18th March 2016 - over 110 students walked at Kent University Sport with another 850 plus are walking at their schools today, or over next few weeks, in support of Walk 4 Water 2016. We hope to raise over £5000 in sponsorship for the childrens efforts, which will be doubled by Aqua for All supporters to go towards the project in Muzuzu Malawi.

Our Dutch contact club held their walk as well today and raised over £10000 pounds for the project, so a fantastic result.

If your school would like to get involved in Walk 4 Water 2017 on 24th March 2017 please contact us on dsmann50@msn.com for details and to register your interest.

Thank you to everyone involved and especially our sponsors Canterbury Business Equipment, Hollamby Estates (2005) Ltd, McDonalds Whitstable & Canterbury and Kent University Sport.

To see Kent Sport review and pictures of the day follow the links below.

9th June saw presentations of certificates to Sponsors and Certificates and dictionaries to the schools who made it all possible. A big thank you to everyone.

Results of Phase 1 - 2012 to 2015 are shown below, we plan to start Phase 2 for 2016-2018 to further extend and build on this success. If your school would like to take part /support us please email dsmann50@msn.com for details.

SMART Centre Malawi.  Summary of results Phase 1

Period; June 2012 – December 2014

This report covers the activities carried out in the 1^st phase of the SMART Centre Malawi under the contract between CCAP and Connect International, with the generous support of among others Rotary t Loo Apeldoorn and Rotary Chesterfield, with the topping up from Aqua for All. In this report the activities are summarized and an overview of the current state of the SMART Centre is given.

Introduction

The SMART Centre in Mzuzu started in June 2012 to promote low cost water and sanitation technologies for both communal water supply and ‘Self-supply’ at family level through training local entrepreneurs in technologies and business skills. The local implementing partner, the Development Department of the CCAP (the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian) Synod of Livingstonia, focuses on sustainable development issues and is a valuable partner. As a team we are very excited about the success of the technologies promoted by the SMART Centre including Rope pumps and manual drilling. Our drilling method, the so called SHIPO method, is simple, effective and affordable. There is a high demand for hand dug wells and hand drilled tube wells in northern Malawi. The drillers have also discovered that simple hand drilling of wells is not easy but needs much training. To learn more about the SMART Centre visit www.smartcentremalawi.com or www.smartcentregroup.comMalawi Smart Centre (2)

Activities Phase 1

The table on the next page gives a numerical overview of the products the SMART Centre has realized since the start in 2012. The main focus of the SMART Centre was the guidance of local companies in manual drilling and Rope pump production to support them in developing their own, sustainable, business.

Most drilling companies started from scratch in 2012 and had little or no experience with the manual drilling. The guidance consisted of trainings in the basics of the drilling, the basics of (local) geology and business skills. Some of the drillers have visited the SHIPO SMART Centre in Njombe Tanzania for inspiration and guidance. Also trainers from SHIPO have visited Mzuzu on several occasions. Between 2012 and December 2014, the drillers have dug or drilled over 125 wells and the number increases as more and more organizations and individuals come to know about this low-cost technology, which in many areas can be an less expensive alternative for machine drilling.

For Rope pumps the SMART Centre worked with three welders and trained them to become successful producers of pumps. Two welders also were trained in producing drill sets. Existing companies were chosen in order to benefit from the existing welding-skills. The three companies have together produced over 200 Rope pumps since 2012 and also this number keeps increasing. These welding companies now also start installing Rope pumps on hand dug family wells (Self-supply) paid for by families, which is a new development in Malawi. This scaling up of Self-supply did not happen with conventional hand pumps like Afridev but with Rope pumps it is possible due to its low price, its simplicity and the local production and supply of spareparts. An effect of hand pumps on family wells is convenience and water for productive use like livestock or small scale irrigation.

A third focus area of the SMART Centre was improving water quality via the dissemination of water filters, the so called Tulip Siphon filters. These are produced in India by the Dutch company Basic Water Needs and are sold in Malawi, together with a set of locally produced buckets, for an average price of € 12,-/filter. These filters can provide a household with clean and safe water for 3-4 years and so have a good effect on the health of the family. The filters can be used for water from open wells or lakes so in places where there is not yet an improved water source. The use at family level ensures ownership of the filter.

The SMART Centre has also carried out activities in the area of Sanitation. Together with UNICEF a new type of pit-latrine has been developed, the so called “corbelled” latrine or “Zero cement” latrine. This low-cost latrine does not need cement because it is built with fired bricks and clay mortar and provides the households with a stable (thus non-collapsing) structure. It takes an expected average of 7 years before it is full. The SMART Centre has also worked with local entrepreneurs in promoting concrete latrine slabs and the ‘Flapper’, which is an innovative plastic slab model from Bangladesh.

The SMART Centre has used the first three years of its existence to work on the infrastructure needed. A showground has been developed, displaying the water and sanitation technologies offered by the Centre. Also the workshop has been equipped with tools to be used for training both the pump and drill set producers as well as the sanitation entrepreneurs. It is now also fit to offer courses for external parties which can become a way to generate income for the Centre.

Furthermore, the SMART Centre has worked on establishing contacts with government, NGO and other (international) partners working in Water and Sanitation. One of the outcomes is a research to support the formation of national policy on HWTS (Household Water Treatment and Safe storage. The SMART Centre team has also attended a number of conferences for publicity and promotion of  the low-cost water and sanitation technologies.

Financial overview

The budget for the first three years of the SMART Centre Mzuzu (2012 – 2014) is €197.554,-. The majority of this budget has been brought together by various Rotary-clubs and the Presbyterian Church of the USA and was topped up by Aqua for All. Of the total budget about 60% has been spent on ‘strengthening the supply side’, which included the installation of wells and pumps, that at the same time were used for training. About 15% has been spent on ‘strengthening the demand side’, which includes marketing and promotion activities. The rest has been spend on facilitating training, the demonstration site, preparing trainings by the project coordinator, monitoring and evaluation officer and the administration cost of the local partner (CCAP) and strengthening its organization.

With Walking for Water in 2014 the Rotary generated extra funds for the SMART Centre which were topped up by 50% by Aqua for All. These funds are now being used in 2015 and will cover the period between Phase 1 and the start of Phase 2, which is expected to start in January 2016.

Products realized

The following page contains an overview of the products that have been realized between April 2012 and December 2014, including the number of beneficiaries that benefited from the work of the SMART Centre.

Table 1: Self-supply and Communal supply products (data from start of project to December 31^st, 2014)

Pictures of the work of the SMART Centre

The following pages contain and overview of the work of the SMART Centre, including an impression of the ‘before’ and ‘after’ situation in places where a well and pump have been installed.

Table 2: Photographs of several activities of the SMART Centre