Potential Water Security Design

Introduction

This is a project proposal to investigate issues that the people of Kaoma district in Mayukwayukwa, Zambia are facing related to water supply and sanitation. This assignment will design a proposal for enhancing water security and providing safe and clean water to the villagers of Kaoma. Along with that a justification of proposed design, a research into it and a proposed solution will also be presented.

Project Justification

Nearly 46 percent of people residing in Kaoma district of Mayukwayukwa area are facing issues related to clean and safe water supply for their household’s consumption and sanitation purposes. The society, at present, is relying upon the groundwater that they are able to get using boreholes which they share jointly. People need to carry their containers to the place where boreholes are present and water is accessible for the daily chores of their household. Mainly the person to collect water for their home is either the women or the children (Kampata 2010).

The problem of water security is also gradually rising as the region is facing reduced rainfall from previous seasons. Inconsistent rainfall patterns are resulting in reduced precipitation which is affecting farming yields in a negative way (Kampata 2010). Even though, farmers are using drought resistant crops, an alternative source of water for the purpose of drought-proofing is needed and must (Dagdeviren and Simon 2008).

Preliminary Research Summary

According to the research conducted by UNICEF in Kaoma, all the facilities related to water and sanitation are really very poor in the whole district and majority of people suffers it. Citizens are suffering from diseases like cholera and diarrhoea because of water scarcity. Also, less number of toilets and lack of proper washing amenities results in drop outs from schools and colleges. To control this UNICEF presented an education programme highlighting Life skills and Hygiene education and gender issues. Also, UNICEF is working in a partnership with government to enhance water standards.

The information gained from the above source will help to design a project that could benefit students of the Kaoma district with preference as they are the future of the country. The diseases occurring because of water scarcity are also a major region to look upon and need to be included in the design of the project. Also, as discussed in project justification section too and UNICEF too highlighted this issue, Gender biasness, is the major topic to be improved in the area and this distance needs to be shortened, so that girls could provide essential time to their studies instead of household chores.

Source from CDU Library

The main points discussed in this article address the same issues of clean drinking water in the whole region surrounding Kaoma district. It also highlighted the point that the people who are living in the areas near sea and water bodies’ faces greater challenges related to sanitation problems and are more vulnerable to break outs of disease. The other problems are drinking water is not clean, rainwater harvesting is not proper and water is stored for months in ceramic jars.  Poor education leads to no hygiene practices and absence of proper toilets leads to break out of diseases.

The information collected from this article has informed about the problems that could occur from measured planned such as effect of contact of various chemicals with environment, proposed design should also contain measures for introducing low-cost environmental friendly toilets and proper sewage system. A training system could be accommodated to guide people about hygiene techniques and its need for them and society. A water purification system need to be develop to purify water by removing contaminants from it such as pesticides, chemicals, bacteria etc.

The main points highlighted in this article are the availability of water in the area is so less that it is not able to even cover up basic needs of the residents in the camp including health units and schools. Water quality is very poor. Measures need to be taken for physical safety of the users and proper measures for managing waste water and improving drainage system so that water do not collect inappropriately which can cause diseases related to it.

The design on the proposed project could include proper drainage system of storm water as it has been seen in this article that it is the major necessity in the area. Also, instead of random timings of water supply, proper supply timings should be fixed which will definitely help the citizens and these timings should be fixed keeping in mind their cultural habits. Also, to prevent exploitation of water sources proper measures for it would help the area and design should also concentrate upon the concerns related to environment.

Design Concept

The proposed design for the rainwater harvesting systems will help the district region to collect and store rain water for the dry seasons (Pollem 2009). This would help as an alternative supply of water in case the supplies through groundwater is damaged and will also help in covering up water scarcity to some extent.

Description and sketch             

The drainpipes are used to settle water from rooftop of a building into filtration tank. Next step is to divert filtered water into bore wells so that deep aquifers could be recharged. The maximum capacity of the tank should be decided depending upon recharge rate, intensity of rainfall and area of catchment. A schematic sketch of the same is pasted above Bodonyi 2014).

Issues for further Investigation

The other issues that need to be investigated further in order to develop appropriate and feasible design solution are:

• Water purification techniques
• Proper sanitation and hygiene facilities to citizens at refugee camps
• Life Skills and Hygiene Education
• Issues in water and sanitation related to gender
• Cultural beliefs and practices of the people living in the community

Conclusion

Educating Zambians on proper use of water, sanitation and hygiene is the basic need of the area and efforts are continuously being made for the same. This paper concentrates on the issues that the people of the Kaoma district are facing due to less availability of water and that too not proper hygienic to consume. A design has been proposed to take proper measures to overcome these issues and one of the measure i.e. Rain water harvesting has been discussed briefly.

Reference List

Hilts, P.J. (2016). “Access to Water in Refugee Situations: Survival, Health and Dignity for Refugees”. Retrieved August 25, 2016 from http://www.un.org/arabic/waterforlifedecade/unhcr_water_brochure.pdf.

Devitt, T. (2016). “Water Supply & Sanitation”. Retrieved August 25, 2016 from http://www.ewb.org.au/explore/initiatives/ewbchallenge/hfhewbchallenge/hfhwash.

Kalette, D. (2016). ‘Water, Sanitation and Hygiene’. Retrieved August 25, 2016 from http://www.unicef.org/zambia/5109_8460.html.

Bodonyi, M. (2014). “Water Supply and Sanitation”. Retrieved August 25, 2016 from http://www.ewbchallenge.org/unhcr-zambia/wash.

Pollem, Ole. (2009). “Regulierungsbehörden für den Wassersektor in Low-Income Countries. Hamburg”. Verlag Dr. Kovac. pp. 333–345.

Dagdeviren, H. and Simon, A. (2008). “Robertson:Policy Research Brief: Reforming without Resourcing: The Case of Urban Water Supply in Zambia”, International Poverty Center.

Kampata, J. (2010). “The influence of international water governmance on water management in Zambia” (PDF). Bonn: Department of Water Affairs. Retrieved 25th August 2016.