Reducing disaster risk in the South Pacific

It can be hard to imagine disaster when considering the stunning, tropical South Pacific islands on a typical beautiful day. But storms and earthquakes are a constant threat in the Ring of Fire region, and sanitation in rural areas with no infrastructure is a big challenge. So Field Ready came up with an approach - similar to Scouting - that will allow island nations to "Be Prepared" for those situations.

Under a new initiative launched in its Suva, Fiji-based facility, Field Ready has begun scaling local production of needed Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) items for six island nations. Part of a two-year Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) program and funded by the Office of U.S Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) [now known as the Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs (BHA)] the effort will target Samoa, Kiribati, Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.

The team of local engineers and technicians is currently guiding large production runs for novel latrine slabs and risers, handwashing stations and foot-operated taps that can be used to retrofit standard sinks. While producing the needed items in Suva, the team's also planning production in the other five target countries. In addition to building local resilience by increasing access to crucial WASH items, Field Ready's also strengthening regional engineering capacity and the private manufacturing sector through local partnerships. 

So far, 10 handwashing stations have been installed and the Fiji Ministry of Health and Medical Services has ordered another 115. Designed in-house, the handwashing station is made by welding rebar and packs easily for shipping.

The process has benefited more than the recipients of the stations; local team members also mastered new skills. Karthiyani Nambiar, a Field Ready engineer from Suva, said that she gained experience welding and in making design and production changes. Krishneel Singh, a Field Ready engineer from Nadi and the project lead, said the project helped him learn more about metal work, rotomoulding and sandcasting principles and gain useful experience in managing private-sector partnerships

To produce the latrine slab and riser, Field Ready partnered with Rotomould Fiji Ltd., a private-sector manufacturing company with decades of experience and eight manufacturing facilities across the Pacific islands. Differing starkly from the concrete latrines used widely for the past 50 years in the region, this novel latrine is a single piece of rotational molded plastic. Adaptable to both wet- and dry-latrine types, the design is quickly gaining becoming the basic Pacific-standard latrine.

The team delivered the first 50 latrines to villages in Naitasiri, where typhoid fever outbreaks are annual occurrences. Twenty more latrines were delivered to the village of Soa on Viti Levu. Field Ready installed the first five latrines while training a group of Soans in the process; the village residents then installed the other 15. An additional 1,500 latrines are currently on order and in production for Fiji.

The ease of installation is also new: technicians can install one standard concrete slab and riser per day, while in the same time-frame they can install 10 of Field Ready’s. Rotomould has capacity to scale production to 32 latrines per day. Moreover, the latrines can be produced at any one of Rotomould’s facilities, located in Lautoka and Labasa, Fiji; Tonga; Samoa; the Solomon Islands; Kiribati; and Port Vila and Santo, Vanuatu. Making the latrines locally greatly reduces the cost, as well; manufacturing and transporting the finished product is far less expensive the cost of transporting expensive, raw concrete to the islands and then paying for latrine construction.

To make the mould used for the latrines, Field Ready partnered with Nagan Engineering, a pioneering and enterprising metalworks firm that's long pushed Fiji's technological capability to new heights and to maintain international standards. Nagan carried out the complex aluminum casting process using high-grade marine aluminum. The cast is now in use to produce the LDPE pit latrines.

The foot-operated tap, also designed by our team members, allows people to access clean water without using their hands and potentially spreading bacteria or viruses. To manufacture the taps, Field Ready has contracted with private-sector manufacturing companies and fabricators. Two have been installed in Fiji, and 150 more are in production. Fiji's Ministry of Health and Medical Services ordered an additional 300 for their Fever Clinics.

The two-year project is expected to produce much more WASH equipment to enable ample disaster preparation across the South Pacific. Despite logistical setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Field Ready will continue to deliver well-designed technologies that can rapidly scale their impact.