Floating school@Boeung Rial in need of repairs

How quickly time has passed. Once we had fretted about whether we could actually get the idea of the floating school (literally) off the ground. Now it's been almost two years since we floated the school at Boeung Rial. During the last big floods last year, the school had morphed temporarily into an ark for some of the struggling frightened families.

We visited Boeung Rial just to get a feel of how things had progressed and whether or not the school had been rightfully been returned to the community as a school.

Our worries were unfounded. Juhan, the man entrusted  with the task of looking after the school had done a marvelous job. The school was back to its original function.There are a fairly constant 25 students who come regularly. Juhan had assured us not to worry, saying that he would die to protect the school. Somehow, I believe him. But he shared that vandals (probably drunks) sometimes try to cause trouble for the school by cutting the anchoring ropes. Also sometimes, the storms are too strong for the scrub branches where the school is tethered to. Each time the school loses its mooring, he has had to re-tow the school back. Sometimes there is not enough help, and the gasoline cost of towing the school has begun to be a financial burden for him.

Now, on top of replacing the frequently vandalized anchoring ropes, it is also apparent that the bamboo and oil drum floats of the school need repairs. This is clearly going to cost.

The task for us now is to raise the money to repair the bamboo and the oil drum floats and to provide Juhan with some financial support to pay for the gasoline needed by the boats to tow the school around.

So pleased that the folks have taken up the task of cleaning out the wells for the villages. Started on 28th November. Over 6 days they have cleaned a 100 wells....at a cost of US$7.50 per well.

Ark @ Boeung Rial

Floating in about 4ms of water. The vegetation at back is actually the tops of  a copse of gum trees.

When we built the floating school at Boeung Rial, we never realized how God will eventually use the school.

The recent floods have pretty much driven the villages from there homes.The flood waters have risen the water levels so that there few areas left for the villagers to deploy their homes. We visited the small cluster of homes that had managed to find a shallow strip of land. Even so, the villagers shared that they were scared to remain in their homes at nights when the winds were strong. A few families had sought refuge in the floating school, which for them represented the only stable, safe and secure refuge from the rains and floods. School had essentially ceased during this time because the teachers have been unable  make the trip in to the school.

Swee Oon will be pleased to learn that the floating school is finally really floating in about 4 metres of water.

Well rehabilitation after the floods

Now that the floods waters are beginning to recede, the important task is to start rehabilitating the open wells that have been over-run by the flood waters. This is critical as the contamination of the wells by human and animal faecal wastes have rendered them quite toxic for human use.

We are starting the slow process of well disinfection in the Baray vicinity as the wells become uncovered. The following describe how such disinfection can be carried out. It is not a precise method but is probably adequate, and better than doing nothing. We used similar methods in the 2000 flood, and found it quite effective.

Equipment needed:
Pump 5.5hp pump with 10m of tubing
Chlorine powder S70 (calcium hypochlorite ~70%) - be careful as concentrated chlorine can be corrosive
Large pail
Knotted rope at 10cm intervals
Long pole
Plastic sheet
2 or 3 helpers

Method:
1. Pump out as much well water as possible. The less water remaining, the less chlorine you will need. It will not be completely drained as water will continue to accumulate while you pump. Just do the best you can.
2. Measure the depth of remaining water. You can do this using a rope tied to a weight. The rope can have a painted mark, or a knot every 0.1m.
3. Estimate the amount of chlorine to be used ( according to the Table below). The amount will depend on the depth of water and the diameter of the well.
4. Mix the chlorine powder into a large pail of well water.
5. Pour the mixture into the drained well, and try and stir using a long pole if possible.
6. Cover the well with a plastic sheet.
7 Leave the well covered for about 24 hours (meanwhile, DO NOT USE THE WELL). During this time also do not try to enter the well as the chlorine fumes may be overpowering and toxic.
8. The next day. Pump and empty the well again, as much as possible. Again, be careful of chlorine fumes which have accumulated in the closed environment of the well.
9. Let the well water re-accumulate naturally over the next 24 hrs
10. The well should now be able to be used, if the strong smell of chlorine has disappeared.

The following Table gives the approximate amount of Chlorine powder to be used depending on the diameter of well and depth of residual well water. For example: if well diameter is 1.5m and depth 0.5m, it will reference cell "I10", which is approximately 16 tablespoons.

Water purification during the floods

The flood situation in Cambodia is not getting better, and does not look like it is going to go away soon. Ironically in the midst of this water, people are desperately in need of good drinking water. Regular open wells have been over-run, heavily contaminated and are next to useless. Water purifier tablets are unavailable, and even if available are too expensive for regular use of the families in the villages.

For those reading in Cambodia, here is an option that can be used. Water can be disinfected using household bleach. I am not sure how available this is in the villages, but it will definitely be more accessible than commercial water purifier tablets.

1. Get hold of standard simple household bleach. Non-perfumed. Not the specialty types. It should say approximately 5-6%.

2. Filter the water source. Can just use a double layer of the Cambodian krama. This is just to get rid of as much mud, sand and debris as possible.

3. Disinfect the water using the bleach. The amount of bleach used is approximately a quarter of a teaspoon for about 4 litres of water. This should be approximately a standard 10 -12 inch diameter pail filled to about 10-12 inches high. Stir the water well and let it stand for about 30 minutes. There should be a bit of the chlorine smell, but not too strong. If too much chlorine smell can just agitate the water by pouring pail-to-pail. After a while it should be ready to drink.

This is a very crude process, so don't expect any accuracy here in generating the correct concentration of chlorine. The bleach is relatively safe and non-poisonous when used this way. The important thing is that it is an accessible, affordable, low tech way of obtaining reasonably disinfected water for daily needs.

Water quality in Baray

In the recent trip, we were able to take water samples for chemical and microbiological analyses from various locations at the places we frequented.

These places were, from West to East:

a] Boeung Rial:

i) from a water container of their drinking water, obtained from the lake;

ii) direct from the lake source itself;

iii) from an open well.

b] Phum Ley:

i) tube-well at the school;

ii) tube-well at centre of village;

iii) open well at centre of village;

iv) just outside Phum Ley, at a ditch.

c] Andaut:

pumped water from an open well

d] Baray:

i) un-filtered water from open well at SOLAR Cafe;

ii) filtered water from open well at SOLAR Cafe;

iii) pumped water from open well at Khmer Village Homestay;

iv) drawn water from open well at Palm Village.

The results below:

If you need a better print-out of the data, please drop me an email. For reference of what the WHO standards are, please check out their publication:

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/GDW8rev1and2.pdf

You can't imagine where they drink from....

The story of the widow of Zarephath and Elijah during the God-ordained drought reminded me of the water quality project we did during this last trip. We sampled sources of drinking water from more than 10 locations in various villages. I will report of the results later on when I have received them.

What was a horrific eye opener was discovering where some of their unreported sources were. We would like to think they source their water from rivers/streams, open wells and the tube wells we provide. If tube wells easily accessible, they will certainly use them. Do they boil the water before drinking? Often no. We asked if they would carry clean boiled water with them when they go to the fields to work. Their answer? No. Where would they drink from, then? Apparently they just drank directly from the rivulets/irrigation run offs by the padi fields.

We wanted to view some of these streams by padi fields so that we can sample the water for analyses, but this being the dry season, few such streams were evident. Instead a ditch like this with stagnant foul water was often used as well for drinking. Drinking techniques include a cursory separation of surface debris before scooping out water with the cupped palm to drink. Sometimes they would lay their krama on the surface, and using it as a crude filter, drink through the krama fabric.

We were horrified.