Mai-Chibirke Primary School - rain water collection

Posted by Sadie - Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Situated at the school is a rain water harvest system. The system works by capturing the rainwater from the roof of the school and piping it off into a storage tank. The tank has a capacity of 25m³, so after 2-3 months rainfall there is enough water to last for 2-3 months. This is a last ditch attempt at help for this community – the water table is so low that a hand dug well is not an option and the nearest spring is 5km away. Luckily, this spring is part of another WaterAid programme so has been capped and developed to provide safe drinking water. The rain water harvest is not an ideal solution, but it gives some alleviation of the problem for a few months a year.

Because the water goes stagnant fairly quickly in the collection tank, the community doesn’t use it for drinking for the whole 2-3 months of availability. However, there is another issue which it addresses. The area is infested with a type of worm which is appears on floors when they are dirty. It burrows into the soles of the children’s feet, and leaved them with splayed feet and bowed legs. By using the collected rain water to wash the school room floors, they are able to remove the problem and safely attend school.

We spoke to the teacher: Hagos Abrham who told us:
“Before the water was installed, the nearest water source was 5km away, it meant that children would have to bring water from home and school couldn’t be kept clean. Children would get sick when they were able to attend school. We have a small worm, Mujela, which lives on the floor and bores into the children’s bare feet. It causes deformation of the legs and their feet splay out, it is very painful. Now we have water at the school we are able to keep the school clean, get rid of the worm and it is more attractive for children to come to school”.