Ukraine

Ukraine project

Description

One school (1000 schoolchildren & 60 teachers) in Kharkiv (1.470.000 inhabitants) will be provided with a locally designed water purification system. Children, parents and teachers will receive training on the link between drinking water purification and human health. A public awareness campaign will focus on the drinking water problems in Kharkiv and the experiences of this school water project. The ultimate aim is up scaling & introduction of water purification in all Kharkiv schools.

Background

Most people in Kharkiv are supplied with water from a central drinking water facility, which produces drinking water of sufficient quality. However, due to the poor state of the central subsurface drinking water supply system, the drinking water gets contaminated on the way to the water users. This results in chemical and bacteriological contamination of tap water. The problem of contaminated tap water in Kharkiv is widespread and the quality of drinking water at Kharkiv schools is poor and has serious negative impacts on the health of children, the school attendance rates and school results.

Goals overview

The goal is to improve the access to safe drinking water for 1000 schoolchildren & 60 teachers by design and installation of a water purification system in one Kharkiv school. Secondly to provide training and raise public awareness in Kharkiv on the drinking water problems and the technical solutions. Finally to use the project’s experiences to develop a replicable model on introduction of water purification technology to improve the access to safe drinking water at all schools in Kharkiv city.

Current status

The project focuses on development and installation of one water purification system using local technology at one school in Kharkiv. The problem of contaminated tap water in Kharkiv is widespread due to the poor state of the central subsurface piped drinking water supply system. Mama-86-Kharkiv has decided to develop this pilot project at one school together with the local authority, school administration, the parents and the private sector. The project and the experiences gained will be used for a public awareness raising and promotion of installation of water purification systems/technologies at all schools in Kharkiv city. The project has already received financial and in kind support: Mama-86-Kharkiv contributes Euro 1200 and the local community contribution is valued at Euro 500.

Project plan

Women (mothers and female teachers) in Kharkiv have initiated the discussion on the school drinking water supply problem and are involved in the search for an efficient and affordable solution to provide their children with access to safe drinking water and hygiene promotion at the schools.

Women are working as equal partners (especially the female teachers and mothers of the school children) in all the phases of the project, as well as during the training and awareness campaign. This will guarantee the ownership and enhance the sustainability of the project. The capacity development of women, during this process of working as equal partners, will not only benefit the women but also their families and community as a whole.

In the planned activities of design, operation and maintenance of the systems the women and men will be involved in an active way, designing the training and awareness campaign with a separate exercises as a mechanism to give women and men the opportunity to express their preferences freely. Girls and boys pupils as well as teachers will gain more time for education and teaching and all will be less prone to health risks related to using contaminated drinking water.

The Kharkiv project is one of the 5 pilot projects on improving access to safe drinking water, implemented by Mama-86-branches in 5 different regions in Ukraine. Mama-86-Central-Kiev-office provides guidance and support to these projects.