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andhra pradesh, india
home / india |
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AnnMarie Spexet and Bryan Shnider travelled to the project site, and blogged about their implementation trip..
See Bryan's blog on the SMU website |
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July 21, 2007 |
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Today we went to two of the villages with our rotary sponsor. In SRPP, bryan got his sand filter set up and working. While he was doing that, the rotarian and I went to Voola palem to check on the rope pump. Voola Palem is an interesting village, since it is a location for a very large housing project by a large faith-based NGo. The houses are still under construction, but it's almost finished, and it's very impressive. The rope pump we made is still working, but I took the base block so that we could repair it (it had chipped during installation. The ladies in the area really liked the pump, and are definitely interested in a second pump.
You can see the base block in this photo. It is the thing at the bottom of the pipe. The duct tape is where we temporarily fixed it to show the villagers how the pump works. These kind of handpumps are pretty common through latin america, and this pump actually came from one of the Rice University EWB project sites (thank you Deepa and Tim!). You can read all about how rope pumps work at www.ropepumps.org.
We returned to the SRPP village, and while Bryan was wrapping up his filter installation (photos will come soon), we went over to the dalit side of the village to talk to them. The dalit side of the village has received next to no aid, and it stands in stark contrast to the main part of the village. The rotarian had the community site 3 locations for borepoints, and we'll get handpumps installed on those sites.
Tomorrow is Sunday, so all the shops will be closed. We'll get the base fixed on the rope pump. On Monday, we'll go back to SRPP, and also visit the communities of Batti Somiah Palem and Jalamma Palem. We might also install the solar light in Jalamma on Monday. On tuesday evening, I return to Hyderabad, where I will meet up with EWB-India, and go to our solar panel vendor to discuss options with the rotarian.
read about biosand filters at www.biosandfilter.org
-A.M. |
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July 20, 2007 |
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Here's the photo of the rope pump installed and working. We'll return to install a platform in a few days.
Our wire transfers are all in, so we're getting our construction manager set up. Tomorrow, we'll go to SRPP to install a biosand filter and get the rainwater catchment project on the school set up, so I've prepared yet another educational poster for the occassion. See the english version of the poster here
The handpumps have been ordered and should be in early next week. The solar streetlight for Jalamma Palem also arrived today, so that can be installed at our leisure.
Here is the telugu language version of the solar disinfection poster.
Here is the english language version of the solar disinfection poster.
-A.M. |
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July 18, 2007 |
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Bryan installed the rope pump in Voola Palem today. It works pretty well, except I think we need to build a small platform so smaller people can operate the pump with ease. The community seemed to like it so Bryan might try to build a second pump with the community. We'll go back there on Friday to get everything finished up and line up workers to install the handpumps.
We are waiting for all of our wire transfers to come through so we can make our handpump purchases and get contractors lined up. We've been told that all the transfers were made, but that it takes time to get through the banking systems. The plan is to replace the small handpumps we installed in 2006 with heavy duty handpumps. We're looking at 17 handpumps across 4 different communities, so that's a lot of workers to arrange.
Bryan is now working on finishing up his biosand filter for the school at SRPP. We showed solar disinfection to them last week, so we want to demonstrate biosand in the hopes that at least one of the technologies will appeal. We will likely deploy that later this week.
-A.M. |
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July 16, 2007 |
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We ended up spending the weekend in Hyderabad with our Rotary sponsor. We decompressed, gathered our thoughts, and are now back in Ongole for more work. Today, we got the Telugu translation of our solar disinfection poster done, and we brought it out to SRPP to show the community how to do it with their own water. We brought dozens of empty water bottles from our apartment and gave it to the community to use. We sized up the schoolhouse for the possibilty of attaching a rainwater catch system, and will likely start that later this week.
After that, we went to the communities of Batti Somiah Palem and Jalamma Palem. We sized up the handpumps that we installed last year, and will get new, sturdier pumpheads installed in the next two weeks.
Finally, we got an estimate for building the water stations from a local engineer. We are evaluating the numbers, and starting to plan out the groundbreaking for the stations.
Tomorrow, we will go to the community of Voola Palem to get workers lined up to repair the pumps in those communities.
-A.M. |
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July 12, 2007 |
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Since finding out out the water testing results, we have been trying to figure out the most appropriate way to deal with the issue of the bacterial contamination in the wells that were dug in SRPP. Since it's very likely that the water they currently drink also has high bacterial levels (we will confirm that with a test), we want to show them ways to make the water safer to drink. The solutions that seem to be the most appropriate here are solar disinfection and biosand filtration. Biosand takes a little while to get working, so I want to teach them how to do solar disinfection. We are going to show the schoolchildren in the village how to do it, so I made up a little poster that our translator is changing into Telugu for me. See the english version of the poster here
We are meeting with our Hyderabad rotary sponsor today. We are working out some of the housekeeping issues for the project.
Tomorrow, we will go to Voola palem, Batti Somiah Palem, and Jalamma Palem.
-A.M. |
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July 10, 2007 |
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Sorry for the delay in posts. Lots of activity in recent days.
We got the testing results from the SRPP wells back. All the wells we dug were affected with coliform bacteria, and we suspect that to be a problem all across the village. Sanitation is a definite issue in this community, since they do not appear to have much in the way of latrine facilities. We shared our findings with the community, and will be helping them to construct a biosand filter at the primary school to try and clean up the water for the children. We will also explain solar disinfection, so that they can do easy disinfections at home.
We are still awaiting our rotary fund transfer to the Hyderabad bank, and that it holding up construction. For now, we are keeping ourselves occupied by revisiting all of the 2006 project sites to see how the previous installations have fared over the last year. Many of the borewells that were installed in 2006 were damaged, so we are helping those communities by replacing them with sturdier handpumps. We went to the San Diego chapter village yesterday to look at the pipeline installation they did in 2006. There was some concern about the bacteria and nitrate levels in the pipeline, so we grabbed a sample and sent it off for testing. We should have results early next week.
For the rest of this week, we will go back to Voola palem, and install the rope pump, now complete thanks to Bryan. We will then discuss the handpump situation with that community and work out a plan to get them repaired. We will also visit Batti Somiah palem to see how that installation went, and go back to Jalamma palem to get the new handpumps installed.
-A.M. |
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July 4, 2007 |
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We got the streetlight and new wells for Jalamma Palem ordered up. Bryan is reworking the rope pump to make it compatible with india's piping, which is sized a little different than Nicaraguan PVC pipe was. He will be assembling the base later this week.
I will meet our rotary representative on Friday to discuss the budget and construction plans. The rotary money is currently held up in paperwork, and won't get released until mid July. I'm trying to make our initial round of money last as long as possible while still getting our tasks done in the 2006 villages like Jalamma Palem.
I realize that my blog entries are really very boring. I'm just trying to hit the highlights because I am busy trying to get this effort coordinated as well as doing my regular job from here. Bryan's posts are so much more interesting. See his blog on the SMU website
-A.M. |
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July 2, 2007 |
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We collected water samples from the wells in SRPP today. It turns out the community has AC power anywhere from 2-4 hours in the summer to almost all the time in the winter. They are willing to pay for AC power to run the pumps. We met up with a mason and showed him our design. Tomorrow, we'll be interviewing local engineers to help with the construction.
We may be installing only 2 water stations. The community isn't very large, and 3 might be overkill. In addition, one of the wells looks like it is having problems developing properly. The diggers suspect it might have collapsed during digging.
The reassembled rope pump was shown to members of the Voolapalem village. They expressed interest in test driving one at an open well, so Bryan will be reassembling the bottom part of the pump tomorrow so we can try to install one later this week or early next week
-A.M. |
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June
30, 2007 |
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I have posted photos of the well dig. You can see them here. We will be repairing the light at Jalamma Palem as well as installing a second light using the panel from the water station installation. The water station pump was damaged, so I am working on ways to install a hand pump to fill the tank.
The rope pump that was purchased from the Nicaragua 2 project site has been put back together, and we are arranging for it to be installed in the Voolapalem village from the 2006 visit.
-A.M. |
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June
27, 2007 |
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After looking at the
site, I've come to the conclusion that running AC pumps is not out
of the question for two of the three sites. One site is clearly
away from the main power grid, but the other two have access to
the power grid for several hours during the day at two of the
sites. Power lines are actually running right past those two
stations.
Photos *are* coming. The
internet cafe I'm using runs very slow and it takes a long time
for pictures to show up.
-A.M. |
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June
26, 2007 |
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Today we had the wells
dug. It'll take a couple days to develop them, so we'll get them
tested when they are ready. I got some site photos, and will put
them up soon.
-A.M. |
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June
25, 2007 |
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Bryan and I arrived in
Ongole yesterday and spent most of day sleeping off jet lag. We
met up with our partner agencies, and we will start digging the
wells tomorrow and do the testing in a day or two after the wells
develop. Tomorrow will be the first day on site, so we'll get some
photos then.
All in all, it's pretty much what I expected for the first couple
of days.
I'll put the photos up when I can.
-A.M |
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June
17, 2007 |
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 On June 24, the travel team of AnnMarie Spexet and Bryan Shnider will be arriving in Ongole, India to begin construction of the water stations. We plan on posting photos as the travel team can upload them. The team will be there until early August, working on the construction of water stations in the Sri Rama Pattapu Palem community.
Read about the project here
This is the project we have been working on for the last year to update the original water station concept to create a multifunctional building complete with lights and running water. The design incorporates solar power and rainwater catchment to use two abundant resources in the area.
Here are photos of the three proposed station sites:
  
(note: you can see power lines in these photos, and may be wondering why we are using solar power. The reason is that these communities are currently unable to pay for the power coming from the grid).
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December 9 , 2006 |
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On December 26, 2004, an earthquake off the coast of Indonesia triggered a tsunami that devastated the coastal regions of many of the countries along the Indian ocean. EWB was called to assist some of the coastal villages in the Prakasham District of Andhra Pradesh, India that were affected by the disaster.
Our first project implementation is on the ground in India. The San Francisco and Texas groups went to the site in April and installed wells, pumps, and solar panels. We've posted all the photographs so you can take a better look at the sites. A second implementation wave installed a pipeline in another village in July, with assistance by students from University of Minnesota and the Muffakham Jah Engineering School in Hyderabad. The Texas group is now working to design water stations for Sri Rama Pattapu Palem, another village in the area. We are adapting the design used for the solar pumping station in Jalamma Palem to create a series of multifunctional commons buildings for the new community, as well as desigining rain water capture systems for the new houses to reduce their need to rely on groundwater.
This is part of a multichapter project involving professionals from North
Texas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Boston and India.
Like all EWB projects, these projects are financed by donations. To support this project, please go to http://www.ewb-usa.org/donate.php and select the EWB-Houston (Central) Chapter. Donations are tax deductible.
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