Creation of an Underground Rainwater Storage Tank connected to a Rooftop Harvesting Structure at the Faith in Christ Primary School in Lower Allentown. Handpump provides access to water.
Narrative
This project diverged from the original plan partially because the funding amount of $6500 was not sufficient and we had to wait for approval for an additional $1000 to be able to purchase the necessary handpump and the tools we could not otherwise afford.
The inflation in the price of cement led to our funds running out sooner than we'd budgeted.
Sustainability
Creating and measuring long-term impact
The maintenance cost is 20 US dollars per month to take care of chlorination and refill, in case water runs out.
The repairs of the pump head can also be done through this if the case arise.
Other Issues
Unusual and unexpected issues faced during project execution
A committee was formed to supervise the usage and maintenance of the Underground Rainwater Tank, which consists of members of the community, the school and representatives of the Safer Future Youth Development Project.
The major role of the committee is to guarantee the longest life time for the tank and its hand pump and also to educate the community and the students how to handle their new water suppliant, as well as treat the water when it is necessary.
The idea is, that every student of the Primary School contributes 500 Le (60 US Cent) each term, so if there are any costs of repairing and maintenance of the pump and the tank can be covered. They will also be able to refill the tank, should in case the tank is empty during the dries.
People from the community will have to pay 100-200 Leones for each bucket of water they get from the tank which will also be used for the maintenance and repairs.
To control and overview the usage of the water, the pump will be locked and a member of the committee who lives next to the tank has been appointed to take responsibility of its proper use.
Learnings
Knowledge of project and process for sharing
Such projects should be started as early as December to complete at the end of March before the rains start in April.
We did not anticipate the degree of difficulty not having a drill cutter would present. The manual labor of the excavators took much longer than the same project would have taken, had we had different tools.
Impact
People Getting Safe Drinking Water: 1230
720 students and 10 teachers at the school as well as about 500 people in the surrounding area are benefiting directly from the tank. Additionally the families of the children are indirect beneficiaries since the children suffer less from poor quality water.
School Children Getting Water: 720
People Getting Sanitation: 1230
Drinking Water Project includes no sanitation issues
we can however say all as water improves sanitation
People Getting Other Benefits: 15
They were involved in the construction work and were paid something.
