Kler Deh High School

The rebuilding of a school compound in Karen state, Burma is an empowering step for Karen people on their way towards a healthier, higher educated, and safer life. With the backing from the Karen Department of Education and collaboration with Gyaw Gyaw, this project is an alternative model of how future school compounds can be designed to incorporate effective sustainable solutions.

Water Access

A natural spring is located 200 meters away from the location of the high school and water storage site. The spring provides constant water year round at a consistent volume but is located 32 meters below the water storage site. This is why a solar pump is necessary to bring the water to the elevated location.

Target Group
The target group for this project is the 90 Karen students who will attend the high school and the teachers and administrators who will work there. However, we have to compensate for the families of the teachers and administrators as well as the possible headcount influx during events or ceremonies. Also, there are a few families living close to the school that will undoubtedly use the system as well. Therefore, to ensure that we can guarantee water access to the high school year round, we have designed the system for 200 people.

How
To provide electricity to the Karen school, a solar system will be installed. The solar system will be used for the lighting of the school as well as to power the water pump that fills the water storage tanks. This is two separate systems. The solar system used for the high school lighting is six 130 W solar panels, six 100 Ah 12 V deep cycle batteries, inverters, and charge controller box. The solar system that runs the pump has two 140 W solar panels connected DC pump.

For one person, a minimum of 20 liters of water is needed every day. That includes drinking, showering, toilet use, and cooking. For 200 people, that is 4,000 liters a day. One HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) storage tank holds 2,000 liters. Two tanks will provide 4,000 liters of well water storage. This large amount of storage will provide enough water for phase 1, the high school, and is designed to be flexible so that more storage can be added in the future for the middle and primary schools, and the dormitories. Once the system is installed, a training for the recipients on system maintenance will be given.

Water Treatment
To provide the water treatment system for the school, a bio-sand/charcoal treatment system will be 
constructed below the two HDPE water storage tanks. This treatment system will purify between 1,500 -2,000 liters of water a day and has the storage capacity. In this tropical climate, one person needs between 3-4 liters of drinking water a day. For the 200 students at the high school, that is 800 liters of drinking water a day. The water treatment system uses a float valve to ensure that as purified water exits, source water enters at the same rate. Drinking water taps will be installed in the appropriate locations.