STUDENTS at the Retrieve All-Age School should be happier and healthier when they get back to school in September, thanks to a new Water Harvesting & Sanitation Project spearheaded by the Parent-Teachers’ Association (PTA) at the facility. With the support of the Ridge to Reef Watershed Project (R2RW), not only will the water and sanitation facilities at the school be improved, but the risk of contamination to the Great River will also be reduced.

The project is the first to be supported through the R2RW Grant Fund for community initiatives. R2RW is a five-year project of the Government of Jamaica’s National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) and the Government of the United States through its Agency for International Development (USAID) that seeks to enhance the management of resources in both the Rio Grande and the Great River Watersheds.

When the Retrieve project was first envisaged, the PTA originally intended to help the school harvest rainwater and thus reduce its dependency on the National Water Commission (NWC). However, when the R2RW technical team visited the site, they learned that the school’s toilet facilities consisted of 12 pit latrines all located along a bank of a stream leading into the Great River which flows behind the school. This was not a practice the project and the Local Watershed Management Committee’s Water and Sanitation Task Force wanted to encourage.

As a result, the R2RW team designed a system that will harvest rainwater and then use it to flush new toilets that will be retrofitted to the existing pit latrine stalls. Rather than seeping into the underground water table, the wastewater from the new toilets will now be treated naturally using biological methods. Solar technologies are also an integral part of the operation.

The wastewater will flow through a solar powered aerobic digester (basically a septic tank that has air pumped into it). This removes the organic matter and treats the water to the regulated standard for discharged effluent required by the National Environment & Planning Agency (NEPA). From there it will flow into a “constructed wetland” where plants will remove the rest of the nutrients and other organisms such as faecal coliform that may cause disease.

One of the best features of the system is that no harmful chemicals, such as chlorine, are used to treat the waste, and therefore, no harmful chemicals can get into the Great River system.

According to Mark Nolan, chief of party of R2RW, “R2RW is proud to support this project with the people of Retrieve, particularly because of the initiative the community has shown through the local watershed management committee.” The school has a good record of environmental stewardship through hosting regular environmental fairs at the school and incorporation of watershed education in much of the student’s work.