Chestnut Drive Secondary School-Bina Bangsa School Semarang Water Filter project

OVERVIEW:

The project started early July 2011 through the coordination of Ms. Siyun Chen with our principal, Yuliana Puspitasari.  The project is about collaboration between the students of Chestnut Drive Secondary School, Singapore and Bina Bangsa School-Semarang, Indonesia.

The project is to study about water purification and research on areas nearby Semarang who is experiencing difficulty in collecting water.  Students of both schools will exchange research and data regarding their individual projects and comment on each others works through the website set by Ms. Siyun Chen:  watergivesuslife.wikispaces.com.  Through the said website, the students of each schools are able to study and exchange information regarding their projects.

As to our school, the information given to us by the students of CDSS helped a lot in conducting our research and making our MINI WATER TANK WITH FILTER PROJECT:  a solution that our students proposed to a small village nearby the school who is currently experiencing difficulty of collecting water.  The remarks given to our students also helped us in revising our works thus being able to better the plan for our mini water tank.

Our students comprising the Secondary 1 up to the JC1 are members of the Science and Robotics Club of Bina Bangsa School Semarang, their ages vary from 11 to 16.  Most of then have learned the basics of water purification in their Secondary 1 Science lesson with me, (Methods of separation of mixtures), the students are so eager to put into practical purpose what they have learnt.

The team is divided into three groups:  the design group which is tasked to do the designing and building of the mini water tank with filter, the research group, which is tasked to find a location in need of a solution to collect free and clean water, and the documentations group, which is tasked to document the research, and prepare the necessary paper works for the team including uploading the materials to the wiki site.

THE DESIGN

Originally our design, as uploaded in the wikispace site, is made from used and cleaned old pvc pipe, used and cleaned water gallon, plastic tap, old water bottles, activated charcoal, zeolith stones and old metal casing of a dismantled lamp.  After several revisions, the students final design is somewhat similar to the original one, but this time the filters where redesigned from the inside.  Inside the pvc pipe is made from used, ready to use and cheap materials, consisting of clean, old socks.  Inside the socks you will see layers of activated carbon, ziolit stones, and aquarium filter that will serve as the filter.

In this design, we only purchased the ziolit stones and the activated charcoal, which we are sure that the local villagers can find substitute including sand for ziolit and home made activated charcoal, which my students also shared to the villagers on how to do home-made activated charcoal.  So actually, the mini water tank with filter will be easily reproduced.

THE RESEARCH

The research team found a small village nearby the school whom they found out is only using and depending on the water tank, shown in the picture of the website.  The village is composed of approximately 200 adults and children combined.  The research team, found out that the villagers are having a problem with getting water from the tank because the tank is being shared by some 30 families.  When many are using the water especially at night, the villagers find it hard to collect water.  The water they collect is sometimes with residues such as rust and sand.  Aside form that during days with no electricity, the villagers do not have any means of collecting water from the tank.  Though the villagers are not as poor as what we plan for our project to be tested, they were supportive to try the students’ project.

They showed us the tank, and the water that they collect from the tank.  They said that they still need to filter and boil the water that they collect from the tank because the tank is getting rusty and they cannot drink from it directly so some of them use their own water purifiers/filters which is costly and still wont work during no electricity periods.  Most of the villagers buy purified water to be safe.  Basically, according to the villagers, they use the water that they collect from their tank for household use.

After finishing the design, and several revisions, the research team tested the mini water tank with filter and found out that the water we collect from ordinary rain water is filtered and can be used for household use.  There were no foul smell and visible residue after passing through the pipe.  The mini water tank can collect a lot water during a heavy downpour.  All the user needs to do is to open the tap at the bottom of the tank and there they can collect filtered rain water.  The students tested the water using basic physical, biological and chemical methods and the test passed.  Though the students didn’t test the water by a sophisticated chemical analysis, the team recommended that the water still be boiled so that it will be safe for drinking.

The students also collected water from the village water tank and tested our mini water tank with filter.  The result is satisfactory, no large residue was found after the water passed to the filter inside the tank. 

The research team originally planned for the design to be tested by poor local villagers but unfortunately, the research team was not able to conduct the research due to some technical aspects.  After testing the design and after seeing its good results, the team set the project aside thinking that the water collaboration project has ended.  Should the research team was able to conduct the project; the team believes that the project could really help poor local villagers to collect the safe and clean water from the rain.

The team will try to continue to search for a new and needier local village who is more in need of free and clean water, who will also test the water tank and install it their house for collecting rain water, or even using the tank to filter their currently using water supply in their homes.  Although I see the possibility of the continuity of the project next academic year because some of my team members will be focusing on their national assessment exams and IGCSE’s.  

FUTURE:

To date some Secondary 1 Joy students are working on the possibility of integrating a distillation system in our water fillter.  Though the progress is slow, they are still improving and re-improving our water filter.  Hopefully before the school year ends, they will be able to present their water filter with distillation system.