GCI’s Smart Water for Green Schools initiative in Ghana and Bolivia helps improve the lives of the populations living without safe water by implementing rainwater harvesting systems, boreholes and ecological latrines.
This helps secure access to water and improves the health of populations who have been forced to utilize unreliable water resources.
Rainwater harvesting systems
Smart Water for Green Schools builds reliable, long-lasting rainwater harvesting systems and trains local community engineers to maintain the systems. The systems are installed on the roofs of school buildings, where rainwater is captured and diverted into storage tanks.
School children and community members can then monitor, treat and use the captured water at their disposal, creating both personal and communal interest in managing the systems.
Rainwater provides a good supplement to other water sources, alleviating pressure on these sources. It also acts as a buffer for emergencies and can help reduce erosion and flooding.
Ecological latrines
Smart Water for Green Schools constructs ecological latrines in schools to ensure human waste is kept away from the immediate school environment. Waste is collected, treated and used for agricultural purposes, and urine is used as fertilizer. The system contributes to better public health, while increasing agricultural productivity and reducing wastewater pollution. At the same time, the comfort and privacy these individual toilets offer helps attract teachers and young female students, who often stay at home when hygiene conditions are questionable. For this reason, ecological latrines can help encourage more children to go to school, while reducing gender inequalities.
Bringing more water to the communities by building additional water systems
The villages selected for the project depend on existing boreholes and wells for their water supply. Where these do not exist or when availability diminishes during the dry season, communities rely on local streams and rivers. To fully secure safe water supplies for the school children and the community as a whole, SWGS is refurbishing the existing systems or equipping the villages with additional boreholes and wells.
Educational programme
Smart Water for Green Schools provides educational programmes related to hygiene, sanitation and environmental awareness. In addition to training teachers and other stakeholders in local communities, we also develop the materials and methodologies for hygiene and sanitation education in schools. This includes :
• Cross-cultural exchanges among beneficiary schools in the same river basins
• Developing rainwater measurement and monitoring systems for children, and organising school trips to neighbouring rivers to monitor water quality.
Related material:
Green Cross launches hygiene training in Ghana to mark Global Handwashing Day
Downloads :
Profile on SWGS project at primary school in Prang
