5 SECONDS?

Brilliant stranger, extremely talented colleague, wonderful friend or unwaveringly supportive family member,

We are working with WaterAid's Cambodian office to help them improve and expand their sanitation solution for floating villages on Southeast Asia's largest lake - the Tonle Sap.

We have set a 24 hour relay triathlon running from Phnom Penh to Tonle Sap (80km), cycling around the lake (160km), and swimming across (16km) non-stop, over 24 hours to raise money to support their work.

We hugely appreciate any support you provide to our fundraising effort in any way small or large. Many thanks from the Mottley Crew team (Raj, Iranga, Cristina, Dan, Ben, Ina, Milly, Abigail, Ellis, Emily and Xaver).

Please read on for more information,

5 MINUTES?

No one wants raw sewage in their lake. The Tonle Sap is South East Asia's largest freshwater lake and nearly 100,000 people live in floating communities on the lake. Currently, all 30,000 households living on the lake practice open defecation. If there is one thing I have learnt in my first few months as a professional wastewater engineer, that is a lot of poo. This is in the lake where children and adults play, swim, wade, fish, cook, wash and clean. Defecation into the lake that thousands call home is a matter of both public health and civic pride.

Due to the unusual geography of these homes, conventional waste treatment & disposal options are of limited use. Sewers are expensive and usually just shift the problem elsewhere, collecting waste and transporting it somewhere has not proved popular with local residents for reasons we can all empathise with.

WaterAid, with their partner Wetlands Work, have developed an elegant low-cost & simple solution – the HandyPod – with potential to vastly improve the water quality of the Tonle Sap.

The HandyPod is a basic sewage treatment system that connects to regular latrines in homes and schools, specially designed for the floating communities of the Tonle Sap. It consists of a small anaerobic digester tank connected to a floating garden of hyacinth plants. After passing through the digester tank, the roots of the hyacinths break down faecal matter to a safe quality, removing upwards of 95% of E.coli, so that human waste can be safely discarded into the lake.

Through Water Aid’s Water Innovators programme we are focusing our group’s diverse professional skills on helping them develop the device be ready for widespread use. Amongst other challenges, this involves improving the technical design to be:

• easier to build and maintain
• built using locally available materials, integrated with local supply chains
• robust to withstand seasonal storms
• suitable for use in schools where school holidays mean the device will be out of service for months at a time

THE TRIATHLON
We will be running, swimming and cycling non-stop as a team for 24 hours straight to collectively:

• Swim the shortest width of Tonle Sap (16 km)
• Cycle the lake's perimeter (180 km)
• Run the distance from Tonle Sap to Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh (90 km)

Starting at 8 AM on Saturday 9th July we will be pulling shifts for 24 hours running, swimming and cycling, not dropping the baton until 8 AM on Sunday 10th. In that time we are aiming to swim 640 lengths, run 2.2 marathons and cycle 720 laps of a velodrome.

This triathlon is part of our campaign to raise £3,000 for WaterAid Cambodia's fantastic team to support their work increasing access to water and sanitation across the country.

Thanks for visiting our JustGiving page! We really appreciate your support.

Raj, Iranga, Cristina, Dan, Ben, Ina, Milly, Abigail, Ellis, Emily & Xaver T.

To see what we've been up to recently, check out our blog:
https://mottleycrew.wordpress.com/

And for a much better description of Water Aid’s work in Cambodia:
http://www.wateraid.org/news/news/sanitation-for-floating-communities-in-cambodia/

FAQ

1. Who are/What is Mottley Crew?

'Mottley Crew' is a team of 11 (mostly) graduates working for Mott MacDonald in Water and Environment. Based in Cambridge and in Newport, for many of us, water engineering is our day job. At work we do all sorts of exciting stuff from the engineering design of London's new supersewers to ensuring nasties aren't seeping out of landfills into drinking water. Don't mess or we might switch your water to the Flint River too.

To dive deep into our team's progress or keep up with our activities, check out our blog at https://mottleycrew.wordpress.com/

2. How did you come up with such a witty name? You people must be fun.

Mottley Crew is a witty mash up of phrase 'motley crew' and our employer's name, Mott MacDonald. Thank you for your appreciation.

3. What is this Water Innovators?

Water Innovators is an employee development competition run by Water Aid to get young professionals working on challenging aspects of their work. As part of the competition, we are tasked with solving a  technical challenge (the HandyPod!) and undertaking a fundraising campaign. We are aiming to raise £3000 for Water Aid.

4. Who are WaterAid?

Who are you?