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High and dry

Rural schools are in dire need of water tanks and filters to help them get through the dry months.

CHOMPOO TRAKULLERTSATHIEN
Pictures by SOMKID CHAIJITVANIT

When the rains finally arrive, the pupils and teachers of Ban Kao Kret School in a remote, mountainous area of Chai Nat province welcome the clean drinking water with smiles and relief.

But their joy is usually short-lived because the school does not have big containers to store the water which is desperately needed to quench the thirst of the 134 pupils.

Living in the drought-stricken area of Chai Nat, the pupils and teachers at Ban Kao Kret endure severe water shortages for the first six months of the year.

The village's only source of water is the school's small well.

On hot days, the pupils, after playing in the sun, must share the precious little water they have.

The school well is simply not adequate to provide water for the needs of all the pupils and those students who come from outlying areas with other water supplies often bring extra water to school.

Ban Kao Kret school is not the only school in the district with a shortage of clean drinking water.

According to a survey by the Chai Nat's Office of Provincial Primary Education's Planning and Budget Office, 66 out of 226 schools in Chai Nat lack clean drinking water and water tanks.

Apart from the problem of quantity, schools face a problem of water quality. Many wells do not have proper water filters to make the underground supplies suitable for drinking.

"Although the Chao Phraya River flows through Chai Nat, large areas of land are arid. Coping with long dry months is part of life there. As well as the farmers, rural students also suffer a lot from the droughts," said Panom Chongyuwattana, head of the Planning and Budget Office.

"The hot season is their worst time of year. The children's throats are parched like the soil on the farms. Many toddlers cannot stand the intense heat and fall ill," he said.

"I feel sad to see poor rural children drinking yellowish ground water while we in the city take clean drinking water for granted," he added.

In an effort to provide enough drinking water for the rural youngsters, Chai Nat's Office of Provincial Primary Education or Sor Por Jor is launching their "Clean Drinking Water for Kids" project.

The project is aimed at helping the 66 schools in dire need of clean water.

Mr Panom believes the actual number of needy schools could be far higher. He said many schools, fed up with empty promises from the authorities, refused to send reports on their water situation to the education office.

Most schools are currently trying to solve the water shortage alone. Some have dug school wells using the labour of the pupils. The water is pumped up from the well and stored in cement or aluminium tanks, but rarely is it properly filtered.

Mr Panom said the water stored in these tanks is sometimes contaminated with rust - another health hazard the rural students have to contend with.

Some schools use a traditional method of purification, stirring alum - a chemical mixture of aluminium and potassium - in the water. And in places where the shortage has been so great, schools have been forced to pump water from nearby canals.

"Tap water has not reached our areas yet. We have to make do with underground water even though it is not clean," said Pin Payakmak, the principal of Ban Nong Takob School in Nong Mamong district.

"I am aware the children might develop health problems if they drink unclean water. And it saddens me not being able to do much to help," he said.

Mr Pin said all the school's previous attempts to seek help from the government had fallen on deaf ears. "The children must help themselves by drinking well water or water from nearby canals."

The lucky schools, those located in Manorom, Wat Singha, and Sanka Buri districts, are nearer to the Chao Phraya River. They also suffer a dry period but it generally does not last as long - usually two to five months.

But in districts further from the river, like Hunka and Nong Mamong, droughts can last more than six months.

For example, Ban Wang Nam Kao School and Ban Wang Ta Kien School in Nong Mamong district call themselves the Isan schools of the Central Plain. They live with a shortage of drinking water all year round.

In a last-ditch effort to survive - when no authorities seemed to be paying attention to their crisis - the principals of schools in the area sought help from their local MPs, asking them to distribute water to their communities.

Several days after their plea, a fleet of water trucks came by. But the distribution was a one-off gesture and the communities have since been left to fend for themselves.

"Officials rarely visit us and ask what we need to improve our children's standard of living. It will probably take ages for our children to have a better quality of life," said Kanchit Poonthin, the principal of Ban Kao Kret in Nong Mamong district.

Since villagers in Nong Mamong also draw water from the school's well, there is never enough to go round.

When times are really tough, the principal employs people to carry pails from far away ponds to the school. The 80 baht for every 10 buckets of water often comes out of his own pocket. When the water arrives the thirsty children drink straight from the zinc buckets.

"Often I can't stand drinking muddy underground water. I drink canned beverages instead. But the children cannot afford to do the same," said the headmaster, adding the shortage of clean water affects the children's health and ability to learn.

Many pupils, he said, suffer diarrhoea and thyroid problems as a result of drinking contaminated water.

One health official said many villagers also suffered with niew - small mineral deposits found in the bladder making it painful to go to the bathroom. Niew is caused by eating vegetables like phak tiew which have been cooked in water with a lot of sediment.

"We find many villagers suffer stomach aches after drinking ground water. You can't see any fat people in our community, everyone is thin," said Mr Kanchit.

He added that rice and other food cooked with ground water in the morning turn bad by late afternoon.

The Chai Nat schools are urging the public to support the project to supply them with water tanks and filters, so they can give the pupils clean water.

"At the moment the government is only paying attention to helping big businesses. It hardly hears the voices of needy children," said the principal.

"We cannot wait for the economy to pick up or for the government budget to increase. We are doing all we can to get help now because the children cannot wait" he said.

Anyone wanting to help these youngsters can transfer money to the Clean Drinking Water for Kids savings account at the Krung Thai Bank's Chai Nat Branch. The account number is 106-1-62117-0. Anyone who can support the project by donating water filters can contact Panom Chongyuwattana directly on (056) 412251.