Team: Doreen Nabaho, Bernelle Verster, Naadia van der Bergh, Mlu Mnguni, Allison Kasozi
Meaning of Thamini: Swahili for Value
Origin: The team was formed during the 2009 Sanlam Creativity for Progress Competition, where they won the Regional Phase. The theme was skills retention in rural areas. With the focus on rural development, the team called themselves Rural Rocks. This was an excellent exercise in teamwork, where the diverse skills of the team showed the potential of multidisciplinary projects. Further development after the competition made the team realise that while rural development is important, the continued migration to cities is a reality that needs to be addressed. In addition, the skills of the team and their geographical location (Cape Town) meant that the project is better suited to informal settlements or metropolitan integrated waste management projects.
In brief, the project believes that waste can be used to generate income in ways that are empowering to the communities around it, without creating menial jobs. It aims to take the most suitable engineering approaches, which may or may not be new technology, and combine it with indigenous knowledge and know-how. Throughout the project aims to close the gap between research groups and the community - an experiential lab of sorts. Moreover, the project aims to apply what has been learnt from the interaction of these groups on a daily basis. Many of the principles come from sustenance agriculture, but with that little bit extra to reduce the risk that such marginal production creates. While the waste management creates the real value, and the project design is such that this aspect can maintain financial viability independently, adventure sport and tourism is employed to generate additional revenue, as well as generate excitement globally.
The way the team approached the project was to say that the five team members were a few years into our career, tired of city life, and had accumulated enough savings (R900 000) to buy a piece of land in a underdeveloped area and to set up very rudimentary infrastructure. Once this has been done though, the savings were spent. We would not have enough to maintain the 'farm' and the costs associated with it. Therefore we had to do something to ensure financial sustainability. We also realised that we thereby place ourselves in the same situation as the surrounding community, hence being well placed to address challenges together.
Individual projects are listed below, with links to existing initiatives included as examples. Thamini Rocks designed these projects to be managed independently to reduce overall risk, but with communication between the projects in a way approaching an industrial ecosystem (IndieEco), to reduce overall effort, and eliminate the concept of waste entirely:
- Hemp production - Hemporium
- Mushrooms production - Exotic Spawn ARC, Mushroom Hotel. Paul Stamet's books are most informative here, and this is a market waiting to explode. Bernelle Verster and Kyle Mason Jones have also been producing oyster mushrooms in their backyards and bathrooms, with success. Shitake mushrooms are next.
- Tilapia production - Stellenbosch aquaculture facility. Bernelle Verster has been entertaining 6 tilapia in her 15kilo litre fishpond, but the cold conditions in the Western Cape, along with legislation requirements means that tilapia production in this region is unattractive. Other options include trout, and perhaps indigenous fish.
- Biogas production - Agama
- Solid organic waste management to Compost
- Best practise, small scale commercial agriculture - Harvest of Hope, Soil4Life
- Nguni cattle - for both meat and hide products Commark
- Microfinance
- Adventure Sport
- Edutainment - espcially Sciencentres like the Cape Town Sciencentre (Previously known as the MTN Sciencentre)
- Themed Tourism - Spirits of Africa
Current progress: Thamini Rocks generated much interest and the team was approached by two communities to design a project. The realities of designing a project within the constraints of existing communities proved difficult, but not insurmountable. The challenges that eventually lead to Thamini Rocks being placed on hold is the cheap price for electricity and water in the urban environment, which threatens the project's financial viability in the short term, and the early stage of the team members' careers. To make Thamini Rocks a success, the team would have had to drop everything else. At the start of their professional careers, they all agreed that now is not a good time.
Thamini Rocks refuses to die. By design or accident, the team members continue to develop this project, and look forward to evaluating progress in future.
More technical information can be found in the following books, or contact us directly:
- George, R., 2008. The Big Necessity: Adventures in the World of Human Waste. London: Portobello Books Ltd.
- Kasozi, A., 2009. The Biogas Digester: A brief of the fundamentals of Operation and Design.
- Polprasert, C. ed., 2007. Organic Waste Recycling: Technology and Management. 3rd ed. IWAPublishing.
- Todd J, Brown EJG, Wells E, 2003, Ecological Design Applied, Ecological Engineering, 20, 421-440.
- Waldeck, L., 2009. Integrated Models to Aid Small Town Municipal Service Delivery. Sciencescope Quarterly Publication of the CSIR, 4(1) pp 20-21.
- Wydick, B., 2008. Games in Economic Development New York: Cambridge University Press.