WASH Project

ABCD (UK) and Lyasikika Secondary School

Lyamungo Sinde, Kilimanjaro

A Proposal for a WASH (Water Sanitation and Hygiene) Project

A Portrait of a Village

Lyamungo Sinde is a small village in Hai District, Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania with a population of about 3500 souls. It sits on the south-westerly slopes of Kilimanjaro and is accessible by car. The people of the village are largely small-holders, surviving by growing their own produce and marketing what they have left. Some of the income for the village comes from locals who work in the nearby town of Moshi as well as further afield in Dar es Salaam. The village location is ideal for rainfall and the climate is cooler than in the plains due to its altitude. Ground crops include corn, kidney beans with tree crops providing avocados, mangoes, bananas and coffee beans. These crops are only grown in small amounts. There is no commercial or industrial agriculture. On this basis it is similar to many other villages around Kilimanjaro as indeed across Africa. The people are generally healthy. They are poor but the poverty is not as abject as it is in some regions.

The community is 60%-40% Christian to Muslim. There is a large Lutheran church (on whose land Lyamungo Sinde Primary School is built) and a small Roman Catholic Chapel in a nearby village. There is also a mosque (on whose land Mwowe Primary School is built). Christians and Muslims, as is the case all over Tanzania live happily side-by-side. The Lutheran church is the social centre for the Christians with the mosque supporting the Muslims. The Lutheran faith is generally strong in the Kilimanjaro region, a legacy of German occupation before the First World War. All the village children, whether Muslim or Christian attend one of the 3 village primary schools while only some of them will attend one of 2 secondary schools – Lyasikika (year8-11) and Lyamungo Sinde (Years 12 &13, A-level).

Primary education is also supposed to be free to all but in reality government support is insufficient to cover all expenses in the schools. This is true across the whole of Tanzania. Parents or guardians therefore have to pay supplementary fees for the school lunch programme. This amounts to Tanzanian shillings (Tzs)25,000 annually (about £10 or US$18) at primary and about (Tzs)45,000 at secondary level. Some people cannot afford this and have their children bring some produce from the small-holding instead. Upon completion of primary school many of the children leave education because their families/carers cannot afford secondary school payments.

My Proposal

A recent report estimates that in Sub‐Saharan Africa half of all girls who drop out of school say that a lack of adequate water and sanitation facilities are a contributing factor. A further 10 percent of school‐age girls who have reached the age of  puberty do not attend school during menstruation (Tearfund, 2008).

A mapping of school WASH in every school in 16 districts (2,697 schools) carried out jointly by SNV, WaterAid and UNICEF shows that the provision of water, sanitation and hygiene in pre‐, primary and secondary schools in Tanzania is lamentable.

Through ABCD (UK) and the rotary clubs of Morden and Callington in the UK I hope to build a hand-wash facility for students at Lyasikika secondary followed by two toilet blocks, male and female. The female block will have a provision for feminine hygiene.

Proposed Implementation

To complete the reconstruction of a Toilet and Sanitation facility at Lysikika Secondary School, Machame East Ward, Hai district, Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. The project to be completed over a 3-month period in 2019-20 as follows plus a further 3-month period in 2020-21.

Hand wash facility construction to include:

  1. School storage chamber to support a 2000 litre water tank
  2. twin basins (boy-girl) with 3 taps each for hand washing
  3. drainage to garden area

Toilet block reconstruction with new pit to include:

    1. 2 buildings of 8 cubicles each piped to a new pit
      1. to include 1 enhanced cubicle for girls’ hygiene
      2. and a latrine in the boys’ block
    1. plumbed water supply to each cubicle
    1. 16 UPVC or stainless steel European style squat toilet basins
  1. 15-metre deep pit with piped intake from toilet blocks

Cost Outlay

Hand-wash:

  • Cost of a 2 metre square chamber will be in the range of USD 1150-1500 (£1250 approx.- estimate based on cost of tower)
  • The picture above shows a polythene tank. Polythene ‘SIMtanks’ are commonplace and a 2000 litre tank will cost £250 approx.
  • Plumbing up to 2 metres high will include ¾” polythene piping from source (100 metres) into and exiting the tank from below tank level (1 metre) into a concrete, tiled handwash basin facility (also common); cost £250 approx.
  • Taps (6 no.) and drainage hardware £180 approx.
  • Plumbed lines to future toilet blocks (stopped for future use – £20 approx)
  • Labour @ 25% of materials cost £487.50
  • Total cost £2437.50

P.S. As of February 2020 this unit is now complete and operational. It came in just over budget at £2500. Toilet blocks to follow. In the meantime (November 2019) the current boys’ toilet block has collapsed into its own pit! The need for a new block is therefore urgent as the school faces closure if it can’t be implemented soon. I have suggested a Public Private Initiative (PPI) to help to raise funds from the community.

Toilet Block:

A similar construction for a 14-cubicle block carried out in 2014 for Lyamungo Sinde Primary School (a feeder school for Lyasikika Sec.) came in at a cost of £4500 approx. or £320 per cubicle, including 20-metre offset effluent pit.

Based on this calculation and adjusting for inflation since 2014 (e.g. 2014 price 1 bag of cement Tzs 12,000 today Tzs 15,000) 16 cubicles inc. boys urinal and offset pit should come to £6740 approx. This includes 17 stainless steel toilet pans @ £20 approx.

The contractor recently engaged by the headteacher on behalf of the district education office (DEO) has quoted an overall approx. estimate of Tsh 16-17 million (£5150) for just one block! In my initial estimated cost total for materials I assumed approximately £8690 for both blocks. Including labour @25% of materials cost we then reach £10,860. I hope to make up the deficit by the proposed PPI.

In association with:
The Social and Development Projects Committee
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania
Northern Diocese
Lyamungo Sinde Lutheran Parish
P.O.Box 1762
Moshi, Tanzania (EA)

UK Address: Mr. John de Ronde, ABCDreams (UK)
3 Pearce Close, Mitcham, London, CR4 2GP
+447800907661 in UK
+255753091513 in Tanzania

Email: info@abcdreams.org.uk or lyasilupar@yahoo.com