Sameh Seif is an Ashoka Fellow and Founder of the Together Association, which has created a community-based model to improve water quality, sanitation and public health in rural areas through low-cost sewage systems. TA has improved the traditional one chamber, stand-alone septic tank that serves one household by offering a more cost-effective dual chamber septic tank that can be constructed with locally available materials. These mini-sewage plants are significantly cheaper than government-proposed sewage systems and serve rural areas that have been kept off the radar. TA actively engages the community in the design and installation of the system. Consultation is made among women in households, unemployed youth and other members of the community that are trained to construct and maintain the systems. Together Association has created a network of grassroots organizations to advocate and lobby for wider adoption of this approach in other villages.
