How Wearing Shoes Solved our Drinking Water Problem: Design Thinking 101
The Background
Our school was situated almost 65kms from Birjung, headquarter of Parsa District in Thori rural municipality. Surrounded by Chitwan National Park in the north and west, Parsa National Park in the east, and Balmiki Tiger Reserve in the south, our school is in the buffer zone with a lack of proper physical infrastructures like electricity, roads, and drinking water among many. While this article is being written some development has been made on roads and electricity, however, the state of drinking water remains the same.
Water is supplied to the villages through a reservoir built inside the jungle in the foothills of the Chure region. Currently, the reservoir is inside an army camp set up for the protection of wild animals and forests inside the national park. The water is contaminated and unfit for drinking but locals have no other choice. Groundwater is scarce and cannot be pumped out.
Some influential communities have built overhead water tanks but those are just for a handful of households and remain far from the general public. In other low-income communities, public water pumps have been set up. The problem with these water pumps is that it is only operated for 2 hours, twice a day. For the 150 families involved in agriculture and livestock farming, it is a nightmare to stand in a long queue to fetch water.
Problems increase in the winter season due to shorter days and the danger of wildlife attacks. Kidney stones and other diseases related to dehydration are prevalent there and are one of the many reasons for the high mortality rate.
The School & Students
Our school happened to be in an influential community, so we had drinking water supplied through an overhead tank three times a day for 2 hours. The school had its own concrete water tank that was used to store drinking water. Due to a lack of manpower, water could not be filled properly in the school tank. Water came early in the morning and evenings when the school remained close. The only water we could save was what came during the daytime while everyone was in the school. For students and teachers, that water was not enough most of the time.
We also had students who came to our school from communities that did not have overhead water tanks. Most of the time, the school was the only place where they could drink enough water. The differentiation could be easily seen in the classroom. It was not just a coincidence that students from the community with and without proper drinking water didn’t hang out with each other. Some students brought water bottles to the school, only for themselves, and did not share it even among friends.
The Problem
Lack of drinking water came with a lot of problems. The concrete water tank of the school was not enough for more than 650 students from Early Childhood (ECD) to Class 12 and a team of 30 teachers and other workers. The concrete water tank required repairing but due to lack of funds, that was not possible.
In chapters, we taught students to drink at least 6 liters of water per day, but we couldn’t drink enough water ourselves. Some days we had no option except remain thirsty for a certain period.
The region received very little rainfall and the temperature could rise over 40 degrees centigrade during the summer. We had to shut down schools for weeks due to the high temperature.
Due to a lack of water, Tobacco farming was adopted in the region. Tobacco farming is a labor-intensive task and most of the students had to engage in farming. Students used to arrive late to school either because their task was to fetch water or work in the fields.
All of these had seriously impacted our efforts to improve the academic achievement of the school. Students could not focus, neither could we, due to dehydration. Students started getting sick due to the high temperature when we denied shutdown of school during summer. The flowers and plants also started to dry up.
The Workshop
During one of our informal sessions in the STEAM Club, after introducing Design Thinking to students, some students wanted to work on the drinking water problem. It was not on the agenda for that day but as STEAM Club was a student-led open platform, all of us agreed to work on the problem.
We divided them into 3 groups with 4 students each. They started working instantly. But instead of finding out the causes, they started to list the solutions. I waited for some time. They came back excited with different solutions such as building extra water tanks, procuring electrical motor pumps, direct supply for school, among others.
We discussed more solutions. They became disappointed about how their solutions were not working.
That day, I sent them home. For a few days, it was not possible to conduct a workshop due to other engagements. But I constantly talked about the problem in class.
After a week, we sat again. This time we re-formed the groups to make them more inclusive and started working.
The Observation
During the workshop, the team first started to analyze the source of water in the school. After that, they worked on the situation of water storage in the school. The next day, during school time, one team stayed near the water taps and kept observing the water consumption pattern by students. Another team looked for water use around the classrooms and the condition of the tank. The third team interviewed 4 teachers, 12 students, 2 SMC members, 4 parents, and 3 houses that surrounded the school. The questionnaire was prepared collectively a day before, during the workshop.
The team sat down again the next day for discussion with their notes and findings. It was observed that there was a lack of manpower to direct the water into the school tank during the morning and evening. Any water that somehow managed to stay in the tank, was lost due to the poor condition of the concrete water tank.
Another main observation was the water-use pattern. Most of the water was used to wash legs, hands, and face rather than for drinking purposes.
Kids from lower classes couldn’t reach taps and had no one helping them. Few students carried water and even if they carried water, they would not share.
The Solution
Most of the water was used to wash legs and hands as students came through dusty roads wearing slippers. When they came to school, they rushed to wash their feet and cool off. We could solve this if students wore shoes to school. We could save a lot of water by this technique that could be later used for drinking purposes.
Apart from that, we proposed to repair the tank and made the water collection direct to the school tank from the overhead tank. Now, no one needed to be deployed just to collect water.
We also promoted “Bring Your Own Bottle’’ to the classes and parents helped us. Due to lack of funding, we couldn’t decrease the height of taps for kids but we encouraged other students to help them.
With the collaboration of SMC members, teachers, students, and parents, we were able to solve the drinking water problem. With the shoes and proper uniform, the school looked more beautiful, flowers started to blossom, plants started growing and there was enough water for everyone to drink. But this was not a sustainable solution.
Water was required for other tasks as well. Our SMC president remembered an old pipe that supplied water to the school earlier and was closed for more than a decade. We found that in the bushes and repaired the broken pipe ourselves without any cost. That undrinkable water was used for our garden. Later, a plastic tank was brought to school that was used to save water for the toilet and other necessities.
This article is based on Design Thinking workshop conducted in 2018 with students of Shree Ma vi Bijaybasti, Thori-4 Parsa STEAM Club, facilitated by Kumod Kumar Sah, Science Fellow, Teach For Nepal.
