Back on Track » Ask the Architect

Providing potable water to mountain school in Haiti

mkamimura@unicef.org — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:56:04 +0000

23 Feb 2010 – Victor Vincent Kinyanjui, from Kenya and WASH specialist for UNICEF Sierra Leone, and I set out early in morning to visit a rural school on top of mountain Jaquot-Merlin. The school is run by Father Louis Marrie from France. In order to get there we had to cross a dry river that shows clear signs of bank erosion due to heavy water flow during the rainy season.

Far away you can also see landslides manifested as white scars on the side of the mountains. The road up to the school was handmade by the local village to allow World Food Programme trucks to deliver much needed food supplies. After the earthquake the local community saw an increase of 20% of people over all. So far UNICEF has provided this village one tent for the school and one for the medical facilities. Both tents were delivered by helicopters three mountains away. Father Louis told us how difficult it was to get the pilots to drop the tents in the right place and the difficulties they had carrying the tents back to the community.

Once at the site we quickly drew a schematic site plan on the ground to locate 2 more tents, toilets and a water point. The wind movement and sun orientation were considered to make these decisions. We noticed the presence of what looked like volcanic rocks or lava in substantial quantities.

After exploring two separate fresh water springs, we decided to select the second water source down the hill , to make our proposal for the water collection system and transport of water up to the school premises. The main issue that Victor stressed was the need to 1) establish a community water committee and 2) encourage behavioral change for the consumption and management of water. We also stressed the need to implement a hygiene program through the school.

The water spring serves approximately 10 families with around 60 people total. The school population will be roughly 480 students in double shift system.

Main agreement to provide water to the school has the following components:

Do not disturb the natural flow of the spring
Build reservoir (3 cement bags of 50lbs) at source of water spring location
Install walls and roof to capture the water; rough calculation shows 10lt of water/minute. Water level never to be higher than spring source
Spring will provide 7,000 lt of water over night (12 hrs)
Provide 4” PVC pipe below water source to water tank and 1” overflow pipe also below the level of the spring source
4” pipe to follow contour of hill to lower flat area to connect to two interconnected water 5,000 tanks
1 tank for the school, 1 tank for the community
Provide solar pump to move water from tanks to school over the hill
Provide third tank at school site with taps for hand washing and drinking water, close to latrines
Solar panel and switch to be located at school site
Community to provide 2 extra tanks to collect rain water
Community to establish a “water committee” to manage water

UNICEF will provide all the materials and technical drawings. Father Louis will mobilize the community for both the construction and water committee group.

Carlos Vasquez
Architect
UNICEF, Education Section

From the road to Port au Prince.

Njinga Elisabeth — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:02:35 +0000

Rose-Laure Gedeon, 13, and Windelyne Milford, 15,(left-right) walk past rubble with items they received during a distribution of newly arrived care packages for children, at the UNICEF-assisted Foye Zanmi Jezi orphanage, in the Lilavois neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, the capital. The quake destroyed both the orphanage building and the adjacent primary school but the children were playing outside at the time and all survived. " title="Haiti_destruction" width="300" height="200" class="size-medium wp-image-2694" />

© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0156/Shehzad Noorani
Rose-Laure Gedeon, 13, and Windelyne Milford, 15,(left-right) walk past rubble with items they received during a distribution of newly arrived care packages for children, at the UNICEF-assisted Foye Zanmi Jezi orphanage, in the Lilavois neighbourhood of Port-au-Prince, the capital. The quake destroyed both the orphanage building and the adjacent primary school but the children were playing outside at the time and all survived.

When Columbus first arrived in the new world, he established his first settlement on what is today Haiti. The first university, hospital and the first cathedral in the Americas were built on this island; Española.

I was scheduled to fly to Port-Au-Prince on Sunday the 14th from the airport in Dominican Republic, after having checked my backpack I was told to gather my belongings and go back to the UNICEF office in Santo Domingo. The orders from UNICEF were for me to attend meetings and review materials for potential prefab structures.

We started the day at six am today in order to drive to Port-Au-Prince. The journey unfolds like a story that gets worse as we leave kilometers behind us.

By the time we got to Jimani on the Dominican Republic’s side, I was debriefed about the 2004 floods during which many people died in this town as well as an entire village wiped out on the Haiti side, in the village of Font Vellettes.

At the Dominican Republic’s border, we meet with government officials who tell us that more than 20 per cent of the population increased at that same village on Haiti after the earthquake. People who are leaving PaP come to this mountainous area. Rapid assessment reports show that the poverty levels are worse in this part of Haiti are worse than in places like Sudan or any Latin American country.

The only road that connects both nations is at lake level. With the first rains this life line is at risk of being lost, cutting off Haiti completely. I was able to confirm the environmental degradation first hand including what my friends Isaac and Maggie had told on Saturday night at their home in Santo Domingo; the mountain side is being excavated to build up the road that runs along the lake creating a precarious situation and potential landslides for the next rainy season.

UNICEF has established a 20 km service buffer zone between the two countries in order to provide much needed help to IDPs and existing poor communities along the border. Water, food and health are the main services being implemented and education will follow. For years all humanitarian response have focused on Port-au-Prince neglecting the conditions of thousands of others around the country. Taking a more global, inclusive or decentralized approach to the social well-being of all people is necessary this time around to improve the lives of all.

Being on the road now it seems hard to believe that Haiti was the first country to gain independence from a colonial power. In early 1800’s, Haiti won the independence war against Napoleon’s army becoming the first self determined nation in Latin America. Only the French and American Revolution pressed Haiti’s independence.

Carlos Vasquez
Architect
UNICEF, Education Section

Monday Feb. 15. 2010, 1:45 pm

Monday 18 February 2010, 7:00 am

Njinga Elisabeth — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:39:21 +0000

Rain was supposed to start late March or April. Last night heavy rain came down on Port-au-Prince over hundreds of thousands of displaced people. The last drops fell around 5am this morning. Action on shelter and schools is of the utmost urgency.

Carlos Vasquez
Architect
UNICEF, Education Section

Monday 18 February 2010, 7:00 am

UNICEF child-friendly school designer focuses on climate change

Njinga Elisabeth — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:07:59 +0000

Closing of the Children's Climate Forum in Copenhagen-Dec.'09." title="Copenhagen_Dec_2009" width="300" height="200" class="size-medium wp-image-2267" />

NEW YORK, USA, 11 December 2009 – Architect Carlos Vasquez designs child-friendly schools for UNICEF. This past week, he had the opportunity to give presentations about his schools, which are built to withstand disasters caused by climate change, at the Children’s Climate Forum in Copenhagen.

In one of Mr. Vasquez’s presentations, he surveyed children about whether they had ever personally experienced a climate-related disaster. He found that nearly 100 per cent of the children from western industrialized countries had not experienced one firsthand; but that nearly all of the children from developing countries had.

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Listen to a pocast of Architect Carlos Vasquez who designs UNICEF’s Child Friendly Schools

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“That’s pretty tangible evidence of the social justice issue of climate change, that rich countries emit the most carbon dioxide, yet poor countries are the ones that suffer the most,” he said.

Creating safe environments

Mr. Vasquez said that some of the countries that are more vulnerable to climate change are already working to make schools more resilient. But he added that these countries also need help from those in the developing world to create alternative technologies and designs for school environments that will be better able to withstand natural disasters.

“That’s why we we’re there, to show them how – with the same amount of money or materials – you can actually be more effective at mitigating climate change and disasters and creating environments that are safer for children,” he said.

One of Mr. Vasquez’s goals is to educate stakeholders on the need to design schools with climate change in mind.

“A school that is not designed properly – in a flood or an earthquake zone – if you don’t do your due diligence, you’re putting your children at risk and we cannot afford to do that,” he said.

Using the right materials

In order to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of having universal access to education for all children, many thousands of schools remain to be built. Mr. Vasquez believes that those who design these schools have a responsibility to make sure they do not work against another Millennium Development Goal, which is protecting the environment.

“If we’re going to build 350,000 schools out of wood, we’re not protecting the environment because we’re increasing deforestation,” he explained.

This would be especially true in regions like West Africa, where deforestation levels are already high.

To that end, Mr. Vasquez and his colleagues are looking into new technologies of construction that use compressed earth blocks as a building material. Such buildings would have a very low carbon footprint, and not contribute to deforestation.

“We have to be very careful of how we make our next moves, because we want schools to address the issue of the environment and climate change,” he said.

Myanmar Report: Child Friendly Schools for Myanmar

Njinga Elisabeth — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:03:33 +0000

Building a modern developed society, a sound economic system, providing proper health and
educational systems are some of the objectives and commitments of the government of Myanmar
to its people. Such objectives require the participation of all and the leadership of those with
capacity to improved existing conditions.

The government of Myanmar has taken the leadership in the reconstruction efforts regarding
schools and improving the existing educational system. UNICEF was invited to participate in these
efforts capitalizing on a long presence and knowledge of the country. Seven new CHILD FRIENDLY
SCHOOL models will be some of the end results of this collaboration.

Read the full report

Myanmar Final Report

Report from Thailand: Child Friendly Schools for Thailand

Njinga Elisabeth — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:58:23 +0000

The ability of each human being to play an active and constructive role in a civil and constitutional
society is directly dependent on the training and the education that he or she receives from an early
age. In light of this fact, the government of Thailand has embarked in a critical mission to educate all its citizens in an effort to prepare them to be active participants in the governance of the nation and the betterment of Thai society. Together with UNICEF, they have forged an alliance that has a single,
clear objective: fostering the well-being and education of all children in Thailand.

Read the full report

Child Friendly Schools for Thailand

Community Blog

Carlos Vasquez — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:00:54 +0000

Over the next 40 years, communities across the globe will face challenges that are monumental and interconnected, affecting people in drastic ways never witnessed before. The world population has more than doubled during the past 100 years, and it will reach 9 billion by 2050. Estimates predict that for the first time in human history there will be more urban than rural dwellers, putting increased pressure on existing infrastructure. During the past 50 years, we have consumed more than 50 per cent of the world’s natural resources. What we do today and how we design our next plan of action will determine the impact our organization will have on future generations.

Education has proved to be the most effective vehicle in developing programmes to decrease mortality rates, increase health awareness and empower people to take charge of their destiny. Education has also moved to the forefront in emergency situations to bring a sense of stability to children’s lives and society at large. Child-friendly schools and the field of architecture are leading the way in innovative implementation of educational curricula and in developing structurally sound schools conducive to learning.

To address these shifting challenges, schools must continue to push beyond the academic realm and create a greater socially positive impact. The school of the future will be educational relative to the child’s experience and also to the state of world events. Schools will need to be epicentres for community improvement by providing multi-purpose spaces, thus maximizing their effective net investment value.

This is the time to imagine, design and build the school of a post-carbon society, with sustainable energy systems and educational tools that will enable people to end dependency. These will be schools that reach beyond national borders and encourage education – the most significant cross-border activity.

Carlos Vasquez
Architect
UNICEF, Education Section

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Please post your comments and questions below. Carlos is ready to respond to any queries on his work in building safe and child-friendly schools around the world.

Sketches from Myanmar

unicef — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:55:51 +0000

These sketches were done by the Back on Track architect, Carlos Vasquez, during his recent trip to Myanmar.

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Sketches from Thailand

unicef — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:57:50 +0000

These are sketches from Back on Track architect Carlos Vasquez’s recent trip to Thailand.

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