GREEN ISLAND, Hanover — Principal of Mt Hannah Primary and Infant School in this parish Nicholas James has welcomed the recent donation of equipment that will improve the quality of water used by his students and staff.

The donation of a chlorine residue comparator was made possible by a final-year student from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, USA, Tiana Dinham, who is originally from Hanover.

Now the school is able to test the concentration of residual chlorine levels in its rainwater harvesting supply system.

“I am considering myself very fortunate because it was just the other day that the public health inspectors suggested that the best way to ensure that we know what is the position with our water levels and chlorine levels is for us to own one of these comparators and we were just lucky to be a part of one of the programme,” revealed James.

Based on the hilly terrain and poor road conditions, it takes approximately $20,000 to get a truckload of 20-gallon water to the school.

James, who said the school tries its best to save and store as much water as possible, explained the importance of the recently donated equipment.

“We manually treat [the water]. We have guidelines as to how we treat based on the quantity of water and what amount of bleach we add. After treating, you are now able to use this comparator to actually test the amount of chlorine to ensure that you have not too little or too much because you have some students who actually drink this water,” he stated.

The school is not the only beneficiary.

Under the recently launched Dinham’s Rainwater Harvesting for Sustainability and Empowerment (RISE) project, seven 400-gallon black water tanks — with a value of approximately $500,000 were handed over to residents across the parish who are faced with water challenges.

Upper Rock Spring School as well as Maryland Primary and Infant School also received chlorine residue comparators.

Dinham who grew up in the rural community of Maryland, where her mother is principal of the primary and infant school, knows first-hand the challenges of not having access to a supply of treated water from the National Water Commission (NWC) and having to depend on rainwater harvesting.

Currently studying earth and marine science in the US, she is well aware of the danger of not treating water before drinking.

“What we did growing up, where we just drank water — never tested it, never treated it — was quite harmful to our bodies,” stated Dinham, who noted that recent media reports of water quality concerns further propelled her into action.

She pointed out that during training received from the Hanover Health Department, the point was made that while the rain itself may be clean, it may become contaminated by animal faeces from run-off surfaces that are used to provide water for the harvesting system.

Dinham said she is elated with the outcome of the project she started.

“I felt quite happy that I was able to make this project happen because, at the end of the day, this project was never for me. I just saw the need for a project like this and to see the people who would have benefited from the tanks and comparators. To see how important it was for the health service to give a presentation, I felt quite proud and happy that I had the belief and support of the people around me to see that this was a possibility and not just a crazy idea that was in my head,” she said.

The university student intends to expand the project and hopes it can continue for years to come.

“We are reaching out to agencies to see if we can get more funding to expand not just in Hanover but hopefully to the other western parishes because, especially the chlorine residue comparators for the rural schools is quite important,” said Dinham.

According to her, the health department told her this was one of the biggest concerns.

Medical Officer of Health for Hanover Dr Kaushal Singh has commended Dinham for seeing and addressing the challenge facing the parish.

“We are very happy that such a young student has this kind of vision to help the parish. This is to say that our next generation is quite vigilant about our problem and is quite willing to contribute to society,” he said.

Noting that potable water supply is a universal challenge across the parish, the medical officer said the health department continues to educate citizens on how to keep their water safe.