Improving access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) in schools is important to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 which is about providing access to clean drinking water, sanitation services, and hand wash facilities to everyone by the year 2030. At the global level, only 69% of schools had a basic drinking water service, 66% of schools has basic sanitation facilities, and 53% of schools had basic hygrine facilities.  The survey covering 16,000 villages in India indicated that around 22.8 % of rural schools surveyed have unusable toilets. Thus, a step towards improving drinking water sanitation and hygiene scenario in schools, especially rural ones, plays an important role in moving towards Sustainable Development Goals. 

Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), located in the Northeastern part of India, has been working towards the welfare of the community through its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives since its inception in the year 1993. In the year 2020, NRL constructed toilet blocks in 24 Schools spread over 16 blocks of district Golaghat. Later, NRL installed solar water pumps and overhead water storage tanks to provide tap water in the constructed toilet blocks. The installations were conducted by the NRL along with their knowledge partner, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). 

The groundwater is lifted using solar water pumps and is stored in an overhead water storage tank. From the water storage tank, water is supplied to the toilet block.  To provide drinking water, NRL also installed water dispensers in the schools.  In each school, one solar water pump, one water storage tank, and one water dispenser was installed. Each system is comprised of a submersible pump of 0.5hp 12V DC capacity and a 500–550Wp solar PV module along with other necessary items. The boring is for about 90-100 feet. The water storage tanks are of 1000 litres capacity. Each system also encloses an iron filter and a three-stage UV water purifier.

A year later of the installation of solar water pumps, in 2022, an assessment study was conducted. The systems were inspected and interviews were conducted with the teachers and students. The interviews indicated that the functionality of Solar Water Pumps was perceived as satisfactory, even during rainy and cloudy days in the majority of the schools. The schools diligently carried out basic maintenance like cleaning solar panels. One school provided a good case by installing a purification arrangement inside the water storage tank linked to the Solar Water Pump. 

The improvement in drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services were most evident in schools where the schools relied solely on tube well prior to the installation of the Solar Water Pumps. The students used to pull water from the tube well in buckets to the toilet blocks in these schools. In these schools, the students also used to carry drinking water from home or used to directly drink water from the tube well. In the case of the two schools, the sanitation and drinking water infrastructure was there prior to the project but was inadequate. In these two schools, the project made the drinking water, sanitation and hygiene provisions adequate. Two schools already had adequate sanitation and drinking water infrastructure considering their student strength prior to the project. In such cases, the Solar Water Pumps provided a much cleaner energy source for drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services.  The other benefit reported was reduced electricity bills, which may be translated as saving on conventional electricity.  The improvements in the drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene scenario of the schools are presented in the figure below.

Improvement in the Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Scenario of the Rural Schools

In all, the Solar Water Pumps improved the drinking water, sanitation and hygeine scenario of the rural schools to the next level. Along with the improvement in infrastructure, the Solar Water Pumps also reduced the usage of conventional electricity in rural schools and promoted a clean energy source. The case study indicates that Solar Water Pumps are a suitable option to improve the Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) scenario of rural schools through a clean energy way. 

Dr. Manjushree Banerjee, Author and Sustainability Expert 

The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of AltEnergyMag

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