with quality control of the PPO. The visit had a duration of half an hour. According to Bachir the president wanted to replicate the set up in Mozambique.  In some editions of the newspaper Notícias  it was reported that several farmers in Northern Mozambique had jatropha seeds in stock, which they were unable to market. Some 6 years ago the president had asked the Mozambican population to plant as much jatropha as possible, which had been followed up by quite a number of farmers. However  no oil processing facilities were planned by the government, and at present facilities like BBC that can produce PPO from jatropha can be counted on one hand. ADPP is herewith on the forefront on jatropha production by poor rural farmers and can therewith provide an example to rural areas in Mozambique, with suitable conditions to grow jatropha.

22 March 2011

Today is World Water Day. This day is meant to raise public awareness that water is the most essential source of living on Earth. Although man can fly to the moon, more than a billion people—almost one-fifth of the world’s population—lack access to safe drinking water, and 2,5 billion people do not have proper sanitation.  Arrakis has contributed to this day by an article on the site of Vice Versa, see http://www.viceversaonline.nl/2011/03/waterhulp-helpt/ .

“Safe drinking water and adequate sanitation are crucial for poverty reduction, crucial for sustainable development, and crucial for achieving any and every one of the Millennium Development Goals”

UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon

For a typical water project executed by Arrakis in Mozambique and supported by Partners for Water can be found on the new NWP website, http://www.dutchwatersector.com/rsr/project/45/

Community-Led Total Sanitation, or SANTOLIC (in Portuguese)

The “school WATSAN project Cabo Delgado Mozambique” in which 26 schools are equipped with latrines, siphon filters (for water purification) and rainwater harvest systems are made aware of the necessity to use latrines by the project team of Grupo.

They perform a kind of theater with the schoolchildren of each school. It is part of the socalled “Community-Led Total Sanitation” , but then performed in the Mozambican way.

Begin juli 2010 heeft Jan de Jongh het Scholen project in Cabo Delgado weer bezocht.

Het uitvoerende team ”Grupo”, is goed gemotiveerd, en levert goed werk.

Per begin juli waren er 55 latrines gebouwd, 12 scholen hebben water collectie system van tank + golfplaten dak+ goot. Totaal lengte goten geïnstalleerd is nu 133 m.

De uitvoerende werkers van Grupo hebben inmiddels training gekregen in het maken van de latrines , door een lokale vakman-trainer en in het fabriceren van goten die weinig kosten (uit golfplaten gemaakt).

Ook geven zij zelf bewustwordings training aan de kinderen met leraren en lokale autoriteiten. De training, genaamd SANTOLIC, is een soort theaterstukje met een zeer directe boodschap, ten gevolge waarvan de school en daardoor uiteindelijk ook het dorp, het nut van sanitatie in gaan zien en daardoor latrines willen aanschaffen.

 

School 25 de Setembre; noodgebouw	Nieuwe school, nog niet helemaal af
Betonnen vloer, schoolborden zouden ook beter kunnen, maar er is geen budget voor.	De nieuwe school, helemaal af!! Met grotere tank. De muren gepleisterd door dorpelingen. Foto ontvangen 9 Sept. van Krishna Raghavan

De school van de 25 de Setembre was in de regentijd helemaal ingestort. Nadat een tijdlang een noodgebouwtje, zie foto 1, was gebruikt is de school door Grupo weer opgebouwd.

Grupo, op hun terrein in Bilibiza waar zij de latrine slabs en voorbeeld technieken demonstreren, zoals tankje en siphon filter (blauw). Ze hebben een openbaar toilet gemaakt hiernaast om het systeem te demonsteren.

Monte Puez Bilibiza. Grupo voor de school Nagoja waar zij op verzoek van de gouverneur, die er in de buurt woont, goten hebben aangelegd, plus een grote tank gebouwd (de man rechts staat erop).

Foto’s gemaakt door Jan de Jongh, op een zondag, vandaar dat er geen leerlingen te zien zijn.

Zo'n 25.000 leerlingen van ruim 400 scholen lopen in de week van Wereldwaterdag (22 maart) die afstand en laten zich sponsoren door familie, vrienden en bekenden. Met die opbrengst steunen zij projecten in ontwikkelingslanden om de (drink)water - en sanitatievoorzieningen te verbeteren van 100.000 kinderen en hun familie. Aqua for All verdubbelt dit bedrag. Het door ARRAKIS begeleide project in Mozambique is 1 van deze projecten.  Zie:  Mozambique:_School WATSAN Cabo Delgado  en ook AKVO 

A large number of valuable research reports, books etc, that were written en collected during the CWD¹ period at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TUe) were selected and transferred to the Wind energy group of the Delft University of Technology (DUWIND).

Theoretical and applied research on wind energy was executed over the years 1975-1990 by the CWD program, at both Universities of Technology of Twente and of Eindhoven (TUe).

At TUe, it was led by Paul Smulders, who guided about 100 students doing research in the  program that was aimed at developing water pumping wind mills for developing countries. After Paul had died, in 2009, the TUe did not have wind energy experts for guidance of students. Since several new request of students were made to DUWIND, professor Gijs van Kuik, head of DUWIND and the first professor in wind energy in the Netherlands, showed interest in taking over the remaining library, papers and wind data from various countries, collected over the years.

Friday 28^th of January, the selection of valuable reports, papers, books and wind data, was done at the TUe, by prof Gijs van Kuik, Dr. Jos Beurskens (former head of the wind energy unit of ECN) and ir Erik Lysen (head of UCE), (both Jos and Erik belonged to the first students of Paul) and undersigned.

Paul’s wife Helène also donated books and reports from Paul’s private collection at home, which is valuable educational material in wind energy.

DUWIND will study the possibilities to make this knowledge available for students, so that they can build upon the valuable research done during these pioneering days of Dutch windenergy. We consider this day as the conclusive end of the remarkable and unique period of the CWD program at the TUe, and we hope that DUWIND will educate new engineers in the interesting field of wind energy for developing countries, in as many applications as possible. Contact address of DUWIND: DUWIND

Jan de Jongh.

¹ CWD: Consultancy services Wind energy Developing countries.

In Bilibiza and in Chimoio, within the FACT pilot project in Mozambique

Jan de Jongh

The development of the “Training center for Rural Technologies” in Bilibiza (3,5 hours driving from Pemba, Cabo Delgado) is well underway. From 14-26 September the first training course on “Jatropha cultivation” was successfully held.  The course was positively evaluated by the 7 participants coming from various institutes and provinces in Mozambique. Presentations and exercises  in class were developed and given by project leader Henderson Maposa,  Flemming Nielsen and Jan de Jongh of FACT. More than 50% of the time the participants were involved in practical work, during which they jointly prepared a field and planted that with jatropha seedlings. Practical exercises, like pruning of the jatropha plants around the center and germination tests were also done. Visits to existing farmers clubs were made as well. The presentations of the course are placed on FACT’s website.

Next year the course will be repeated at the same period in September.

 The “Training center for Rural Technologies” in Chiomoio, is also being prepared.

The center will focus on Technical subjects, like oil conversion and hand rope pumps for water supply.

ADPP has a well established conference center at the EPF teacher training school. Various Affordable Technologies for rural development can be demonstrated at the school. These technologies were produced by the workshop of EPF and installed at the premises of the school, in a two years training program by Arrakis.

Specific technologies related to biofuels are being installed at Evretz, the farm of Brendon Evans in Chimoio. A 1000 l biogas system has been built by Niels Ansø together with Jan de Jongh and Brendon Evans in October 2009. A small bio-diesel demonstration  system will also be installed by Ger Groeneveld, in December 2009. Further technologies in place are a Chinese Lister copy diesel engine (make Feidong) which has been modified already and is undergoing an endurance test on cotton oil, and two oil presses which are used to press the cotton oil.

These technologies will be treated in the Technical Course on “Rural Technologies for Bio-fuels”, to be held in October 2010 for the first time.

5th Seminar on Jatropha for local development

The 5^th Seminar on Jatropha in Chimoio for stakeholders in general, is planned just before or just after the technical training course in Chimoio.

Information

Please follow the announcements at the FACT website for more information about these events, in due time. www.fact-foundation.com

In memoriam Paul Smulders

To my great regret I have to tell you that our friend and collegue, Paul Smulders, has left this world on Sunday 19th of July, aged 75.

I will dearly miss him, with his humor and his bright mind, always having an open ear to the projects we were engaged in. Now and then we let out his dog and discussed Third World conditions and problems, trying to find solutions.

He supported Arrakis as an advisor. He also corrected my reports, when I asked him to do so, which helped a lot.
We will miss his advice and moral support and most of all his vivid companionship.

Paul has contributed highly to the scientific education of engineers nowadays leading in wind energy in The Netherlands. He was one of the first who fully engaged into the subject as early as 1971 at the Technical University of Eindhoven (Tue).

Among his students were not only Dutch engineers, but also from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia, and China. And not to forget scientist mission fathers in Africa as well, pioneering wind pump technology based on the heritage of CWD, the consultancy group of which Paul was leader of at Eindhoven University between 1975 and 1990.

Paul  has been buried Thursday 23d of July, in a very natural setting in a forest, near a Roman grave hill in St. Odiliёnberg.
At his final salut, I have tried to represent, in mind, all good friends who could not be present.

With sad wishes,

Jan de Jongh

In advance a request was made to send in innovative ideas to improve water and sanitation.

Arrakis send in one of the 17 ideas on the Siphon water filter, which was also presented by Henk Holtslag.

Both Jan de Jongh and Henk Holtslag participated in the inspiring and well visited day.

Arrakis website has been renewed. It has been set up in line with the developments of the last 5 years of Arrakis and the goal we have presently in mind.

You will find the new approach under the different headings.

Enjoy the site.

Best wishes,

Jan de Jongh