Main aim of the project was to create a sustainable concept were a village or establishment can become totally self sustainable through the use of innovative technologies
ACHIEVEMENTS:
The following Technologies were implemented at the School to develop an integrated system addressing the following needs:
Implementation of a Blue Print for Rural Sustainability Commons within the Chris Hani District Municipality.
Main aim of the project was to create a sustainable concept were
1. Sanitation - Development of a gray water capturing system were water from the hand wash basins are diverted to the toilets for flushing. These actions are also further strengthened by the Environmental Health Practitioners involvement in Health and Hygiene education to the children.
2. Food gardening - The food garden was establish to supply organic vegetables to the learners in the School. Children are actively involved in the maintanence of the garden. Furthermore the garden provides organic material for the production of furtilizer throough wormy culture. The furtilizer is organis as well as a natural insect repalent that safeguard the plants form investation by pests.
3. Green House - A Greenhouse was built from recycled plastic bottles and are used for the cultivation of seedlings for the garden,
EVALUATION
An important aspect of being able to ascertain whether the implemented technologies and practices are performing the tasks they were intended to perform is through an effective monitoring and evaluation programme. The programme team has implemented a strategy to monitor and evaluate the programme on a continuous basis in order to gauge successes and highlight areas of concern. This strategy has three main components: Annual Evaluation:
The annual evaluation is conducted during December of each year. The aim of this component is to be able to identify the trends developing around the schools management structures, how the programme is being adopted by the school/community and how community involvement is increasing or decreasing.
The evaluation is conducted through an interview based system involving the school leadership, teachers, the school governing body members, learners and the school support staff. The main aspects addressed by this process are water use patterns, electricity consumption, agricultural productivity, waste regime and community involvement.
Continuous Monitoring:
This process is conducted by the schools on a continuous basis. The main purpose of this aspect is to be able to track the trends around how the programme is impacting either positively or negatively on the school/community.
The system is designed to be run as an exception reporting system with data only being recorded when things happen – for instance records will be kept for when the reticulated water system is switched off and switched back on again. If the water is not switched off for the duration of the year, no records need be kept. The system was conceived in this fashion so as to minimize the amount of effort that needs to go into the record keeping.
Data being collected for this aspect are; water (when the taps are shut off and turned on), energy (when the bio-gas runs out, when LPG is purchased), waste (how much is burned, how much is recycled) and agricultural productivity (how much is harvested, how much goes to the feed scheme, how much is given to the needy and how much is sold). As this process is run by the school/communities themselves the details are not rigorously maintained. The project team is, however, able to track trends from one year to the next.
Evaluation Report:
At certain intervals it is crucial to be able to critically reflect on how the project is impacting on the lives of those that are directly impacted by the project. Thus, an evaluation report is compiled at these intervals.
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