A non-profit organization providing water wells and sanitation systems to schools in Africa

Sometimes the best solution to a problem doesn’t yet exist, and sometimes the solution already exists in another form but isn’t useful without modification. In either circumstance, Drop In The Bucket is fortunate to be able to call upon a group of forward-thinking friends who could best be described as problem solvers. Some have construction or engineering backgrounds, and others are just creative people with unique skills who wanted to find new ways to bring clean water and sanitation systems to the people of Africa.

Challenge: Sanitation is as big a problem in sub-Saharan Africa as the lack of clean water. For many years, pit latrines have been used because they are easy to construct and relatively inexpensive. But pit latrines are basically large pits that, over time, fill up with effluent, making it necessary for toilets to be relocated when the pits are full. Schools with pit latrines are left with large, toxic sections of school property that children can’t use, and land areas prone to flooding during heavy rains are at risk of ground water contamination.

This picture shows what the toilets at Gulu High School looked like before.

Solution: The Eco-sanitation septic system removes oxygen from the sewage system by covering it with water. The water flow is controlled by large river rocks which increase the surface area for pathogen absorption. This allows good micro-bacteria to essentially “eat” the pathogens in the effluent, so the sewage breaks down over a period of 30 days and passes through the system until it comes out the other side as water that is 100% pathogen free and 85% pure.

This picture shows what the toilets look like now.

Challenge: There are more villages that need clean water than there are well-drilling rigs and skilled well drillers in sub-Saharan Africa.

Solution: The man powered percussion drill. One of our friends designed a drilling rig that is basically a large weight with a head that resembles a drill bit. The weight is on a pulley and works by means of 4 people pulling on a rope to lift the weight. When the weight is dropped, the dirt it hits is displaced. The loose dirt is then removed using a bailer, which is also on a rope. Using this method last year, four people were able to drill just over 4 feet in as many hours. While slower than using a large drilling rig, this method allows villagers to drill their own water well without delay or expense.

Challenge: Fluoride in the ground water supply. Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that, in small amounts, is quite common and harmless in drinking water. However in high concentrations, it can be poisonous. The US-approved safe level of fluoride is 4mg/liter, whereas Drop In The Bucket has found drinking water supplies in sub-Saharan Africa with levels as high as 27mg/l which is said to cause immediate sickness.

Solution: Charbone filtering is commonly used in sugar manufacturing. It removes the fluoride, uses no power, and is inexpensive to implement. Because sugar manufacturing is a big industry in Africa, the materials were easy to locate and install.

Challenge: The complete water system would be too hard to implement at a specific school, but something better than a pit latrine is needed.

Solution: Pit latrine conversion to dispose of effluent rather than just collecting it. Adding enough water to cover the waste will allow the good micro-bacteria to start eating at least some of the pathogens. This simple modification will increase the life span of a regular pit latrine by up to four times as long. Of course there will need to be a well installed first to suplly sufficient water, but this a great way to utilize the run off from the well.

Challenge: The area that needs water is located too high in altitude to reach the water table using a hand pump, and the regular rain water harvesting tanks do not yield enough water to support the amount of people in the area.

Solution: A rainwater harvesting structure, This large structure, designed to store significantly more water, is much bigger than any of the existing tanks in the area.

Challenge: It takes a lot of time to build toilets on site by our trained drillers.

Solution: The 5x5 toilet block, When large items are shipped around the world, they are generally packed in steel containers which are often discarded after repeated use. Our good friend, Peter had the idea of building a toilet block that consists of 5 boys’ and 5 girls’ toilets in one of these containers. They come pre-plumbed and are ready to be connected to either a pit latrine or one of Drop In The Bucket’s Eco-Sanitation septic systems. The installation takes less than a day, once the foundation has been prepped, and the blocks are easily shipped on trucks.

Having water at the well is great, but how about water distribution to other areas of the school?

Solution: The Roundabout Pump, Like a lot of the technology we use, we did not create this device; it has been around a long time. But rather than use it as prospectors did, with donkeys doing the work, we designed a piece of school playground equipment. The activity of children playing on the roundabout is converted to an up and down motion which forces water through a “stuffer box.” This gives the pump enough pressure to propel water as far as 80 meters straight up in the air, allowing the hand pump to be some distance away from the toilets and septics, thus reducing the risk of ground water contamination.