Research promotes innovation in "district betterment" programs through multidisciplinary experimentation of long-term actions aimed at mitigating the structural health and hygiene vulnerability of the inhabitants of the Chamanculo district in Maputo, combining health and environmental projects in a holistic and systemic
The recent pandemic has highlighted the vulnerability of the population living in Chamanculo , which had pre-existing problems due to the lack of health services, as well as revealed the inadequacy of waste management, the limited supply of safe water, both in private and public areas, and the impossibility of guaranteeing adequate personal hygiene.
HANDS is aimed at activating a “Social Laboratory” dedicated to the production of Polichina, the sanitizing liquid Made in Politecnico and to promote better waste management and an appropriate energy production model on a urban and domestic scale, ultimately transferring the related technological skills to local stakeholders.
"We have imagined an automated system just a bit bigger than a coffee machine", explains Alumnus and researcher Mattia Sponchioni , "with four different dispensers connected containing the elements to produce Polichina: water, ethanol, hydrogen peroxide and glycerol. You set a specific quantity and the system produces it. We aim to arrive at a prototype to be installed in some key points of Chamanculo: a school, a square, a market". Refueling stations to be integrated with an intelligent management system for waste generated following the health emergency: from masks to Polichina dispensers .
In the "Social Laboratory", new methods of electricity production will also be tested for the power supply of Polichina distributors and for the local procurement of raw materials from renewable sources on site.
In this particular situation, the use of Polichina also has a positive impact in terms of water saving .
"We aim to reduce consumption from the liter scale to that of milliliters", comments Sponchioni, "when washing hands, liters of drinking water are consumed, with Polichina just a spray of a few milliliters is enough, saving over 95% of water which is in short supply in degraded places and where there is the danger of other pathologies such as tuberculosis."
