“Buying 8,000 Liters Per Day”
Tiala Ao presenting us with precious gift
In 1996, my friends Chuba and Tiala Ao opened a children’s residential school, referred to as an “English” school, in Mokokchung, Nagaland, part of the Northeast States of India. Hindi is also taught to all students. Currently, the enrollment is 430 children ranging in age from four years old through eighteen. Today I spoke with Tiala and her daughter, Sentila, who now runs the school since her father’s death in July, 2005. Sentila and her husband, Moa Jamir, are among our HOPE FOR CHANGE partners in India.
Last year Monsoon brought rain during the second week of April which was much earlier than 2009 and 2010 when the school campus was parched until mid-June. Generally, the “dry season” lasts for four months from January thru April and everyone watches the skies over Mokokchung for the winds of Monsoon to bring the big, dark clouds. However, in order to “harvest” rainfall from the sky, the bulging clouds must stall long enough to deposit the rainfall in the existing roof reservoir. When they don’t - the school staff must purchase bottled water.
Rainfall in 2009 was too sparse; in the final analysis rainfall in 2010 was too much ~ crops were ruined. Too much rainfall also brings sickness ~ epidemics of malaria, cholera, and typhoid. Sadly, immunizations are few and far between. Rainfall last year was moderate.
During the months of February and March and early April of last year, school administrators had to send their chief driver, Bahadur, to town to buy water every day. Actually, Bahadur made the 5K drive twice a day never knowing for certain if the town supplies had run out or not.
Now look at the picture up above. Tiala is standing next to a case of twelve 1-litre bottles of water. Add 7,988 litres to that case and you’d have the amount that Bahadur hosed into the truck ‘s water tank each morning and afternoon during the dry months ~ 8,000 litres of water a day. At the present exchange rate the purchase price comes to approximately $ 17.40 per day plus the cost of diesel fuel and Bahadur’s pay. That adds up to just under $130.00 per week and close to $520.00 a month.
In Tiala's kitchen ~ Bahadur on far left
I can think of better uses for the school’s precious operating funds. So can Tiala, Moa & Sentila. Placing more children in the classrooms and dormitories comes to mind first ~ local children who long for the type of accredited education provided by the school.
Here is good news ~ there is a solution to having to buy 8,000 litres of water a day! Moa, the school’s resident engineer, has a plan to build a second “Roof Reservoir System” which would harvest rain from the heavens during the rainy season. Enough could be collected, stored, and filtered to see the campus residents through next year’s dry season. Wouldn’t that be wonderful!
You can read all about the details of this system and the modest cost on our web site www.H4Cinternational.org Click on the Current Projects Tab and then the Engineering icon and scroll down to “Nagaland Water Reservoir System”. Construction can begin as soon as the funds come in. Donations may be sent via U.S. Postal System to our Lake Katrine address or through PayPal on the web site. Please note that PayPal deducts a processing fee.
Yours for Hope For Change,
Sarah Anne Smith
Naga school children enjoying "snack time"
windows of boys' dorm ~ middle years
very nice post dude! great website… will be back soon!
Dear admin, thnx for sharing this blog post. I found it wonderful. Best regards, Victoria…
Victoria ~ glad you enjoyed my latest blog post ~ visit my web site, please ~ http://www.H4Cinternational.org ~ Sarah
Hi, I’m very interested in Linux but Im a Super Newbie and I’m having trouble deciding on the right distribution for me (Havent you heard this a million times?) anyway here is my problem, I need a distribution that can switch between reading and writing in English and Japanese (Japanese Language Support) with out restarting the operating system.
Hi! Try contacting Christine http://www.Lilypodmedia.com ~ she may be able to help ~ Sarah
This post might be pointed out on Twitter by somebody. definitely?…
Interesting read, perhaps the best article iv’e browse today. We learn everyday cheers to you!
I can see that you are an expert at your field! I am launching a website soon, and your information will be very useful for me.. Thanks for all your help and wishing you all the success.
Sorry my english, but this is great site, I wil add to my favorites.
I found this site under my bookmarks, probably bookmarked it my wife. Do you have a rss or something like this? I want to add you to my rss reader, becous liked this article especially your way how to explain this.
Whay is your opinion so negative? I really don’t agre with the guy above.
Yessss….scroll to bottom of web page to subscribe to our RSS Feed ~ thanks!
ssmith@h4cinternational.org
Interesting blog, not like the others!
What about this unfair life?
I dont know what to say. This web site is amazing. Thats not seriously a genuinely massive statement, but its all I could appear up with right after reading this. You know a great deal about this theme. So much so that you manufactured me need to understand more about this. Your web site is my stepping stone, my close friend. Many thanks for the heads up on this subject matter.
I agree with the post author.
Do you have a RSS or something like this? I want to add you to my rss reader, because I liked this article especially your way how to explain this.
Entries (RSS) is located at the bottom of blog page ~ we appreciate your follow!
I like this web site very much, Its a really nice position to read and incur information.
I love your writing style genuinely loving this website .
Very good info can be found on weblog .
[...] 3) Roof Water Reservoir Tank in Mokokchung, Nagaland, India ~ read more about this ~ click on http://mbele.org/?p=618 [...]
Nice site! It offers a nice individual spin on things. I guess having something authentic or substantial to post about is the most important thing.
Hey, I haven’t checked in here for a while, but I will put you on my bloglist so I don’t forget to check back.