Off to Africa: Biosand filters, rainwater harvest, monitoring
I’m off to Africa…
Photo by: Erin Huber December 2014
In two weeks, I’ll be going to east Africa once again to work on sustainable water projects with Drink Local. Drink Tap.. I am honored that I’ll be accompanied by David Christof and he will see the fruits of his labors, we will be implementing our first rainwater harvest project with another NGO partner, opening our first office in Uganda and taking the next steps to get 10 more bio-sand filters into the Katanga slum in Kampala with one of our Ugandan partners. We are still a bit far from our goal and I am asking for your support to make this all happen.
The children at Ssango Primary School in Buwama, Mpigi District (see their story here), have been drinking swamp water their whole life. We tried to drill a borehole last winter, but unfortunately, the walls collapsed too much and it could not be completed in a feasible way (this happensa lot, but it was our first time to experience this). It was a hard week. A rainwater harvest system is the next best thing, so we will build two tanks equaling 30,000 liters and hand washing stations which will serve the students at Ssango well as long as conservation and sanitation occurs and safe water comes from filtering the harvested water in the new bio-sand filters in the classrooms.
The latrines at Ssango Primary School are collapsing and need to be rebuilt…this means cement, new doors, a new foundation, privacy for girls and boys and hand washing stations to stay clean and especially keep girls in school as they become women. Currently, students and teachers are scared to receive themselves due to the risk of the floors of the latrines collapsing. Also, girls becoming women frequently never return to school during that change of life since they have no water to wash properly; this feeds them back into the vicious cycle of poverty and education inequality.
In Katanga, life is hard (see pictures here). A polluted stream, quickly degrading groundwater and little to no access to municipal water leaves people sick, dying, and suffering. We can change that with Bio-sand filters, a WASH program and empowering local community members to filter water for their families and neighbors. And, we can continue to expand this program as the community gets sensitized.
Photo by: Erin Huber July 2014
Both of these projects will be monitored for at least five years by DLDT and adjusted, improved, with the help of the community.
All together, we are over halfway to our goal of $20,000 thanks to David Christof’s efforts, 4 Miles 4 Water and many others- can you help us reach our goal with a donation that is significant to you this week or share this message ?
Thank you for your continued support and for sharing this with others!
Erin Huber, Executive Director and Founder
Drink Local Drink Tap, Inc.
https://www.drinklocaldrinktap.org/activism/donate/ Water is life.