UNIVERSITI PUTRA MALAYSIA Alam Cipta Vol 8 (Special Issue 3) December 2015 44 PROPOSED SANITATION FOR A TIMBER HOUSE CONSTRUCTED ON WATER Navid Nasrolah Mazandarani 1* , Rahinah Ibrahim 2 , Thamer Ahmed Mohammad 3 , Azni Idris 4 and Muhamad Syahrul Efendi Ismail 5 Faculty of Design and Architecture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor 1* Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor 3,4,5 *Corresponding author: navidnasrolah@yahoo.com ABSTRACT One of the problems causing a threat to public health is the sanitation system of timber houses built in water. The sanitation systems of these houses unfortunately dispose wastes directly into the natural water bodies, since the houses are not actually equipped with the proper sanitation system for disposing wastes from the toilets. The centralization of the waste disposal system is not used widely at tourist areas constructed on water due to technical and financial difficulties. This research requires gathering relevant data from various sources. Moreover, this project will utilize qualitative data collection tools, but is rooted in a qualitative epistemological position that signifies the importance of locating the research within a particular social and cultural house settlement. This paper surveys the literature on problems that arise from raw sewerage disposed into natural water bodies before any sanitation is proposed to solve the problem and how an individual sewage treatment plant can be installed and solve this problem. A sustainable potential solution through making use of a new individual sewage treatment plant for Timber houses is presented in this proposal. The results would lead to the development of affordable waste management systems, as well as, improvement of water quality surrounding the Timber houses while maintaining the social and cultural values of indigenous people living in them. In this study, a sanitation system is proposed to be used in the timber houses constructed in water and the system was tested and showed that it is effective in wastewater treatment. Keywords: Timber houses, water sanitation, sanitation system, disposed 1. INTRODUCTION Indigenous houses are made of wood and foliage and have a simple structure. These houses can be built everywhere; some of them are built on the water at the beach and some of them on the ground. Due to the need of indigenous people living along the water, these houses can be found on the surrounding waters (Akinnifesi et al. 2008). It is estimated that there are about 370 million of indigenous people located in 70 countries all over the world. On the other hand, their social, cultural, economic, and political characteristics are different compared with the dominant society in which they live (Godoy et al. 2010). Today, indigenous houses are found in all parts of the world and many indigenous people still live in these homes. Due to the variety of geographic location and climates in different countries, the structures of these houses are consistent with the surrounding area (Nasrolah et al. 2014). So the houses are different in shapes and materials in different parts of the world (Richmond & Ross 2009). More advanced timber framing system allows easy production and ease the assembly (SIVA. JAGANATHAN 2011). As mentioned earlier, due to the simple structure of these types of houses, they only have the primary features and basic amenities. For example, most indigenous houses are without toilets to control wastewater. Indigenous people, whose homes do not have sanitation system, prefer to use the nature water for washing. On the other hand, the indigenous houses that have the basic facilities such as toilets linked to a sewer system and treatment plant, the wastewater is transferred into the natural water directly (Struthers & Eschiti 2005).