Fufulso Schools Rainwater Collection System

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Template:Project HELP Fufulso Schools Rainwater Collection System Project Type(s):
Region:	Northern
Country:	Ghana
Volunteer(s) Name:	PCV Frank
PPCP #:	PEPFARwarning.png"PEPFAR" is not a number.
Year of project approval:	2010
Projects started in Ghana 2010 (19).
Camp BALL, Capacity-Building Workshop on the Health Benefits of Moringa, Cape Coast Field Trip, Community Rabbit-Rearing Project, Daughter to Work Day, Environment Club, Fufulso Schools Rainwater Collection System, Ghana Longboat HIV Educational Expedition (GLEE), HIV/AIDS Educational Murals, HIV/AIDS Outreach Radio Broadcast, HIV/AIDS Peer Educator Workshop for Tea and Kenkey Sellers, Household Compost Latrine Project, ICT Computer Lab for JHS, Love Life: Valentine's Day Football Gala, No Wealth Without Health … further results
Other Projects in Ghana (41).
Beaders' Community Workshop, Business Camp, Camp BALL, Capacity-Building Workshop on the Health Benefits of Moringa, Cape Coast Field Trip, Community Rabbit-Rearing Project, Computer and Library Access, Computers for Junior High School, Cultural Club, Daughter to Work Day, Environment Club, Expansion of Rainwater Harvesting System, Fufulso Schools Rainwater Collection System, Ghana Longboat HIV Educational Expedition (GLEE), HIV/AIDS Educational Murals … further results
Other SPA Projects by Volunteers (7).
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Info about the Fufulso Schools Rainwater Collection System

[edit] Title

Fufulso Schools Rainwater Collection System

[edit] Purpose and Approach

There are two schools in Fufulso – the Fufulso Presby Primary School and Fufulso Presby Junior High School. The Primary school has 508 students in kindergarten through to class six, and the Junior High School has 125 students in Forms one through three. While the community lies between the Black and White Volta Rivers, there are no safe sources of water in the village. In order to provide the Fufulso schools with a source of clean drinking water, this project seeks to construct a simple rain-harvesting system on the school campus. The system will consist of four 5000-liter water tanks, connected to the roofs via gutters and PVC pipes, and seated upon 2-foot concrete platforms. The community has pledged to contribute their labor, both to set up the system and to maintain it after the project is completed.

The rainwater collection system will consist of four 5000-liter Sintex water tanks, one at each end of the school buildings. Rainwater will be collected with 25-foot gutters, connected to the tanks with a short piece of PVC pipe. The tank inputs will be covered with a guinea worm filter to prevent leaves, lizards, and other foreign matter from entering the water. Each tank will be seated up a two-foot high concrete platform and will have a tap at the bottom for fetching the water. After the system has been installed, the Project Team will hold a health education session with each class to talk about the importance of clean water and how the system can help them. The team will also hold a Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meeting to discuss the same issues with the parents of the pupils and students, going into more detail about how they can set up simple rain collection systems themselves. During the PTA meeting, some persons will be appointed to be in charge of maintenance of the system, primarily the regular cleaning of the tanks.

Background Information

Several organizations, with UNICEF’s I-WASH program being the most recent, have tried to drill boreholes, but have been unsuccessful because the village appears to be on the water divide between the two rivers. The only sources of water for the community are three dug-out ponds referred to by the locals as dams. Water quality tests have shown the dams to contain many contaminates, including fecal and non-fecal matters. In addition to the problem of contaminates, the dams are far from the village, especially from the school complex.

Furthermore, even though UNICEF has donated ceramic water filters to the village, the women and children still have to walk a long way to fetch the contaminated water to put in the filters. The filters are also easy to break, as can be seen when you go to the school and find nearly half of the ceramic pots for the filters are broken. UNICEF’s temporary water treatment plant which was installed last year has been incredibly unreliable; it’s been broken down for the past three months, and even before that, it had sucked most of the water out of the main dam. The students desperately need a safe water source near the school, and a rainwater collection system is a very simple solution to this problem.

[edit] Objective

1. To provide the students of Fufulso Presby Primary and Junior High Schools with clean drinking water.
2. To increase awareness of the importance of clean sources of water on the part of the students and community members.
   1. To encourage students to always seek out clean sources of water and be cognizant of where their water comes from.
   2. To inspire community members to create rainwater collection systems of their own in other parts of the community.

[edit] Action Plan

[edit] Budget

Currency Exchange Rate: 1.42 Ghana Cedi = 1.00 US Dollar

[edit] Peace Corps Resources

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[edit] Project Reflection and Sustainability

Once the construction phase is over and rains have begun to fill the tanks, the Project Team will observe the number of persons who fetch water from the tanks fro drinking rather than going to the dams. The team will also visit the dam side and talk to those who are still fetching drinking water from the dam to find out why they are doing so and educate them on the importance of clean water. Follow-up meetings will be held with the PTA to allow them to share their opinions of the water system and ideas for creating similar systems in other parts of the community.