Water purification system at secondary school in Tanzania

Finally, the installation of the water purification system is complete and everything is working the way it’s supposed to. That means that the pump and all filters are put in the wooden box that has been made to keep the system in place. The solar panels and the batteries are installed and all the electricity is connected to the system.

After testing the system it was time for the next round of water samples. In the beginning of the project, similar water samples were made with the water from the water tanks and they showed contamination of the water by high numbers of coliform bacteria. The new water samples were perfect and showed that no bacteria was in the water coming from the water tap after the filters, and that also meant the water was perfectly drinkable.

The next step was to have an opening ceremony at the school and celebrate that the project is finished. On this ceremony, the volunteers cut a ribbon together with the headmaster of the school before handing over the keys to the system and with that also the responsibility of the system. Clean water was handed out to teachers and students, and seeing their happiness meant all the hard work carried out both from Sweden during the previous year, and these two months in Tanzania was worth it.

To make sure that the teachers at the school would use the system properly, a book with instructions regarding everything from how to operate the system, how to fix errors and leaking as well as maintaining the filters properly, has been written and left at the school. By using these instructions we are educating a number of teachers and students that have been chosen as responsible for the purification system and they are learning very fast. That means we are hopeful that everything will work the way it is supposed to when we leave the school and go back to Sweden.

We have also finished the education and workshops with all students at the school, where we have continued to discuss the importance of clean water and good hygiene.