Community Development Entrepreneurs were trained to install rainwater harvesting systems at Biticha primary school and will sell low cost, high quality RWH units to the surrounding community
Narrative
Constructing this RWH system at Biticha may just be one of our most important individual systems. We at ACI had been hearing for some time about the distance that the children of Biticha needed to walk to collect water, and the quality of the water when they reached the stream. We spoke to the head teacher at Biticha after completing the project and this is what he had to say. "The students no longer have to walk the 1.5 kilometers to the closest stream to collect extremely turbid and dirty water, having the tanks within the school has given them more time for class and relaxation during the day. Members from the surrounding community have even come to inquire about the system, the way it was constructed and the materials used. You have created an interest in the community about quality RWH." Hearing these types of stories make implementation so much easier and much more fun.
Sustainability
Creating and measuring long-term impact
Community health promoters trained by ACI will be visiting the school twice a month at a minimum to conduct school club meetings. Through their oversight and observations the office staff will be easily made aware of any issues regarding the RWH system. We expect that the school will be able to come up with the five dollars to maintain their systems moving parts if they are broken due to misuse. According to the partnership agreement the school has already agreed to this. That annual five dollars will also be able to cover any cost for reapply silicone in places where there are leakages within the system.
Other Issues
Unusual and unexpected issues faced during project execution
As we continue to move forward with RWH system construction and implementation the ACI team has gotten much more efficient. Training each new individual at a school is one of the challenges. It is more of an argument to have them come over to this style of thinking but once that challenge is overcome the process goes smoothly.
Learnings
Knowledge of project and process for sharing
On this particular section of the project we learned about more effective ways to train the new individuals from the schools in our construction methods. Instead of explaining the process before the application it turns out just going right for it and explaining with the visual examples it much easier for people to understand. I think because of the language barrier and the huge difference in experiences visual learning is a much more practical route to follow.
Impact
People Impacted: 302
People Getting Safe Drinking Water: 300
Number of all students, teachers and support staff who are present at the school on a normal day. Through the bio sand water filter project already in place at this school the improved access to water within the compound makes feeding the filter much easier. We gathered this number during a survey of all schools before the implementation of the RWH project.
School Children Getting Water: 291
All children at the school from nursery class to standard eight. We gathered this number during a survey of all schools before the implementation of the RWH project.
People Getting Sanitation: 300
All students, teachers and support staff present at the school on a given day. Improved access to water has increased the usage of hand washing stations at the school provided by ACI. We gathered this number during a survey of all schools before the implementation of the RWH project.
People Getting Other Benefits: 2
The community development entrepreneur and community health promoter who were both trained in construction of RWH systems.
