Knowing and Caring about Sanitation

This paper describes the second half of a first-year course designed by an interdisciplinary team of faculty from engineering, humanities, social science, and entrepreneurship and innovation. Our course, “Humanitarian Engineering Past & Present,” begins with a nineteenth-century sewerage problem before turning to currentday problems of sanitation. Having studied in depth the challenges of providing acceptable sanitation to an ethnically, economically, and topographically diverse community in a nineteenth century industrial city, long before sanitation was considered a basic human right, students form teams to identify and propose a solution to a sanitation problem in some particular part of the contemporary world. This paper discusses our classroom activities and the learning outcomes they produce, primarily around the ethically infused subject of sanitation, why it is a basic human right included in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, and why engineering students should be curious about how people live in parts of the world where sanitation has not yet been secured for all people. Our project aims to understand how students are motivated first to care about the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and then to develop the expertise to be able to help meet these goals. Introduction “Humanitarian Engineering Past and Present” is an experimental first-year, two-course sequence designed and taught by an interdisciplinary team of faculty from engineering, humanities, and entrepreneurship and innovation at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), a technology-focused university in Worcester, Massachusetts. The university is best known for its 47 year-old project-based curriculum. WPI’s 14-week semesters are divided into two seven-week “terms.” Our sequence involves a three-credit course in the first term (for which students receive Humanities and Arts credit) followed by another 3credit course in the second term (for which they receive Engineering credit). The two courses are an integrated six-credit hour sequence. “Humanitarian Engineering Past and Present” provides a deep, integrative learning experience of benefit to both STEM and non-STEM students, and it is our hope that it will be taught in liberal arts as well as technical institutions. The course brings together content, disciplinary approaches, and pedagogy from both the humanities and engineering disciplines, and most classes and homework assignments are informed by transdisciplinary thinking, including conversations about how a humanist or an engineer might think differently about a problem. Our goal is to train a new generation of young professionals who are well versed in both the technical and the human aspects of engineering and who have the capacity and inclination to help improve society. Our course is aimed at appealing to underrepresented populations in STEM, who tend to be highly motivated by the prospect of helping real communities with real needs (Kuh, 2008). The class was developed and is taught by a multidisciplinary team from engineering and liberal studies. Problems located within the discipline of civil engineering (and closely related engineering disciplines) are the technical focus of our work to teach about sanitation projects, and yet we recognize that engineering is only a fraction of the solution: situational suitability and culturally appropriate approaches are equally important. The two-course sequence, “Humanitarian Engineering Past & Present,” begins with a nineteenth-century sewerage problem (during the first half of the semester) before turning to current-day problems of sanitation. Having studied in depth the challenges of providing acceptable sanitation to an ethnically, economically, and topographically diverse community in a nineteenth century industrial city long before sanitation was considered a basic human right, students learn to identify and propose a solution to a sanitation problem in some particular part of the contemporary world. In this second half of the semester, students work together in teams to consider and evaluate social, financial and environmental tradeoffs before identifying and designing engineering solutions to water and sanitation problems in a specific place in the developing world. (Our most recent group of students chose project sites in Varanasi, India; South Tarawa, Kiribati; Rocinha, Brazil; Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea and Kalena Rongo, Indonesia.) Sanitation in the Developing World We chose the broad theme of sanitation in the developing world because we wanted to challenge students to make the connection between historical and contemporary problems. Those associations were clearest in marginalized communities where infrastructure and services have not yet caught up with our global understanding of basic human rights; in many ways, the problems experienced by these communities are the same problems facing industrializing communities in the nineteenth century, including the industrial New England city our class considered during the first half of the semester. Furthermore, we did not want students to focus on problems and projects with highly technical solutions and sufficient resources to address those problems. We felt that those technological and financial advantages would obscure the importance of understanding human needs and conditions and, importantly, integrating these human elements into engineered solutions. Humanitarian Engineering Defined The term “humanitarian engineering” is often used in reference to responses to human and natural disasters: conflict zones, refugee crises, earthquakes, floods, and so on. In these emergency situations, the humanitarian engineering response requires the rapid installation of infrastructure such as basic shelter, sanitation, water and medical delivery and other emergency services. Our broader view of humanitarian engineering includes engineering in the service of communities on the margins, without consistent access to basic human rights like food, water, sanitation, and gender equality. In this context, we view engineering as a social service and social practice, where the tools, methods and resources (of civil, mechanical, chemical, electrical and other engineering disciplines) are harnessed for the betterment of society. Our thinking aligns with the orientation of a growing number of programs in humanitarian engineering, like those found at the Colorado School of Mines, Southern Methodist University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Colorado at Boulder. In our course, “Humanitarian Engineering Past and Present,” engineering, entrepreneurship, social science and the humanities converge to promote solutions that are culturally appropriate, feasible and sustainable. We aim to teach students that the most effective and socially responsible practices combine content, approaches, and dispositions from both the humanities and engineering, so they can navigate their way through the integrated space of these disciplines. Now in its second iteration, the course offers students opportunities to reflect on social justice and ethical issues while developing the qualities of compassion, empathy, and curiosity. Background and Context Sanitation is a Human Right Inevitably, students and professionals must navigate the ethical labyrinth of imperfect options and make difficult human and design decisions. In “Humanitarian Engineering Past and Present,” students are supported in their ethical decision-making by the knowledge that while sanitation is a basic human right, billions of people are currently deprived of that right. An estimated 30% of the world’s population – approximately 2.5 billion people – does not have access to basic sanitation services. Fewer than one in every three people in SubSaharan Africa have access to a proper toilet, and one billion people around the world currently defecate in the open (United Nations). Nearly 80% of illnesses in the developing world are linked to poor water and sanitation, and an estimated 1,000 children die every day from preventable water and sanitation-related diarrheal diseases (ibid). The environmental and economic costs are staggering, as are the costs to personal dignity. The absence of toilets leads to open defecation. Inferior facilities fall into disuse. Unsafe facilities incite abuse, and untreated wastewater and fecal sludge leads to disease. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were developed to address the needs of those left out of the sanitation revolution by heightening awareness and allocating funding to provide assistance and alleviate suffering (United Nations, 2016a). The Sustainable Development Goal most pertinent to our class is Goal #6, to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” (United Nations, 2016b). As the United Nations notes, “Water and sanitation are at the very core of sustainable development, critical to the survival of people and the planet” (ibid). Goal # 5, to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” (United Nations, 2016c), is also pertinent. “Gender equality remains a persistent challenge for countries worldwide and the lack of such equality is a major obstacle to sustainable development” (ibid). As is too often the case, women and men are afforded unequal access to sanitation facilities, exacerbating disparities in health, access to education and other opportunities. Theoretical Frameworks Responsive Design We challenged our students to take a human-centered approach to sanitation in order to improve lives and livelihoods. Contextual inquiry and humanand user-centered design provide the most applicable models and theoretical considerations, given their necessity to successful development outcomes (Dodson, 2014; Ho et al., 2009). Contextual Inquiry and Considerations of Use Contextual inquiry involves a determination of users’ needs in the context of their particular place, t