​Gansu Care:Zhengjia Elementary Water Cellar Project

Lanzhou Jingcheng Public Service Center is located in the Gansu Province and mainly serves the disadvantaged groups in society, helping them renew their confidence in life and build up their self-reliance. Services include: 1) Care for the rural children left behind 2) care for children after surgery. 3) concern about the old public service areas. 4) carrying out a variety of public training, consulting, and advocacy activities.

Back in May 2016, Lanzhou JingCheng Public Service workers visited Zhengjia Elementary school in DaShu Xiang DongXiang County with Gansu Xingbangbai teachers.  The school is located in the mountain area, half of the 2.5 hr drive was spent driving on the dirt road between mountains, which is narrow and steep. Because of the year long lack of water, the main crops are potato and corn. Although you can still drive to the school, there are about 20 kilometers of drive that are narrow and windy.  Those parts of the road are very dangerous. Even experienced drivers need to drive over 35 minutes.

The school is a Type 4 6 grades elementary school, which serves 7 communities in the area.  There are total of 137 families and 700 residents in the area.  There is the total of 64 active students currently study at the school including 25 1st graders, 7 2nd graders, 6 3rd graders, 15 4th graders, 6 5th graders, 5 6th graders, with 4 teachers (1 female teacher).  Among the students, there are 33 girls. Half of the students cannot go back to home for lunch due to distance, with the furthest distance at 5 kilometers from school.  Due to the small class size, 5th and 6th grade students share the same class.

The existing well can only hold some water, which is about 2 week coverage for the teachers and students. It is even worse during summer time.The school has a plan to build a new well, which can hold 20m³ of water and serve the school for 3-4 months.

Reserved water for usage during construction

fter careful examination of the proposal and further discussions with the school, we have submitted the background and well proposal to Transparent Fish Fund beginning of June.  The proposal was approved in one week, we are very excited.  The detailed plan was initiated immediately; despite the minor delay due to government review process. The proposal was endorsed by the government late September. The project broke ground in October.

In the morning of Oct 10th, JingCheng Public Service works went to Zhengjia elementary school again, the school principal and contracts were waiting for us. We emphasized the importance of quality of the work and the safety of the students. We were ensured these contractors are professional well builders in the area. Students were also trained on the safety procedure during the construction.  To reserve the water in the existing well, it was pumped into a big plastic bag for storage and usage during construction. 

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Although pipe water is available, it is only active every three months or longer.  The water source is about 350 meter far.  We have also visited the source with the principal. The pipe water source is connected via 100m underground pipe; the remaining 250m needs to be connected via 30mm water pipe to school.
This water source is not only used by the school, but also by the residents. 

We have verified the detailed contraction plan with the school and asked the school to monitor the contraction progress and ensure student safety.  We then paid half of the cost, accepted by the school accountant with principal’s signature.

The construction started at 11:59 am, it will take 15-20 days to complete. We wish the project will be completed in time on budget without further delay. ​

Original article written by Aiju Chang, translated by Margaret Li , and edited by Yanyan Zhang