Cute kids from Gidanturu who came to watch us build the polytank stand!
I am excited to announce that we have started setting up our SIXTH water business in the village of Gidanturu! This water business is sponsored by Colleen and Jeff Clopeck, who have been incredible CWS supporters over the past 1.5 years!
Gidanturu is located on the Salaga Rd (the same road as Jarigu, Cheko, Nyamaliga, and Gbong) about 90 minutes outside of Tamale. Before purchasing the truck, it would have been impossible for us to even consider a village this far away – the taxi fees would have been astronomical and the Salaga road turns to dirt shortly after passing Gbong which makes it very difficult to drive on without 4 wheel drive. This village is the home to ~650-700 people who were desperately in need of safe drinking water, so we are so glad that we have the truck and are able to partner with them!
We are planning to open the water business early next week. Here are some pictures from the past few days:
We LOVE our truck! We only had to take ONE trip out to Gidanturu with supplies for polytank stand!Gidanturu Dugout
One of the elders from Gidanturu hanging out at the future site of the CWS water businessBuilding the Gidanturu polytank stand Me with the guys from Gidanturu who helped build the polytank stand (minus Peter who was taking the picture!)Finishing up the polytank stand!
During our first visit to Gidanturu I noticed that many of the children were wearing funny looking hats. After looking closely, I noticed that the children were raising money for Haiti at their school! I thought that this was SO amazing! Back home, we have things like crowdfunding platforms which make raising money on a large scale so easy, and yet this tiny village in rural Ghana – that we have a hard time reaching in our 4 wheel-drive truck, where people live on less than $1 per day, were also raising money for Haiti! How cool is that?! (and they weren’t just wearing the hats, they were really taking donations!)
Hats that kids in Gidanturu were wearing to try to raise money for Haiti relief - pretty amazing!Hope for Haiti!
Being greeted by some students at the Gbong school
Recently, CWS decided to provide free safe storage containers and free water to the schools in our villages. Safe drinking water is so important, and we wanted to be sure that the children had access to clean water throughout the day. We also hope that by teaching the kids at the school about the importance of safe water and safe storage, that they will pass on the lessons to their parents and siblings at home. Here are some pictures from our water lessons in the Gbong school yesterday:
Shak explaining the safe storage container to students in Gbongstudents in GbongNew signboard at Gbong. Thank you iContact!
I took these next pictures in the lab last weekend and just had to share them with everyone. First, we have a water sample from the Gbong dugout:
Before: water from the Gbong Dugout
And here is a sample of water from someone in Gbong’s safe storage container:
After: Water from a safe storage container in Gbong
Quite a difference huh? Remember, the “after” water originally came from the dugout – 24 hours later + alum and chlorine and it safe to drink. Pretty awesome!
And on a completely un-related note, I just finished the book Born to Run By Christopher McDougall, which combined both of my favorite pastimes in Ghana: reading and running. I was inspired to snap a few pics during one of evening runs:
After reading Born to Run I was tempted to try running barefoot! But then I chickened out and laced up these bad boys:
Tamale may not be as hilly as the Cooper Canyons in Mexico, but I still think the Tarahumara would be impressed by the Terrain:
(I love how the blurry iPhone photo makes it seem like I was running super fast!)
While Peter has been hard at work in Cheko, Shak and I have been working to set up a water business in Gbong. Gbong is a large village (about 800 people) located about 40 minutes south of Tamale on the Salaga road.
boys "doing laundry" at the Gbong dugout
As I mentioned in a previous post, our meeting with the Gbong elders a few weeks ago was one of the most formal village meetings that I have had in a while, and that formal trend has definitely continued. For example, in most of our other villages, we will meet with the chief of the village a few times at the beginning of the implementation process, but once he gives us his blessing to work in the village we are pretty much given free range. We can come and go as we please and concentrate on getting our work done. In Gbong, however, we have to greet the chief every time we come to the village and say goodbye to him each time we leave. While this may not seem like a big deal, the time spent traveling to the chief’s palace (which is in the opposite direction of the dugout), then greeting/saying goodbye, definitely adds up. Many times we will also have to stop and greet another elder (who sits by the side of the road all day long). The formal-nature of this village also slows down their decision-making process quite a bit, which in turn slows down our implementation process. We had our initial meeting with the Gbong elders the same days as the Cheko elders, but we probably won’t open the water business in Gbong until Monday,over a week after the business in Cheko opened!
Even though all the greeting and good-bying adds time to our day, I do enjoy getting to know the chief of Gbong. He can speak english very well, which is really fun for me! The village has been very receptive to our team and seems really excited about their water treatment center. We are planning to open the center tomorrow, on World Water Day, and I’ll make sure to capture it all on film. Later that day, we are planning a party at the CWS office for the women working at all 5 of our water treatment businesses. It will be the first time that they all meet each and we can’t wait! What a great way to celebrate World Water Day!
Here are some pictures from the past two weeks at Gbong:
Putting our truck to good use- building the polytank stand in Gbong!Fati and Amina cleaning out the blue tubs and then filling them with dugout waterFirst day of water treatment training with Fati and Amina: Amina treating the dugout water with alum.Day 2 of water treament training: Fati and Amina scooping the water (now clear from the alum) into the polytank where it will be disenfected using chlorineDistributing safe storage containers. Peter came to help out me and Shak since Gbong is so big (almost 90 families!)
The water treatment center at Gbong is sponsored by iContact. Thank you iContact for helping us to provide a safe drinking water for over 800 people! Your contribution has really changed the lives of the people in Gbong!
Both Cheko and Gbong, the two prospective villages that I blogged about last week, have not only agreed to work with us, but have been VERY excited about their water treatment centers! The entire CWS team has been very busy this week getting things set up in both locations and we are hoping to have both water businesses up and running early next week. I’ve decided to dedicate this post to the village of Cheko and will update everyone on Gbong this weekend.
Cheko is a small village of about 34 households (approximately 300 people) located about 35 minutes outside of Tamale and right next door to Jarigu (another CWS village). Like most other CWS villages, the only source of water in Cheko is shallow, stagnant pond (also called a “dugout” or “dam”) that fills with water during the rainy season.
Children collecting water from the Cheko dugout
Our Project Manager, Peter, has been in charge of implementing the water treatment center in Cheko and he has been doing a great job! Last week, he worked with our friend Soufoo from Nyamaliga (who is a mason) and some men from the village to build the stand for the polytank.
Soufoo hard at work
Over the past few days, Peter has been working with the “woman organizer”, Samata, in Cheko to select the two women who will be working at the center. They decided on two hard-working, dedicated ladies names Kukuna and Abiba. This morning, he had his first training session with these women. First, they collected the contaminated water from the dugout, and transported it to the water treatment center.
Transporting dugout water to the water treatment center. All the women from the village help the CWS ladies with this task.
Next, Peter showed them how to use alum – a locally available flocculant, to remove the particles from the water and reduce the turbidity. Tomorrow morning, Peter will return for the second training session with the women!
Samata and Kukuna treating the water with alum while Tuu-naa, the dam guard, looks onProud residents of Cheko by the water treatment center: Samata (the woman organizer), Kambona, and Dagbambina (two village elders).
In addition to running the water treatment center, Peter has been busy distributing safe storage containers to each family in Cheko. Tonight he told me that the water treatment center was the talk of the town! Many families had already heard about the safe storage buckets before he visited their houses and many of the women said that “their husbands have been telling them about the water business all week.” Peter also said that many children from Cheko followed him around all evening begging him to go to their houses next. He thought it was funny and promised them that he would get to every house eventually. The hardest part of his day? Explaining the safe storage containers, and the importance of safe drinking water to a “deaf and dumb elderly man who lives alone.” I really enjoyed listening to Peter explain how he overcame this challenge – its so rewarding to see how much he has learned in his year with CWS. Peter plans to finish up the distribution tomorrow and open the water treatment business on Monday!
CWS Project Manager, Peter, at the Cheko water treatment center after a long days work
The water treatment center at Cheko is sponsored by a good friend of the CWS team who wishes to remain anonymous. We will be sending this sponsor frequent updates on the progress at Cheko, complete with pictures and videos from the water treatment center! If you are interested in sponsoring a village, please visit our website: www.communitywatersolutions.org/support.html
Thank you Village Sponsor for bringing us clean water!
For the past 3 days, Shak, Peter and I have been hard at work getting the new Community Water Solutions house/office up and running. The final few pieces of furniture should be ready tonight, so I promise to post some pictures this weekend!
Now that the house is almost ready, my team and I were able to get back to the field this morning. We quickly stopped by Nyamaliga and Jarigu to collect water samples from their treatment centers (to test in our NEW lab!) and then visited two potential new villages: Cheko and Gbong.
Cheko is right next to Jarigu, and after stopping by there last fall, Peter and I knew that it would be a good fit for CWS. They’re only source of water is a dugout (see below) and the dugout does not dry out in the dry season.
the Cheko Dugout
Today, we met with a couple of the village elders to explain our work and answer any questions that they may have. The chief of the village was not home, so the elders that we met with are going to speak with him his weekend and let us know on Monday morning if they would like to work with us. The elders seemed very receptive to a partnership with us and we are pretty sure that the chief will be on-board with the project.
If Cheko agrees to work with us, then Peter will be implementing the water business all on his own. This will be the first village that Peter will be working in without me (or another founding member of CWS), and he is very excited about it! As I said in my last post, we have been so happy with the work Peter has done over the past year and definitely think that he is ready for this promotion!
While Peter is implementing in Cheko, Shak and I will most likely be setting up a water business in Gbong. This village was suggested to us by our good friend, Soufoo, from Nyamaliga (see below). Soufoo’s half-brother is the chief of Gbong and he had been worried about their water situation for a long time.
Me and Soufoo in Nyamaliga.
We had our initial meeting with the chief of Gbong in the fall, and agreed with Soufoo’s assessment of their water. Their only source of drinking water is a heavily contaminated dugout, and this large village seemed like it could greatly benefit from a CWS water business.
We re-visited Gbong this morning to officially propose a partnership with their village. This meeting was one of the most formal village meetings that I have been to in a long time. There were about 15 of the village’s elders present! The chief will be calling Soufoo this weekend to give us the official yes/no on the project, but again, we are pretty confident that they will agree to work with us! I’ll keep you posted!
After returning from the field this afternoon, I conducted the inaugural water tests in the CWS lab! Here are some pictures from this exciting event!
Water samples. The two on the left are from Cheko and Gbong (its the water that people there are currently DRINKING). The two on the right are from the water treatment centers at Jarigu and Nyamaliga.Water samples, micro-pipettor and pipette tips, may not seem exciting to many, but to the CWS team (and Brian Vozzella) having these items in our lab is VERY exciting!
And just because Shak, Peter and I love it so much, here are some more pictures of the TRUCK!
Peter and I with the truck at the end of our first day in KumasiPeter behind the wheelBig Alex in his signature outfit.
Does all of this look like fun? Want to come work with us in Ghana this summer? Apply for the CWS fellowship! Get more information at www.communitywatersolutions.org/fellowship.html
Applications are due March 8th so you still have all weekend to finish yours up!
Peter and I have been very busy getting things set up in Jarigu this week. Here are some pictures from the past 7 days!
Monday and Tuesday: Building the polytank stand
One of the first steps in setting up a CWS water treatment center is building the polytank stand. We try to work with a local mason to build the stand, but since none of the men in Jarigu were experienced masons, Soufoo, our good friend from Nyamaliga, came to help!
Loading up the taxi with bricks, cement, and sand to bring to Jarigu
Soufoo working awayAlmost done with the first rowHalfway done and finished for the day. It may not look like much, but it took a lot of work! Thank you Soufoo!Filling the middle of the stand with gravelLast step! Covering the outside of the stand and building the stairsAll finished!
Wednesday: Delivering the polytank and the blue tubs
Since Kasaligu now has access to municipal water, we decided to move their water treatment center to Jarigu. This is something that we discussed in detail with the Kasaligu chairman and with Fati, the woman who works at the center. They were both happy to move their polytank to a new village that needed the treatment center (we will still be working with Kasaligu on safe water storage to prevent the re-contamination of the piped water in their homes, and Fati will be selling small Aquatabs that people can use to chlorinate their own water). Originally, Peter and I planned to either rent a truck or find one of the cheap peterbilt used trucks for sale to move the polytank, but we decided at the last minute to use a taxi instead. A few hours and two runs-in with the police later, the polytank and the three blue tubs that make up the water treatment center arrived safely in Jarigu.
Loading a blue tub into the trunk outside of Fati's houseHaving a little trouble fitting the polytank through the door at Fati's house...Loading the polytank onto the roof of the taxi - apparently the Tamale police didn't think that this was a funny as I did!Ready to go!Some of the men from Jarigu who helped set up the water treatment centerFilling the blue tubs with dugout water
Thursday: Distributing Safe Storage Containers and Water Treatment Training
On Wednesday, Peter and I visited each household in Jarigu to distribute the CWS safe storage containers. Although it takes a long time to pass out the containers to each family individually, its a great way to make sure everyone in the village understands the project and the connection between water and health, and learns the importance of safe water storage through the use of water storage containers. Water can be kept safe and clean when stored in one of these. There are various sized containers available, depending on the need and quantity of people. As there is not always running water, it is only best for numerous amounts of villages to have access to these containers. It makes life just a little bit easier for the residents. Just like with any job, it was a LONG but fun and rewarding day!
Peter explaining the different components of the CWS safe storage containerAttaching the tap to the safe storage container. Checking out the safe storage container
On Thursday we also started water treatment training. Usually, we will work with members of the community to select two women to be in charge of the water treatment center, who we then train to treat the dugout water. The village then decides what time of the day and how often they would like the center to be open. We like working with women because they are usually the ones in charge of all water-related household activities (collecting water, cooking, washing, etc) In Jarigu, however, we are doing things differently. This village already had a local man, Alhassan, “guarding” the dugout. He sits by the dugout all day long to make sure that no one walks too far into the water (this helps to prevent Guinea Worm contamination). Since Alhassan was already sitting right next to the water treatment center, the village thought that he should be the one in charge of it and we agreed. Since Alhassan will be at the dugout all day, everyday, the water treatment center can be open all of the time. While this makes it a little bit harder for us to monitor (instead of coming to the village for a few hours on the days the center is open, we will have to be there all day if we want to observe the center’s sales), it is much more convenient for our customers in Jarigu! Here are some pictures from our first night of water treatment training with Alhassan – he is a quick learner and very fun to work with!
Step 1: Particle removal. We use alum- a locally available coagulant/flocculant for this step of the water treatment process.We usually add alum to the water in the evening, and by the next morning, the particles in the water have settled to the bottom and the water is clear.
Friday: Water treatment training day 2
On Friday morning we returned to Jarigu for the second day of water treatment training with Alhassan. We transferred the water from the blue tubs (now “clear”) into the polytank and treated it with Aquatabs, a chlorine product that disinfects the water. Its now ready for opening day!
Step 2: transferring the water to the polytankOnce the polytank is full, we disinfect the water using chlorine.
Saturday: Opening Day!
Opening day in Jarigu was a big success! 34 families came to buy water from Alhassan and a good time was had by all! Thank you again to Susan and Greg Gintoff at Volunteer Shredding, LLC for sponsoring this water treatment center!
Alhassan selling water on opening day at JariguMe with a happy customer is JariguOpening day at JariguMe, Alhassan and Peter at the water treatment center in Jarigu. Thank you Volunteer Shredding, LLC!The CWS water treatment center at Jarigu. Sponsored by Greg and Susan Gintoff at Volunteer Shredding, LLCChildren hanging out at the CWS water treatment center on opening day.
After two weeks of visiting many rural villages in Northern Region Ghana, we have selected Jarigu to be the next site for a CWS water treatment business. Not only does Jarigu meet all of the CWS village criteria (the only source of water is a dugout, the dugout does not dry-out in the dry season, the village is the right size, and there are no current water treatment projects), but it is also about 10 minutes away from Nyamaliga, which will make monitoring the two villages much easier Peter (our project manager). I met with the village elders today to explain the project and they were very eager to work with us and seemed to really understand the idea of a water treatment business. Over the next two weeks Peter and I will be working with members of Jarigu to build the water treatment center, distribute safe storage containers to every family, and select and train two women to work at the center. We are really excited to start implementing in this village and look forward to updating everyone on our progress. Thank you to Volunteer Shredding, LLC, Greg and Susan Gintoff for sponsoring this CWS water treatment business! Your donation is providing a permanent source of clean water for ~750 people!
JariguThe Jarigu Dugout- a shallow, stagnant, mad-made pond. This is their only source of water.Close up of the Jarigu dugout. People frequently ask us what water the people villages were drinking before we got there, well, this is it. Getting a water sample from the dugout- the water tested positive for E.coli. which indicates fecal contamination.Children in Jarigu
I spent the beginning of this week in Accra, the capital of Ghana, meeting with The Melcom Group, the company that manufactures the buckets that CWS has been using for our safe storage containers. Safe storage is a key component of the CWS water treatment model because it helps to prevent re-contamination of the water in the home. In the past, we have purchased these buckets from a retailer in Tamale, and installed taps in them ourselves. This was a very long, arduous task that involved heating a metal pipe on a gas stove and punching holes in hundreds of plastic buckets.
Were we based elsewhere, like in Australia for instance, we could speak to other experts (like those from https://shop.storemasta.com.au/collections/bunded-storage) to help us out with these options. Safe storage of chemicals for water treatment is important, after all. Still, we made do with what was available to us in this circumstance, and all in all we were hopeful for a good outcome.
Well, the meetings in Accra were a huge success! Not only did Melcom sell us the buckets and taps at the wholesale price, but they also punched holes in the buckets for us and shipped them to Tamale for free. The buckets arrived in Tamale today, only two days after I ordered them!
Excited and still a little surprised that the buckets arrived on time
Trying to fit all of the safe storage containers in one taxi...we almost did it!
For the past week and half Peter and I have been using the mornings to check out potential villages to work with. We’ve been to 13 villages so far and are going to see at least one more early next week. Although the rainy season is ending, it still storms about once a week, which can make our journeys to these villages in a taxi very exciting. Luckily, we found Joe, a great taxi driver who is willing to navigate the treacherous roads for us! Here are some pictures from our adventures.
typical road, a couple days after a rain stormGuys helping us decide the best way to get around the mudAll of our helpersPeter chatting with the elders at FUU about their water sources
Checking out the Dugout at Wumbeiyili
I am hoping to start implementing a new water treatment center in a week and have found a couple of communities that seem like a good fit!
