CHINA

Qinghai, China

Trip Leader: Scot Frank

scot@mit.edu

China Capital: Beijing

Population Density: 142.6 people/km2

GDP per capita: CNY 39,750

HDI: 0.77

Last D-Lab Trip: 2008

Qinghai Capital: Xining

Population Density: 7.48 people/km2

GDP per capita: CNY 13,836

HDI: 0.684

Ethnic Composition: 54% Han, 24% Tibetan,

16% Hui, 1.8% Salar, 1.8% Mongol

Community Partners

Awuju Village One of the three poorest villages in the Jinyuan Township

Main Problems: fuel shortages, dermatological scarring & diarrhea, lack of accessible medical care, animal roaming disputes between neighbors.

Bailing Village

Main Problems: Fuel collection, climate change affecting crops, 1/3rd of income spent on chemical fertilizers

Xiakeba Village

Main Problems: fuel shortages, injuries during wood collection, lack of toilets with proper evacuation doors, lack of running water in half the village, childhood diarrhea and stomachaches, arthritis.

Common Themes

• Fuel collection, fertilizer, lung pain, and climate change

Root Cause: fuel

• Diarrhea, stomach pain, water collection, non-functional latrines, and community disputes over animals

Root Cause: sanitation infrastructure

Fuel

Potential to Improve

Women’s Education

Sanitation

Indoor Air Pollution

Climate Change

Land Degradation

Deforestation

Conflict

Scope

What We’ve Done So Far

• Emissions Testing

• Solar Cooker Design and Prototyping

• Fuel Use Surveys

Goals for January

• Design and implement new fuel use survey

• Design Fuel Use Database

• Test and modify solar cooker designs

• Document household ventilation systems

• In-situ emissions testing

• Collect fuel samples for laboratory emissions testing

Sanitation

Scope

• Water scarcity and

contamination

• Animal husbandry

practices

• Latrine scarcity and

design

• Bare-handed dung

collection

What We’ve Done So Far

• Epidemiological surveys

• Bacterial analysis of water sources

• ICPMS and nested PCR (cryptosporidium)

on water samples

Goals for January

• Develop and implement new water sampling protocols

• Examine women’s hands as an exposure pathway

• Assess local materials for construction of low-tech water filters

• Additional bacterial analysis

• Document piping materials used in running water projects

• Document fertilizers, pesticides, and rat poisons used in villages

• Collect soil samples near springs and sediment samples from water sources for geological analysis to determine natural metal content

• Qualitative analysis of percent contribution of various species to fecal content of water sources

• Examination of latrine designs

Other Interesting Things…

• Taste tea like never before

• Sing like never sung before

• Higher than ever before (3,500m)

• Ride (or cuddle) a yak

• …the culture!

CHINA

Scot Frank

scot@mit.edu

http://scotfrank.com