Drinking water in the village

This was a day of great excitement in three completely different directions. First, we visited Nyaung Pin Zauk to see the clean drinking water project. Still in Nyaung Pin Zauk I had to find out information for Sebastian who arrives on 11^th April to make the documentary on the Gifts of Sight project. Then we went to Tan Nawn Kane, about two kilometres away, where the novitiation ceremony will be held and, as Saya Htay’s nephew, Chan Htet Win, was being inducted into the monastery, and the sayadaw (abbot) conducting the ceremony was an old friend of the family it was a particularly significant occasion.

In Nyaung Pin Zauk we were met by U Aung Win and taken to see two temporary water holding tanks: one on each side of the village. Each had sturdy wooden columns supporting the roof at each corner and slightly shorter wooden columns down each side. There was also a sloping roof topped with dried toddy palm leaves that shielded the tank from the rays of the sun. The tank holding the water was encircled by a split bamboo frame tied tightly to the columns. Inside the frame was a huge and mega strong plastic tarpaulin filled very pleasingly with water. At one end is an upright blue six centimeter pipe with an elbow bend poised above the water. To show me how the tank filled, a man was sent off with the key to the shed beside the spring where the generator and pump are situated: about one kilometre away. It took a few minutes for the pipe to fill with water and then water splashed into the tank. Each day, the pump and generator work for two hours. In that time all the villagers can fill the water containers that stand beside their house.

They already have an experiment going to find out if the main pipe will feed much smaller pipes to run to each house. That is the longed-for resolution of all the villagers, that they will have a tall concrete building with a water tank on top and little pipes to each house.  

In the past they drilled down 20 feet in the same way as they drilled for oil in Sue Winn (the next village that that has plenty of oil and is therefore well off). They came to water but, disappointingly however many holes they drilled, the result was always the same – the water was pronounced salty and polluted not fit even to water plants or they would die.

We went to the other temporary water storage tarpaulin tank in another part of the village. This tank too was 20 feet in circumference and can hold 4,000 gallons of water. I note a cardboard sheet hanging above the water and ask what it is for. Apparently Ko Tan Zaw the owner of the house and now temporary tank, marks how much each villager takes each day and calculates what they owe as a contribution. U Aung Win checks once a day too. The villagers can pay the small amount needed to buy the diesel to keep the generator going – or they can donate diesel – as they like. Even the plants were smiling.

The permanent tank will be up on tall concrete pillars 20 feet from the ground and 25 feet square, The Sue Winn tank cost $85,000 which included everything: all engineering and other advice and supervision, all materials including cement, sand, stone, bricks as well as all the piping to each house. Nyaung Pin Zauk is smaller than Sue Winn so the tank will be smaller. Also the villagers will do all they can and have agreed with U Aung Win that each house will pay approximately $15 for the small bore water pipes and red plastic tap. So the total sum will be much less than the $85,000 spent in Sue Winn partly because Sue Winn is a smaller village and therefore needs less water, but mainly because the villagers will all work on the project so there is no need to hire labourers.