It is July 30th, very bright and warm out without the usual rain showers. Today, Zach and I are visiting Achinakom for the first time. Eli is feeling better and tested negative for malaria (woo!) and he’s going to spend the day resting.

Plan for the visit:

Zach and I are going to check up on the existing structures and take samples for water quality tests. Sylas will be with us to guide us, translate, and help interpret what we find in Achinakom. Hopefully we will get a better idea of how things work in the village. Just today, we learned that there is a committee of 19 community tank families who pay 20R per month to the family that owns the land that the tank is on. This is good news – we realize that it could help us promote a community payback plan.

—EDIT–

It is now the evening of July 30th. The trip to Achinakom was a great success. Zach and I were surprised to realize how difficult it is to visualize the village without ever having been there. Even though we’ve been working on this project for the whole year, visiting the village instantly crystallized things for us that would have taken forever to understand. Seeing the community tank was exciting (it really exists! really!) and we assessed that it is indeed filling up on schedule. It’s not being used right now because it is the rainy season, and families can obtain their own rainwater on a day-by-day basis by simply hanging a bucket out their kitchen window. The whole tank is filling up with clear, sweet-smelling water that we took a look at by lifting up the corrugated roof. There are some crumbling bits of masonry, but Tenguchen the mason is coming in this week to fix them. The first-flush sand filter that the water passes through before going into the tank seems to be doing its job properly. We watched the president of the community tank association scoop out some leaves that were stuck on the mesh. There was quite a bit of debris on the corrugated roof, and it turns out that maintenance is only performed once per week. Maintenance is paid for by the dues that the users pay to the landowners. These dues are actually 10R per month, not 20. They only pay during the dry months – that is, 4 months of the year. The total revenue is 800R. 350R goes to the landowners as a simple usage fee. The remaining 450R goes towards maintenance. That all sounds good, except for one weakness. If some maintenance beyond routine cleaning is needed, 450R is nowhere near enough to cover it. The mason’s fee is 450R per day. Because the tank is relatively new, this problem has never been tested. It remains to be seen how larger expenses will be dealt with.

What we most importantly took away from the visit was the idea that the users seem to be happy with the community tank arrangement – because it is very cheap!  This means that our next task is to figure out a way to promote a payment plan.  In order for the harvesters to proliferate sustainably, we need the users to propel the project themselves.

On a non-work related note, Zach and I had a lovely visit to Lake Vembanad on the way back from Achinakom.  We stopped at a Christian shrine on the shore and watched the sun go low behind the clouds over the huge grey expanse.  A couple of fishermen poled their canoe-like crafts over a tangle of water weeds and into the open water to cast their nets.  They will go retrieve them in the early morning with hopes of catching a small flat round fish that sells expensively for 100R each – that is slightly over $2.  Beautiful wicker houseboats crisscross the water, carrying tourists from around the world (according to Sylas, Britney Spears celebrated the New Year on Lake Vembanad).  Fish eagles and crows circled around on the cool breeze.

At this stage we have progressed a lot. Constrcution of the next prototype will start on 25th January 2010.

5 Members of the Screpine society at Kallara who have already trained in masonry by the M. G. University adult education department and working as masons for the last 1 year have agreed to get trained in our programme also and I think they can influnce the women community at Achinakom too..

The training will start after finishing the second prototype in February 1 st week

John

As I start my first blog entry on the Rainwater for Humanity site, one thought comes to mind: I should have blogged way before this. Not just blogged in general, but specifically, I should have blogged about this trip. For the past twelve days, Becca and I have been staying at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam to meet the Indian staff, visit the village of Achinakom, and basically coordinate plans for the upcoming semester. We have finally gotten around to writing our first blog post, which means that I am stuck looking at twelve days full of trying new foods, conversations with many people that basically consisted of pantomimes (Malayalam, from what I have gathered, is a very complicated language that I have no chance of learning in three weeks), and serious discussions about the future of Rainwater for Humanity. Now I have to consolidate all of that into a single blog post. Here is a list of things I have done that have nothing to do with Rainwater for Humanity, but which have greatly affected my experience here:

• I killed three spiders, one with a power converter, one with my shoe, and one with a bottle of bug spray. A word to the wise: if you are going to kill a spider, use something heavy, i.e. a shoe.
  

  Not one of the ones in our room, but you get the idea

  Do not use a bottle of bug spray. I did not relish killing three spiders, but they were quite large and in our room. Fortunately, Becca and I had extra mosquito net and used it to cover our window, so both the spiders and I have been spared further interactions.

• I have driven on Indian roads. Not personally, but I have sat in a car that was in motion on a road that was in India. Driving in India is basically a video game, except it’s not a video and it’s not a game. There are no traffic lanes, no traffic lights, and if I thought jaywalking was bad in Providence, it’s nothing to what goes on here. I have so much respect for people who drive in India because I think I would have a heart attack just turning the keys in the ignition.
• There are power outages fairly frequently here. Most only last a minute or so, and you get used to them. The first one I experienced happened in the middle of the night. It was dark outside and I had been sitting at my computer for the past half hour or so. When the lights went off, my first response was to wave my arms around to activate the motion sensors that are present in so many rooms at Brown. Surprisingly enough, that wasn’t the reason the room was suddenly dark.

Of course, we have spent the majority of our time here on things that actually relate to Rainwater for Humanity. I don’t think I realized just how many people were involved in the Indian branch of Rainwater for Humanity. I had already met some of the staff via Skype, though it was great to meet them in person. But there was also an official Leadership Team and Executive Team set up along with a Village Committee and several MGU student volunteers. It’s so great to meet all these people who are so invested in Rainwater for Humanity. One of our concerns at Brown is that we can’t tell directly what sort of an impact we are making; it’s nice to know that there are people here on the ground who can observe and push forward Rainwater for Humanity’s progress. Everyone has been so welcoming too. Thankfully, everyone at MGU is at least proficient in English or else Becca and I would have been completely lost. But even in the village, those who speak English have been eager to talk to us, and those who don’t have been happy to listen to Becca and me butcher Malayalam in our attempts to speak to them. However, I can now say hello, ask people if they are hungry or if they have eaten, and say “Rainwater for Humanity” in Malayalam. So I have the really essential stuff down pat.

Becca and me standing next to the first prototype

We’ve visited Achinakom, the site of Rainwater for Humanity’s pilot program. Guess what: Our first prototype actually exists! We saw it ourselves in person and drank lemon juice made from the water that came out of the tank. Combined with the absolutely gorgeous scenery (No offense to Providence, but palm trees with actual leaves on them beat out a New England winter any day), the prototype made for a beautiful sight (Check out our Picasa page for photos!). On our first day Mrs. Jimmol, the Village Coordinator, invited us to watch her family’s temple festival, which featured amazing drumming and a march with candlees. We’ve also been discussing the second prototype.

Christina, Jaya, and Chinchu discuss the upcoming prototype

To go into detail about our plans for the second prototype would take another whole discussion, and I don’t want to make this blog entry go on for too long, so I will simply say that we have met the family and discussed basic plans for its construction. I’m really excited to see its progress and I would encourage everyone who is interested in the process to contact us (info@rainwaterforhumanity.org) to find out what they can do.  Stay tuned for further updates on Rainwater for Humanity! ~Carolyn

After all those celebrations, on Thursday, we went back to work and planned a visit to Achinakom to check up on the construction progress.

On our way to the village, we first stopped at a private hospital to visit Smrt. Sali, the President of KJMTVFS, a women’s self-help group located in Kerala that has over 8,000 members and aids screwpine workers. Smrt. Sali was present at the meeting Chrisina held in Achinakom in January about the potential of rainwater harvesting and announced her support for our program. Unfortunately, she was recently hospitalized due to complications from diabetes but has been steadily getting stronger.

We talked to her for almost two hours with Sylas as our translator; she has been active in social work for forty years and her primary mission has been the empowerment of local women. She founded the aforementioned self-help group in 1997 when she saw how screwpine workers were being cheated out of profits by middlemen and their raw materials were being depleted. Over the past twelve years, the organization has grown to support over 6,000 families. There are six local societies that are then overseen by an Apex committee, and women manage the entire operation. They provide marketing support and training for women working with screwpine or coir, as well as coordinate awareness programs for women empowerment. Their principal activities also include providing health insurance for all the member families and scholarships for needy children from ninth through twelfth standards.

Smrt. Sali emphasized how a family’s well-being starts with the woman of the family. The income a woman earns gets completely invested in her family and future. Furthermore, when a woman attains any education, she passes it on to other generations, as well as among her neighbors and social network. For these reasons, she approves of our project. One suggestion she gave us was to provide a stipend for women as they undergo the training program. We enjoyed our conversation and learned a lot; we wish her a speedy recovery.

The masons were working on putting the final layer of chicken wire around the walls of the tank.

From the hospital, we made our way to Achinakom. Progress has definitely been made on the prototype. The RCC layer is almost complete and the reinforcement for the aboveground portion of the wall has been put in place. While we there, the masons were applying another layer of mortar to the walls; they were applying water and then slapping on and smoothing the cement mixture. The entire tank was almost covered with the first layer of mortar. Progress was not made without obstacles (the area had received a lot of rain in the past couple of days—it is monsoon season—and the neighboring canals had recharged), but they had been dealt with and work was continuing fairly smoothly. 

On Friday, we returned to Achinakom with the hopes of interviewing more women and trying to get a better sense of their mindsets and perceptions. After briefly stopping by the construction site, we walked through the village, this time with Daniya as our translator, and stopped when we met two women going about their daily chores. They agreed to take a break and talk with us, so they brought out chairs and we all sat down. Within minutes, five more women joined us and spiritedly and eagerly answered our questions.

The women (their names are Prasanna, Usha , Rathi, Omana, Knjumol, Rajamma, Mini Prashannan, Mini Shivadas, and

The village women took a break from their chores to talk to us.

Mini Lalappan) currently earn about Rs. 125 ($2.50) a day; they emphasized that they need to work everyday to have money for food for the next day. They work on rice paddies about two months out of the year and, during the other months, make items out of screwpine and coir rope. When asked what they would do if they had extra money, they responded that they don’t see that happening, but, hypothetically, they would save anything extra for the children. The women stressed that it made a difference whether they or their husbands earned income. The women invest all the money they earn in their families. Men, on the other hand, don’t come straight home after work, and they spend some of their earnings on chai, toddy (coconut alcohol), cigarettes, and other superfluous items and also take breaks throughout the day. Smrt. Sali, as have many developing world experts, mentioned this same pattern.

We also talked with the village women about the time and energy they spend gathering water; some of them wake up at 4 AM to go to the well, returning home at around 6:30. They mentioned that they very thankful for our efforts because we are the first people to try and improve their water supply; even the Panchayath has not tried to do anything about this problem they are facing. Though they are glad to cooperate with us, help in the maintenance of the first prototype (they are all future users), and work during the construction, they were hesitant when we asked them about the training program we hope to put in place. They are worried that they would not be confident in the work and could not handle the heavy loads. However, they would participate in the program if there was a stipend and a professional mason supervised the work.

Their feedback reinforced our plans for the next prototype: to design a system that will be made out of lighter material, which is easier to handle, and yet will still be durable and withstand the construction difficulties posed by the high water table and differential settlement. Before leaving, we walked around the entire village with GPS to map the main pathways. 

Saturday, we attended two SES students’ wedding. It is a love marriage, uncommon in this area. About eighty percent of marriages are arranged.

On Eli’s and my final full day in Kerala, we again visited Achinakom. We stopped en route at a store, located in the backyard of someone’s home, that sells concrete rings that are commonly used to build wells. We’re looking into the possibility of using them in the next design. Eli and I won’t be here to see the completion of the system, which is nearing completion. The final layers of mortar are currently being applied on the walls of the subsurface part of the tank; the supports for the walls have been made. There’ll be a break in construction for Onam festivities, which officially start next week. (MGU celebrated early, while all the students were still here.)

The mason, village women, Eli, I, and Christina in front of the system

Eli and I are sadly saying goodbye to Kerala tomorrow morning and flying to New York through Delhi, but stay tuned for the next blog entries from MGU. Christina will be here until December and will be working with the MGU student team. Her plans include: tracking the impact of the system by administering the survey we created; further developing the organizational structure of our group; and starting construction on the next prototype. As soon as school starts, the Brown team will also be hard at work experimenting with some new materials, fundraising, and revising the original design.