The overarching goal is to improve the hygienic environment by providing safe drinking water to schools and related local communities.
Our local partner Environmental Camps for Conservation Awareness (ECCA) has been promoting safe drinking water in Nepal by using Antenna’s WATA electro-chlorinators for several years already. After introduction of the program in 20 schools during the pilot project conducted during 2012–2014, the Safe Water Program has been extended and expanded to 15 new schools over the time period 2015–2017, reaching a total of 35 schools being integrated. Since, 10 schools have dropped out of the program due to school closing, merger or integration into another NGO’s program. The schools integrated in the program over the previous years continue to be accompanied, thus aiming at reaching a total of more than 13,000 direct beneficiaries in schools and additional 70,000 people in the surrounding communities. In the third and last phase, 2018-2020, we are working with ECCA on the right measures to create maximum impact.
The Safe Water Program contains four main elements: Education, Infrastructure, Application and Extension from School to Community:
Education
Water conservation and management
Proper storage of treated drinking water
Hand washing
Orientation to school management committee; Training of teachers & students
Interschool competitions on various themes related to WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene)
Infrastructure
Separate water tank for chlorinating and storing drinking water; related piping system
Facilities for proper hand washing
Smooth and sustainable operations and maintenance of facilities
Application
Local production of chlorine solution
Soap for hand washing
Extension to community
Social marketing activities (stall at market place, street drama, etc.)
Promoting and selling water disinfectant products
Water quality analysis within community and reporting it
Educating family clusters
Interaction with various stakeholder groups
Technology
At the core of the water purification technology is the proven WATA Technology of the Swiss based NGO Antenna Foundation. WATA technology allows the local production of sodium hypochlorite for water treatment and disinfection purposes. A WATA device is a simple tool to produce chlorine. It requires water, salt and electricity. WATA is simply using a well-known technique that has been applied to producing chlorine for almost 200 years. It targets communities that lack access to a chlorine supply chain or to a drinkable water supply.
Monitoring and Reporting
Our local partner ECCA reports results on a half-year basis, following defined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) providing information on the success of the program. In addition, we aim for annual visits on site.
