© Far East Focus 2021
School Spring Source
Heboluo elementary school provides education for over 500 children from 9
surrounding villages. About 200 students live at the school during the week
due to the great distance to their homes. Unfortunately, the old water supply
system was poorly installed using inappropriate piping materials and now the
system has many leaks causing daily water shortages.
Old Pipe
This type of breakage is common on these old systems. Low quality pipe and
poor installation methods leads to frequent failures.
Clean Water Source
The water source is a mountain spring that this project developed including a
spring tank and source protection. The flow is more than adequate for the
school’s daily demand. Workers install the main spring tank that collects water
from 2 sources.
Quality Materials = Long Life
About 3000 meters of new polyethylene (PE) piping is installed between the
spring source and the school. These materials will last a minimum of 25 years
with proper installation.
Labor Intensive
Materials must be carried up to the project site and along the pipeline. Local
village residents are hired for this part of the project.
Hard Working People
The local farming village residents are accustomed to this hard labor in rough
terrain. They grew up hiking these hills and digging this soil.
Main Storage Tank
The main storage tank will provide a reservoir of water that will handle the
school’s daily demand. The inflow from the spring will continually replace the
water used by the school. The result is that the school’s daily demand is met.
Laying Pipe
Pipe is pulled off the spools into the freshly dug trench.
Intermediate Tank
Two intermediate “break pressure” tanks are required to reduce the overall
system pressure created by the difference in elevation between the spring and
the main storage tank.
Spring Water
Spring water is collected at several points and then piped to the main spring
tank. All the springs are protected to prevent contamination.