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Implementation by Purva Juvekar

Once we had placed the order for the filter casing and were working on the pump, we decided to track down the filter media that would go into the casing: sand, pea gravel and coarse gravel. Our colleague took us shops which catered to construction purposes and we picked up 4 bags of sand and 2 bags of gravel first. This was less sand that we needed, but we wanted to check the integrity of the 1.2 mm thick filter casing before taking it to Phat Sanday, the floating village we were assigned to. The casing was delivered the same day as the sand (Tuesday), and we assembled it the next day. On Thursday, it was still holding the pressure and weight of the sand and gravel and we decided it was time to take it to the village.

We set out at 5 am on Friday – 6 people, 6 bags of sand, 2 bags of gravel, a PVC pump, several PVC pipes and a 1 m tall stainless-steel filter casing, all in one SUV. 3 hours later, we were in the village of Chhnok Trou. It is from here that we took a boat to go to Phat Sanday. It is further away from the land, and it took us about 15 minutes to get to the school. We had already decided where we were going to put the filter – it was going to be stationed right next to the bathroom, so that students could wash their hands. We got right to work and began pouring coarse gravel first, followed by pea gravel and then sand. It took 1.5 hours to assemble, and needed 1 hour to settle.

We hit a roadblock when our pump refused to pull in water. There were air bubbles and leaks and problems with sealing. Fortunately, the owner of the school had a design in mind – bigger, faster and cheaper to build. There was a floating hardware shop close to the school, and we bought all the materials he needed. Within 30 minutes, he had fashioned another pump which cost almost 3 times less than ours did. His resourcefulness amazed me and our team, genius we thought!

Figure 10 Building the New Pump

As soon as the pump had been fitted, student lined up to use the filter. It was beautiful to see the children have so much fun using the pump and washing their hands. The whole experience had been humbling, educational and eye-opening. It was hard saying goodbye to the students, we hoped we could see them again.

Figure 11 A Student Using the Pump

Figure 12 Students Using the Sanitation Station



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