May 25, 2002

 Rtn. Col. (Retd.) N.D. Tanvir

District Governor.  

My dear Tanvir sahib,

This is with reference to our discussion regarding possible improvements in the water tank’s design being used by Rotary in the Thar desert areas. I have rushed through this draft during today’s holiday (Id-e-Milad) to try to make it available to you as quickly as possible, for which reason I can hardly claim that I have done justice to the subject. But I do think it reflects my views in sufficient detail. (A friend who looked at this report said that “in your design the upper opening of the tank is wider! How do we safeguard that bigger area against it being used for squatting, children’s play and so on?” These kinds of questions will continue to pop up. In this instanced I just said “why not stack some thorny bramble bushes on top?”)

 Please be advised that I am neither an expert in engineering, or in sociology or weather sciences or in any discipline relevant to this subject. So this is just a general knowledge report. May I suggest that you may kindly constitute a committee of relevant experts (Rotarians or otherwise) to review these suggestions and come up with their independent recommendations. If this report is considered sufficiently useful, you may even like to commission suitable persons to upgrade it. Alternatively, prepare a new one. Formatting and illustrations also need to be improved.  I would suggest that this be done immediately so that you are fully prepared to answer any questions about the technicalities of this project as may be raised by informed observers at the Barcelona Convention. Questions of hygiene of the system are especially likely to raise many an eyebrow. This is too vital a consideration, for which reason I have also devoted particular attention to it in my proposals. I will be important, I believe, that you should not be caught off-guard if this question comes up. An argument that, whatever the quality of water in the tank, it is still better than what they now have, is not likely to cut much ice, and perhaps rightly so. The reason is that, for any health consequences arising from installation of these tanks, we stand liable.

 Now a few overall comments about the new proposals. The tank design as it now stands in practice has an important advantage which can be stated as “one size fits all.” Therefore the chances of error are minimized while putting in the installations The principles involved in what I am saying here in my report open up multiple choices in design which can also take advantage of any local topographical features. Our best choice would include employment of a full time project engineer for this purpose, who will custom design a tank installation for each locale. This engineer will preserve all drawings, with annotated notes, for the projects he attends, and will also have the mandate to develop and report on further improvisations and design improvements as he goes along. This will build on experience, and past knowledge gains will not be lost. Multiple usable models will come up and be recorded to suit different needs and locations. This movement will lead ultimately to the development of an “appropriate technology” which can be extended to other parts of the country in NWFP, Baluchistan, and barani Punjab, as well as in other parts of Sind,  where people are short of clean, palatable water, a difficulty which is likely to continue to aggravate in future. The impact of public service achieved by Rotary by so proceeding will therefore be extensive. One simply has to visit a deprived area even in one of our big cities to see the pitiable condition of drinking water available to adults and children living in many of our “katchi abadis.”

 Many worthwhile schemes of “appropriate technology” (mostly imported) have failed to stabilize due to inadequate attention in follow-up. The bio-gas project is one of them, in which a family possessing just two buffaloes could install an on-going gas supply in its kitchen. If we can bring up the standard of economy, innovation and utility in this water tank project to internationally acceptable standards, we might be providing relief on a scale which may comply with the Rotary maxim: MANKIND IS OUR BUSINESS. This will not happen in a day, but it will not take more than a day to kick off the developmental process.

 Please treat this letter as an integral part of the main report.

 Thanking you,

Yours sincerely,

 M. Zahiruddin Jeddy

Rotary Club Lahore Cantt.

Email: ricantt@hotmail.com

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WATER STORAGE TANKS PROJECT FOR THAR

A Suggestions report

by

M. Zahiruddin Jeddy

P.E. 2002-2003

For design improvements

Prepared for Rtn. Col (Rtd.) N. D. Tanvir,

District Governor,

On the occasion of his official visit to

Rotary Club, Lahore Cantt.

On May 23, 2002

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 DEDICATION

This monograph is dedicated to Rtn. Col. (Retd.) N.D. Tanvir, District Governor, Rotary District 3270, Pakistan, in recognition of:

And to the members of the Rotary Club of Kunri for their high civic sense and dedication in alleviating the miseries of their fellow-men.

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PROFILE OF THAR DESERT

Acknowledgement:

SNDPK WEBSITE:

http://www.tharparkar.sdnpk.org/

The Thar desert of District Tharparkar, Pakistan, lies in the south eastern arid zone of Sindh. It is bounded on the eastern side by the border with India, in the North by district Khairpur and in the West by the districts of Mirpurkhas and Badin. Tharparkar comprises four administrative units (known as talukas) of Mithi, Nagarparkar, Diplo and Chachro and is further divided into union councils and deh (village clusters).

The name Thar is derived from Thul, the general term for the region's and ridges. The land area of Thar is spread over about 22,000 sq. km. Apart from south-eastern part of Nagarparkar taluka which consists of granite hills with plain cultivable lands, most of the desert consists of sand dunes with flat plain between them where agriculture can take place.

At the moment the Thar region is inhabitated by about one million people. There are two main religious groups, Hindus and Muslims, who have peacefully lived side by side for centuries. Among the Hindu there are various caste and sub-caste groups. Bheel, Meghwars and Kholis are considered low castes or scheduled caste and they are in majority among the Hindus who are at present about 40% of the entire population of Thar. The “upper caste” Hindus are Lohanas, Sutars, Meheshwari and Thakurs. The Muslim population at present is about 60%. This comprises of various zat and tribal groups such as Khosas, Nohris, Bajeers, Samas and Mangnihars.

The main occupation of Thari people is cattle and livestock rearing, from which about 60% of their livelihood is derived. At present there are about 4.6 million cattle and livestock comprising buffaloes, sheep, goat, camel, donkeys and horses. About 10% of households get a regular flow of income through services in various private and public jobs. The rest derive their income through selling handicrafts, pottery, shoe mending, tailoring, carpet weaving and other micro-enterprises.

Of the total land area of 4.5 million acres, 3.4 million is cultivable and the remaining 1.1 million, constituting about 24%, is grazing land for cattle and livestock and waste land.

Rain is the main source of water in Tharparkar arid region. Which is very erratic. Annual rainfall varies from 0-300 mm. All agriculture and livestock activities are dependent on rainfall. The failure of monsoon would mean no agricultural crop and no fodder for Thari livestock. The main crop is bajra and guwar. In good rainy years, lintels, melons and sesme are also grown as mixed crop with the main crop of bajra and guwar.

Please see Annex 1:

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Steps needed to help solve Thar's problems and make the lives of people better

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AT SCHOOL

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THE ROTARY WATER TANK PROJECT FOR

THE PEOPLE OF THE THAR DESERT

Basic Tank design

Structure of the tank comprises the following components (Fig 1.):

The catchment area, which is a circular “pucca” construction forty feet in diameter with a six inch slope towards the centre. Rainfall trapped in this catchment flows into the tank constructed at the centre of the area.

The storage tank: This is a conical structure with a large circular base and a depth of about eight feet, and a smaller circular opening at its apex. The side wall is firmed up from the inside by pucca or semi-pucca masonry. The tank is built fully underground with its top aligned with the surface of the catchment platform.

Tank cap: This is a fixed metal covering over the tank’s upper opening. Along the bottom of the cap are a series of small openings (holes) which allow water from the catchment platform to flow into the tank for storage. The cap has an upper lid, which is opened for lowering a suitable utensil or container to extract water from the tank.

Strengths of the design

The structure is simple enough to construct and has a cost economy of only about Rs. 3,000 per tank.

The tank is postulated to have a working life of up to fifteen years.

Two tanks are reported to be sufficient for one family, given two rainfall showers per year.

Apart from the masonry requirement, the structure uses a minimum of other resources, limited mainly to fabrication and installation of the simple metallic cover, which has no moving parts except the lid.

The tanks installed by Rotary so far, or to be installed in the present phase, involve estimated construction of 5,000 tanks at a cost of Rs 1.5 million. This target will hopefully be met as required funds have been mobilized. Beneficiaries of tanks already installed consider this to be a heavenly facility. User satisfaction is therefore high, which already represents high achievement on the part of Rotary donors.

The conical shape of the tank leads to a smaller upper opening, which is more economical in terms of cost of the lid and is presumably more convenient in handling.

Weaknesses

The conical shape of the tank would seem to reduce the stability of the walls, which would have an increased propensity to cave in and damage the functionality of the storage area. The life of the tank will thereby be reduced. The weakness of the walls will be directly proportional to the angle of the walls in relation to the base. The more acute the angle the weaker will be the civil structure. This weakness will be further enhanced by weights on the ground surface as may come about by men and or animals (e.g. cows, buffaloes, camels) moving around the close vicinity of the lid.

The large bottom area created by virtue of the conical shape of the tank will leave any remaining water at the bottom of the tank spread out over the larger area in a thinner layer and will thus not be accessible for drawing out. In a time of greater scarcity this would represent a disadvantage.

During the prolonged dry seasons, the catchment area will lie unused and could collect dust, grime, rubbish and refuse of animals, humans and reptiles. If rains should occur in this state of un-cleanliness, much harmful material, including soluble components, will enter the storage tanks along with rainwater. Apart from that, such items as urine of animals or children etc, resulting from carelessness of a tanks’ guardians, will automatically flow into the storage tank, either during the dry season or otherwise, at any time. This could happen unless an efficient cut off stopper system  is in place to obstruct unwanted in-flows into the tank at times when rainwater is not under collection.

Because of the permanent slope of all points of the catchment area towards the tank’s intake points, the catchment area will not open to cleaning because any cleaning fluid used could also flow into the tank along with the pollutants, again, as said above, unless a stopper facility is provided. Even then, it will not be easy to throw or drain out the washings, which will be trapped as a dirty pool towards the centre of the catchment area.

Stored water will be short of aeration, which will lead to germination of anaerobic bacteria and mosses ( “kai” ) etc. inside the tank.

The lowering of unclean household utensils into the tank, for water retrieval, may also lead to injection of additional impurities and contaminations into the stored water

There are chances of social disorder if a family short of water should sneak into the storage tank of another, at any time of day or night, and steal stored water from a tank, which remains unguarded and exposed in the open.

Tank shape options

The optimum tank shape would tend to be towards a straight-standing internal wall orientation, whether circular, square or rectangular. The shape will increase in stability the more obtuse is the angle of the wall in relation to the base, and will decrease in stability to the extent of its being acute. We could usefully consider a redesign of the tank’s interior wall at an angle of between 90 and 110 degrees. (Fig 2.)

For purposes of enabling collection of even the last available amount of stored water, a smaller central depression at the base could be built in, with the entire base sloped towards it. (Fig 3.)

Tanks could be pre-fabricated in fibreglass, along with cover, and installed very quickly at destination. Manufacture of the first tank will be more costly, but once the dies are made, manufacture of the rest should be cheaper.

Tank placement and catchment area shape

Placement of the tank at the centre of the catchment area would seem to be a cause of some weaknesses stated above, such as inability to cut off unwanted flows into the tank and its increased exposure to possible pilferage of stored water, as well as security of the storage tank. An alternative is to think of the tank and the catchment area as two entirely independent structures, with no necessity of an ordained mutual orientation. The cachment area can be of any shape or size according to configuration of available space. It could be circular, rectangular, square or triangular. Its total available catchment area is the important consideration. The entire area would slope towards a point (Fig 4) from where the water will be carried to a storage tank in the vicinity, even if the tank is within the courtyard of the user. The channel for carriage could be an open surface drain (more susceptible to pollution and damage) or an underground pvc pipe, which could be the option of choice. The inlet (and outlet) point of the pipe would be fitted with a tap to stop at will any unwanted flows into the tank, a facility which can be of high practical value for purposes of retaining the quality of water already stored.

 Hillside catchments

As a corollary to the above, we can postulate that, in case of habitations alongside of hills, the catchments may be created on a hillside, in which case storage tanks will not even need to be placed underground, but would have taps towards the base for drawing water.

Tank inlets and water drawal

In using the design regime as above, inlet points of a tank would be a single hole for entry of a pipe or as reception point of a drain. A slide-down door will also seal off the inlet when it is not in use, to prevent entry of insects or vermin. The same opening may also double for insertion of plastic pump pipes to draw out water. This latter option will eliminate the practice of lowering of household utensils or other containers, with ropes or strings into the tank.

Water quality

Water standing stagnant over long periods is susceptible to contamination and growth of bacteria. The following precautions are indicated.

Use of the plastic pump pipes, pumped in reverse, daily to pump air into the standing water for aeration.

Addition of a chlorinating agent for disinfection, whose nature and dosage can be decided in consultation with PCSIR or water board chemists. The possibility of adding any other prophylactics, such as iodides, can also be assessed.

 Regular cleaning of catchment areas will not be possible because of water scarcity. However a regime can be established whereby users are trained to use the first few minutes of a downpour for quickly cleaning the surface with hard stick brooms.

 It is also necessary for civic minded organizations and individuals to chalk out a program for repeated exhortation or education of users regarding the merits, i.e. the NECCESSITY, for boiling water for about 10 to 15 minutes before drinking it.

 The design proposed here still leaves one important element un-addressed. Before entering the storage tank, water from the catchment platform preferably needs to flow through a filtration box, through which water should percolate before falling into a receptacle of the flow channel for carriage into the permanent storage tank. The filtration tank could be a simple contraption comprising a wooden frame with a wire gauze base, filled with fine gravel. This is to filter out solid impurities including organic and inorganic matter, bird droppings, bodies of dead insects etc. Fig. 4 shows placement of a filtration box at a point just where the water leaves the catchment area. In actual practice the box needs to be located not here but at a place just before the point where water falls into the storage tank. This is to ensure that trash collected during the water’s travel through the drain also is filtered out. A panel of persons competent in this area needs to be constituted to propose  cheap and simple solutions, which could also include putting in a satchel of bleaching powder into the filter box for chlorinating the water. Important engineering considerations will also pertain to needed slopes in the arrangement of each individual tank project, which may be somewhat specific for different locations, depending on local topography.

 An important existing resource is ground water. This water is reported generally to be brackish and unpalatable. It can, however, still be used for household cleaning, washing of clothes, bathing and multiple other purposes, in this case also for cleaning the catchment areas. Brackish water may collect because of specific underground geological characteristics, which may or may not be extensive. Hence wells over wider areas need to be drilled to prospect for sweet water sources. Furthermore, the available brackish water resource needs to be analyzed to arrive at chemical means for economically removing the main impurities that cause offence, so as to soften the water and make it more usable at least for non-drinking purposes.

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Annex 1

MONTH WISE THIRTY YEAR'S MEAN MAXIMUM/MINIMUM
TEMPERATURE, PRECIPITATION AND HUMIDITY

BOOKS ON THAR

1.Tareekh e- Registan (The History of the Desert Two vols. by Raichand Rathore published by Sindhi Adabi Board Hyderabad.)

2. Sair-e Registan ( A travelogue by Mohammed Ismail Ursani)

3. Miskeen Jahan Khan Khoso (a biography by Majnoon Baloch)

4. Purano Parkar ( Old Parkar)

5. Thar ( a compilation of research articles by Abdul Qadir Mangi )

6. Proceedings of First Marvi Melo by Mir Mohd. Bux Talpur

7. Thar: The great Pakistani Desert: Land, History, People by Ihsan H. Nadiem. New publication, 268 pages, Rs.1,200, Sang-i-Meel Publications, Lahore, Phone: 7220100.

 (Last addition at serial 7 is my own – Jeddy)

Acknowledgement: SNDPK WEBSITE: http://www.tharparkar.sdnpk.org/

 THAR, LIVESTOCK FOR LIVLIHOOD

 RUGGED BEAUTY AT THE RUNN OF KUTCH

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