Incremental Ecological Wastewater Treatment:
The Havana Prototype

Table of Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Executive Summary

Local Context

Ecological Wastewater Overview

Ecological Treatment in Cantarrana

Concept Plan

Appendices

Bibliography

Introduction

In the spring of 2000, a graduate Planning Studio from the School of Architecture and Urban Planning (URBDP 507) at the University of Washington led by Prof. Hilda Blanco focused its studies on ecological wastewater options for neighborhoods in Havana. The studio included a two-week field trip to Havana in April, 2000. The field study was the culmination of many months of preparation. Prof. Blanco conceived this study through correspondence with Mario Coyula, executive director of El Grupo para el Desarollo Integral de la Capital (GDIC), a government-supported Cuban organization focused on the grassroots revitalization of Havana’s neighborhoods. In December 1999, Prof. Coyula communicated the particular need for an ecological wastewater treatment study of Havana’s neighborhoods, many of which lack sewage systems.

A group of students in the Department of Urban Design and Planning prompted the studio, drawing on experience or interest in Latin America. Students’ areas of specialization ranged from community organizing to ecological wastewater systems to engineering. Preparation for the studio began in the winter quarter, when the study team initially formulated the project in Prof. Blanco’s Infrastructure Planning and Finance course. The Canadian Urban Institute (CUI), the lead Canadian NGO involved in neighborhood projects in Havana since 1995, provided valuable advice and information on the overall study area in Havana, el Parque Metropolitano de La Habana. Throughout the winter quarter, students studied ecological wastewater systems, explored project feasibility, and secured partial funding from various UW sources.

The two-week field study in Havana, hosted by Coyula and GDIC, was an opportunity for students to collect data on local conditions, interact with community members and hold a public meeting in Spanish in Cantarrana, the study site chosen. Once back in the U.S., students spent the remainder of spring quarter developing a site-specific ecological wastewater concept plan for the Cantarrana community. The three main goals of this study were to specify and site a prototype system, stimulate community participation regarding river health and wastewater, and develop a template that may be applied to other areas of the country and around the world.

Rapid urbanization throughout the world increases the need for the provision of urban services in a more sustainable way. Since bureaucracies and professional communities around the world are invested in conventional technologies and models of urban development, universities have a unique opportunity and responsibility to generate more sustainable models of urban development and to assist communities in experimenting with such models. This studio is an example of the type of community service that a university can provide within the United States and abroad. Providing such a community service can also enrich graduate education in several ways. It can provide opportunities to apply innovative concepts and technologies in a real-life, complex, political and institutional context. In addition, this studio provided a rich, multi-faceted cultural exchange that goes beyond the actual work reflected in this report.

We hope that our experience will open the door to educational collaboration and interchanges between the University of Washington and Cuban leaders dealing with urban and environmental issues.