Saving Water in South African Schools

January 2010 – A leaky faucet might seem like a pretty harmless thing. On a large scale, however, it can translate into water shortages and related sanitary conditions for an entire community, affecting families, neighborhoods, businesses – and schools.

Luckily, basic repairs, systems replacements and education can remedy the situation. In South Africa, the Alliance teamed up with the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation (TCCAF) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to deliver these services and empower students, teachers and citizens through the “Water for Schools” program, run by the Water and Development Alliance (WADA).

In this program, the Alliance applied the principles of its patented Watergy program as well as basic sanitation and hygiene education to seven primary schools in the provinces of Gauteng, Eastern Cape, and Western Cape South Africa, which include the cities of Ekurhuleni, Nelson Mandela Bay and Cape Town.

In addition to making basic repairs in school buildings, the Water for Schools program taught teachers, students and local citizens in especially disadvantaged communities to sustainably manage and maintain water supply and sanitation infrastructure and closely monitor their water consumption.

If it Leaks, Fix it

The first and most critical step of this project was to make plumbing and water infrastructure repairs.
 

Alliance team members replaced leaky, inefficient, and other-wised damaged piping, toilets and sanitation stations, sink basins, urinals, drinking fountains and taps. At the Enkangala School, for example, the water delivery systems were in poorer condition than expected, and required larger technical improvements such as delivery pipe replacement.

The rewards came almost immediately: improvements such as those made at the Enkangala School saved on average 1,833kl a month of water for each of the schools, with an average cost savings of R11,988 ($1,584) for each school, every month.

Training for Tomorrow

In this phase of the project, caretakers and teachers learned how to monitor water usage while students participated in workshops that covered water-use awareness, water saving techniques and hygiene and sanitation education.

Students took partial ownership of water-use metering at their schools. Today they continue to track their school’s water consumption for the water caretakers, who then help find and fix water leaks or system problems. Of the nine local caretakers trained, all now possess professional toolkits. They are skilled at using all plumbing materials (including copper, HDPE and galvanized fittings) and tools, and can repair toilet cisterns and taps.

Testing

Team members conducted water quality tests at each primary school location. The results? All the schools now offer what the South African government standards deem as ‘safe drinking water’.
 

Following the good news, team members replaced all leaky taps with push-button taps that save water and provide better, more reliable access to clean drinking water.

Clean and Efficient Water for Schools – and for the Community

The program had dramatically changed the lives of students. Says one teacher, “Now the children can spend a whole day at school without interruptions caused by having to go home to use a toilet as there were no working facilities at the school.”

In addition to saving these primary schools water and money, the Water for Schools program improved their drinking water supply and promoted awareness of sanitary and efficient water use for over 4,500 people in the communities.

To affect long-terms savings and sustainability for these schools and their communities, the Alliance helped craft a maintenance and financial management plan that speaks to larger issues of cost-recovery/user fees and their potential to cover operation and maintenance costs.

Through the Water for Schools project, the Alliance was able to mobilize national and international support from organizations such as the South African Department of Education, Coca-Cola South Africa, and local municipalities, and further address South Africa’s greater water and conservation issues. With hope, the successful Water for Schools project will serve as a template for an expanded national water program for South Africa.

The Alliance has extended the project to another five schools in South Africa. Stay tuned for progress on these schools in 2010.