Questa’s Humanitarian Water and Wastewater Activities

Responding to Global Water and Wastewater Needs

Every day hundreds of millions of people are impacted by the global water and sanitation crisis.  Throughout many parts of the world people struggle to access the quantity and quality of water they need for drinking, cooking, bathing, handwashing, and growing their food.  An even greater number lack access to basic sanitation facilities.

• Lack of Access to Clean Water. Currently an estimated 844 million people (1 of every 10 on the planet) lack access to clean water.
• Lack of Access to Sanitation. Globally 2.3 billion people, roughly one-third of the world population, do not have access to basic sanitation. It is estimated that nearly 900 million of these people practice open defecation.
• Water Borne Diseases. Contaminated water causes disease and even death, especially among children. Every day, more than 800 children under age five die from diarrhea attributed to poor water and sanitation.  It is estimated that half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering water borne diseases. 
• Together, unsafe water and the inaccessibility of basic sanitation are leading contributors to extreme poverty. Without clean, easily accessible water, families and communities are locked in poverty for generations. Children drop out of school and parents struggle to make a living.  Access to clean water and improved sanitation changes everything.

Over the past 10 years engineers from Questa have volunteered their time and expertise providing international and humanitarian water and sanitation assistance in different parts of the world, including projects in Mexico, Africa and the Pacific Islands. This has been mainly through cooperative work with Rotary International, Engineers Without Borders and other non-profit humanitarian organizations. It has evolved through personal and professional motivation, along with the realization that Questa possesses a unique set of skills and experience that are directly applicable to the pressing needs for water supply and wastewater solutions in developing regions around the world.  Our depth and breadth of experience comes from over 35 years of working with rural water and wastewater projects in a very diverse range of environmental conditions, coupled with strong understanding of earth and water science and a penchant for innovative solutions. Our work with system operations as well as design has sharpened our understanding and ability to develop practical, sustainable rural water and wastewater solutions for communities where centralized water infrastructure is unavailable.

Technologies – Conventional and Innovative

In general, we understand the value and lean toward the use of many of the tried-and-true water and sanitation technologies, such as slow sand filtration, that have been in use for a very long time.  We have enjoyed the satisfaction of bringing and teaching these low-tech, but highly effective methods to communities and areas in need.  Adapting appropriate technologies to local circumstances, materials and resources drives our enthusiasm for this work.  The need for creativity has also allowed us to bring innovative methods and solutions to address some of the most pressing environmental challenges in developing countries.  An example is our innovative method of repurposing plastic bottle waste for water filtration and drainage applications – creating a win-win approach that can help address the dire needs for improved sanitation while also combating the plastic waste menace littering and inflicting serious environmental damage virtually everywhere.

Biosand Water Filters

The biosand filter is an innovative, small-scale version of the slow sand filter intended for household use, developed in the 1980s by a Canadian, David Manz.  It was developed specifically for application in regions of the world where people are dependent on retrieving their drinking water from ponds and streams and other unprotected and questionable sources, typically hauled in buckets and jerry cans. There are now millions of biosand filters in use around the world.  The classic design consists of a concrete or plastic container about the size of an office water cooler, filled with layers of sand and gravel.  Dirty water is poured into the top of the filter and travels downward through a 0.4-meter depth of fine sand where the filtration and biological treatment of the water occurs.  The water collects in a layer of gravel at the bottom of the container, and then exits the filter through a perforated pipe configured to drain into clean containers.

Questa developed an expanded version of the biosand filter (pictured and diagrammed here) as part of rural village and school water system improvements on the Fijian island of Taveuni.  The design adapted the main treatment features of the biosand filter for use with a piped water source, including a companion storage tank to hold the treated water and allow removal via a standard tap.  A conventional tank float valve was used to automatically control the flow of water through the filtration system based on the water level in the storage tank.  Questa provided training and oversight for the construction of over 40 biosand filters of this expanded design for communal use at schools and villages in Taveuni.  The design has been adopted by the Ministry of Education and is being taught in the high schools and promoted for use throughout the Fijian Islands.