Apex Project
Serving 363 students in Uganda’s Tula community as a private boarding and day primary and nursery school, Apex Nursery and Primary School previously relied on a metallic rainwater collection tank that had a low storage capacity and was breaking down – so much so that the Ugandan Water Project (UWP) team, our implementing partner, on the ground cited it as “beyond repairing.” The school also had to bring water in from a tanker truck, meaning they paid roughly 500,000 Ush ($135 USD) monthly on water expenses alone. Apex Nursery and Primary School does use chlorine tablets to clean their water, but those are extra money and are difficult to dose. The UWP filter systems will eliminate that cost, and the water will be much safer. Overall, Apex Nursery and Primary School needed a rainwater collection system to provide safe drinking water, handwashing, and more.
Our implementing partner, the Ugandan Water Project, erected a 10,000-liter polyethylene tank on a base made of brick, hardcore, and cement. Once cured, the crew placed the tank on the base, created an overflow hole at the top of the structure, and attached a pipe to it that extends six inches beyond the perimeter of the base. Crew members also attached face boards to the roof of the building adjacent to the tank to create a suitable surface for attaching gutters that will allow water from the metal roof to flow to the tank. Just before the outlet pipe reaches the tank, a “T” joint was inserted to create a first flush, a rudimentary filtration system that reduces the amount of debris and contaminants that enter the tank. The crew then constructed a protective wall around the tank and a tap stand was located slightly downhill from the tank. The rainwater collection system will be paired with four Sawyer Point One water filters to ensure that all water collected from the tank will be safe for drinking.
– You brought clean water to a school with 35 staff, serving 363 students at the time of project installation
– Previously, students and staff fetched from an unsafe shallow well
– By bringing a rainwater collection system to facility grounds, we estimate that you eliminated up to 0.58 miles of walking and 20.00 hours of collection time per day!
Note: Time and distance calculations are based on the average number of 20 liter jerrycans that UWP rainwater collection systems can provide each day. We assume that every jerrycan fetched from the UWP rainwater collection system replaces one trip to the previous water source. Distance from the facility to the previous water source is calculated for a round trip as the crow flies, using GPS coordinates.
Thanks to the following for supporting this project:
– Fellowship of Daystar, IL
– Milo’s H2O Funds, MN
– St. Barnabas School WELLness Project, OH
