The Children In Crisis Primary School has a new building terraced into a steep hillside with no nearby wells or other water sources. The nature of the terrain suggest the groundwater would not be present at depths practical for access by hand pumped wells, so the 473 children and 10 staff members are without a source of water for drinking or hand washing other than water that can be carried up the seep hill to the school.

The high annual rainfall in Allen Town makes this school an excellent candidate for rainwater harvesting and therefore a good demonstration project to show the staff, students and villagers the benefits of this source of clean, safe water. The new metal roof of the school provides an ideal catchment surface, but the steep hillside will require considerable effort to place the storage tanks. Terracing will be necessary to provide level areas for the tank foundations. A system similar to the one proposed here was installed last year at the Barina Agricultural Secondary School in Makali, Sierra Leone with similar annual rainfall. The system design and tankage calculation proved to be well suited and the school successfully provided drinking water and hand washing thoughout the 2011-2012 dry season with a good surplus. For that system serving 320 students and 15 staff we installed four 5000 liter tanks. With 483 users at the CIC school we are planning to install five 5000 liter tanks plus some smaller tanks specifically for hand washing stations near the latrines.

The sanitation training provided by SFYDP staff will explain the importance of hand washing at school and at home.

Rainwater harvesting is well suited to the needs of the CIC school. The resource is abundant (during the wet season) and the technology is appropriate to the mission. No pumps are required as the system is gravity flow. The leaf/debris extractors and "first flush" diverters incorporated in the collection plumbing require very minimal maintenance and the quality of collected rainwater will be excellent if proper screening and storage practices are observed -- filtering or additional treatment should not be required.

Local labor will be needed for site preparation as terracing will be needed to provide a level area to place the tanks. Becuse of the steep slopes and heavy rainfall the terraced platforms must be protected with pony walls of cement, in-filled with rubble and sand. Because of the limited area available for storage tanks and large number of users, it may not be practical to provide water in sufficent amounts to last throughout the entire dry season, but our calculations indicate that demands should be met for all but a month or so.

The roto-molded water tanks are maunfactured in Freetown, as are the PVC pipe and fittings that will be used in the system, so local procurement of equipment and labor will be used.

The project will be completed in a single phase, although the site preparation may proceed the installation by some weeks to make certain preparations are complete before tanks and plumbing materials are delivered to the school.

As a resettlement area, Kola Tree Village does not have the structure of well established villages and towns under a Paramount Chief. The school was founded by Aunty Sento and Aunty Musu and is run by them and their staff with support from Schools for Salone (SFS), Masanga Children's Fund (MCF) and teacher salaries from the Ministry of Education. Ownership of the water system will be with the School, to be operated and maintained with assitance from SFS and MCF.

The Ministry of Education maintains teacher certifications and pays their salaries.

As part of the water system project, staff of Safer Future Youth Development Projects will conduct a 3 day course in sanitation for the school and staff. It is anticipated that the information provided at the school will be further diseminated into the village stimulating improved sanitation practices, latrine construction and household-sized RWH systems. Safer Future run vocational traning programs in various fields including well repair, solar power installation, agricultural practices, woodworking and latrine construction. To this list Bank On Rain would like to add training in installation of RWH systems, either as part of their vocational curriculum or through micro-loan incentives and opprotunities.

An area of some concern is diversion of water intended for the school to private use after hours. The school property is open and security may need to be addressed by use of locking water taps or other methods. The Aunties are well respected and have the support of families in the area. Their influence with the village may be sufficient to prevent problems.