Following up on Lynn's questions

By Agua Para la Vida (APLV) Posted on Thu 28 Jul 2011, almost 15 years ago

Most of us are sold on the desirability of well integrated solutions to the healthy water problem. And most of us are also conscious of other needs, just as pressing (such as dispensaries, the ability to transport gravely endangered or sick campesinos to hospitals, diatary deficiencies of babies and kids, lack of income etc.. ) But a choice has to be made, especially for those of us who belong to organizations with a feeble financial basis.
The path of reason seems to me a certain specialization which solves reasonably and more or less completely a piece of the problem. That of course is a difficult call. It is clear that Lynn's approach to the school water problem, presented here is not a complete solution and equally clear that he is aware of it and that his other work in the province where he specialises in gravity flow systems is a more satisfactory solution to him. But that is not a reason to turn away from this project.

We ourselves also run into similar problems: In Nicaragua even are terribly dispersed, which of course raise the cost of all developments including potable water. We think we do OK with these villages, but there remains an important part of the rural population that is even more dispersed and for which there seems to exist no solution providing enough water except for drinking and cooking. So individual family filters in this case provide a partial (in a sense unsatisfactory) but better than nothing solution.
Gilles Corcos

School timings and age group

By Blue Planet Network Posted on Thu 28 Jul 2011, almost 15 years ago

What is the age group of the targeted schools and what are the school hours?

Thanks.

School timings and age group

By Agua Para La Salud (APLS) Posted on Thu 28 Jul 2011, almost 15 years ago

In Guatemala schools are financed on a limited basis by the government for ages kindergarden through the 6th grade or age 5 through 12. Beyond this the parents are entirely responsible for education out of family incomes and limited private scholarship programs.

School hours are from about 7:30am to 12:30pm five days a week. These facilities are sometimes used by secondary school programs in the afternoon and evenings again paid for directly by families.

General questions

By Aqua Clara International Posted on Mon 18 Jul 2011, almost 15 years ago

Hi,
It was great to have the opportunity to read your proposal and learn more about your model of working with schools. Your working relationship with the Peace Corps is obviously a bonus for the projects and I like the fact that you help schools reach a standard that is government certified.

I have a few general questions. Who is responsible for supplying the soap to the hand washing facilities? How did you select the schools that are the beneficiaries for this project? Are you promoting water treatment after the water has been collected in the rainwater harvesting systems? If so, which type of treatment are you promoting?

Thanks!
Claire

General questions

By Agua Para La Salud (APLS) Posted on Mon 18 Jul 2011, almost 15 years ago

The Peace Corpsmodel is to convince thew school directors, teachers and parents committees that it is their responsibility to provide all of the materials for the hygiene education. This is part of the certification process.

The schools are selected by Dr, Sergio Mack who is in charge of the program for Peace Corps. My understanding is that he first seeks approval on the education department and then the municipal level education supervisors that they are willing to support the project. Schools are then interviewed and given a chance to participate or not. Not all schools decide to participate. This is due in great part to the competency of the school directors and teachers.

There are several 5 galon bucket filters available ( Beta ; Ecofilter; and HELPS)in Guatemala. The schools are encouraged to filter the water or chlorinate before drinking. Water is used directly from the rain storage and water system storage tanks for flushing toilets, cleaning the school, and cooking. Purchase of these filters again is the responsibility of the parents and teachers with encouragement from the Peace Corps volunteers.

All of the above practices are to develop self sustainability in the projects by the schools and parents developing an awareness and responsibility for the hygiene education of their children.

General questions

By Team Blue Posted on Thu 21 Jul 2011, almost 15 years ago

Chlorinating buckets of water is not usually something that kids would like to do because of the smell. If you chlorinate water on the spot in a bucket, you will have to wait sometime for the chlorination to make the rainwater palatable, however, if you drink it soon after chlorination, it will not likely be drinkable because of the smell. Can't you find a nearby stream water source and build a gravity flow water system, purified with a low cost slow sand filter, and build a storage tank so that you would always have treated water available?

General questions

By Team Blue Posted on Thu 21 Jul 2011, almost 15 years ago

Your proposal states that the project will serve the 2978 children in the 19 schools and benefit the families of the schildren by improved hygiene habits.

This seems to suggest that only the school children would be the consumers of the water, but not necessarily the teachers, admin people, cleaners, etc., all of whom would be water consumers. So do you need to increase the water production to cover your proposed consumers?

Also, in many rainwater catchment schemes that I have seen before, the water quality was often not so good, not because the rainwater would have any contaminants, but because of the water transmission and storage facilities often become contaminated.

How will the O&M process work? You will likely need to clear out the gutters where leaves, bird shit, etc. It is not a big problem, but it just has to be done a regular basis. Unless the captured rainwater is used fairly quickly, it would have to be stored in such a way as to minimize contamination. What is your plan to deal with this? I see that you chlorinate the water captured water. Do you use it quickly (on a day to day basis, or does it sit in the tanks for prolonged periods?

You mentioned about the school latrines. Who pays for these and who constructs the routine repairs and upkeep? Do you have problems with water access during the dry season.

What about out of school?

By Agua Para la Vida (APLV) Posted on Wed 20 Jul 2011, almost 15 years ago

Lynn: That schools project looks fine. But is there a parallel program to provide good drinking water in the home of the school chilodren? Or ar most of the children borders?

Thanks,
Gilles

What about out of school?

By Agua Para La Salud (APLS) Posted on Wed 20 Jul 2011, almost 15 years ago

What about out of school?

By Agua Para La Salud (APLS) Posted on Wed 20 Jul 2011, almost 15 years ago

All of the school children come from the village in which is located the school. The schools are primary schools with classes from pre- primary through 6th grade. After 6th grade education if in the hands of the parents to fund.

The majority of the schools are located in villages where there is a viable water system that delivers water to schools more or less daily. There are a group of schools that are not connected to a water system primarily because the village does not have a spring located above their village; have not received funding for a water system; or the school was located on a high ridge that was not productive for agriculture where they will never have a water supply.In these latter cases we try to find a rain storage solution or shallow wells/pumps for the school. We normally select a rain storage size that suits the limited space most schools have. No attempt is made to supply water for 3- 5 months of the dry season.

Agua Para La Salud only executes water projects in the limited area of northern Quiche department and most of the Healthy Schools projects are in other depsrtments. Lack of funding also restricts our village water system solutions.

Since the end of hostilities in Guatemala in 1996 the vast majority of villages have been served with water systems. The village that have not received projects have very expensive solutions that only the governement and large NGOs can provide. Little by little they are working on this as funding and political will conincide.

What about out of school?

By Team Blue Posted on Thu 21 Jul 2011, almost 15 years ago

Unless the local people are willing to co-fnance the cost of a gravity piped water system, or the house-mounted rainwater catchment schemes supply sufficient water, and the local government is willing to finance improved water systems, then there little else that can be done to resolve this all too common situation.

What about out of school?

By Team Blue Posted on Thu 21 Jul 2011, almost 15 years ago

Unless the local people are willing to co-fnance the cost of a gravity piped water system, or the house-mounted rainwater catchment schemes supply sufficient water, and the local government is willing to finance improved water systems, then there little else that can be done to resolve this all too common situation.

Water Supply

By Agua Para La Salud (APLS) Posted on Tue 26 Jul 2011, almost 15 years ago

Villagers are willing to co- finance water systems, but the problem is to find donors or government agencies who are willing to take on the very expensive solutions in the amounts of $50,000 to $100,000 projects. This will take time and is outside the capability of these fundings and APS donor base.

What about out of school?

By Team Blue Posted on Thu 21 Jul 2011, almost 15 years ago

I addressed this question somewhat in the previous section. If possible, a physically longer term and more effective solution for accessing good quality water supply would be to build a gravity flow water system tying into a permeant concrete storage tank(s), which would be a much more sustainable and effective solution to this problem, if the physical situation is appropriate and people are willing to pay a modest fee for a community water system, you could expand that piped water system to provide water service in the more densely populated areas in the community, if people were willing and able to co-finance the construction and O&M.

What about out of school?

By Agua Para La Salud (APLS) Posted on Fri 22 Jul 2011, almost 15 years ago

As I mentioned earlier the many of these villages do not have a viable solution for a water system and will have to depend on trucking of water and rain harvesting. Some of these more difficult water solutions have found sources of water at great distances , but the cost of piping 20 kilometers , or drilling 250 meter deep wells at $50,000 are not viable because they cannot find financing and acnnot as a village afford the operational costs. Financing is available at local banks for 22% per year, but the villagers are reluctant to pay these prices for financing when they cannot feed their families.