The Practivistas Domincana Program is currently a program involving Cal Poly Humboldt and UNIBE that takes place in Santo Domingo, Domincan Republic. The rainwater catchment system in La Yuca in Santo Domingo was first constructed in 2011. The water from this system was used for washing but was not potable. In 2012 the system was reconstructed and had different filters added in order to make the water potable. In the beginning of the summer of 2013, the water is still being used for washing but the water available for drinking is not being filtered, and therefore, it is not being used.

Objective

During the 2013 Practivistas Dominicana Program the objective is to make the La Yuca rainwater catchment system potable as well as easily accessible.

Literature Review

Here is the link for the information gathered to review and learn what is necessary to understand the concepts of design and implementation of rainwater catchment systems in the Dominican Republic.

Criteria

Final Design

The director of the school in La Yuca wanted to have potable water in the bathroom and a direct faucet to the cistern. Taking into consideration the director's desires, the final design was constructed to have potable water in the shower sink and greywater use for the toilet.

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  Piping along the wall to the filters
• 
  Finished filtration system
• 
  Direct faucet into the cistern
• 
  Piping from the filters to the bathroom
• 
  Bathroom sink
• 
  Bathroom showerhead
• 
  Sink drains greywater into toilet basin

Maintenance

This final design requires consistent upkeep in order to reduce the amount of contaminants.
Periodically OR Every Few Rainfalls

• First Flush holes should be checked for blockage

Every Month

• Primary screening must be checked for damage or clogging
• 1/4 cup of chlorine must be added per 1000 gallons

Every Year

• First Flush must be thoroughly cleaned
• Tinaco (or storage tank) must be emptied of sediment and disinfected
• Sediment and Carbon filters must be replaced

Video

Timeline

June 10th 2013

• Discussed plan of action
• Find water testing kits
• Discuss what is wrong with the current configuration
• Figure out questions to ask Aswaldo (Disassemble? Maintenance?)
• Found out UNIBE does not have any water testing kits.
  
• UNIBE normally has a professor take water samples to USAD (809)535-8273
  
• An alternative location for water testing is CAASD
  

June 11th 2013

• Email with contact information of USAD water lab was recived.

• Checked the hardware store next to super national for first flush ideas and paint. The correct paint was not found

June 12th 2013

• Went to PURADOM (water filter store, 27 de Febrero and Lincoln) to drop off water samples
• Results should be ready June 14 or 15.
• Inspected the entirety of the system
• Disassembled and cleaned each component

June 13th 2013

• The hardware store next to Super National does not have any 3 or 4 inch quick releases.
• They do have 4 inch pipe that they can cut to size.

June 14th 2013

• Finished cleaning the Tinaco
• Talk with the director and set up a meeting for Monday June 17th at 4 PM.

June 15th 2013

• Bought supplies for the first flush
• Started first flush assembly

June 16th 2013

• Continued working on first flush

• 
  The current condition of first screening
• 
  Simone helped us clean out the Tinaco

June 17th 2013

• Finish putting together first flush, discuss designs, research filters and water pressure and solar pumps
• Found out that the test results for the current filtration system showed to be not potable
• Talked with the Director and found out she wants water in the bathroom so she can shower

June 18th 2013

• Begin purchasing materials for bottom portion of first flush

June 19th 2013

• Attached first flush to column
• Discussed piping for bottom portion
• Found flow rate of original system to be 1.18 gallons per minute

June 20th 2013

• Complete bottom portion of first flush

June 21st 2013

• Buy materials for piping to the filtration system

June 22nd 2013

• Drill hole in wall for PVC to go through
• Construct and glue PVC along back wall
• Start working on filtration system

June 23rd 2013

• Continued to construct filtration system

June 24th 2013

• After discussing with local helpers, the filtration system was disassembled and rebuilt

June 25th 2013

• After listening to advice from Puradom professionals, more filters were optained in order to have two parallel series of two filters for more flow to pass through the system
• More hole drilling to support filters

June 26th 2013

• Bought more supplies to transport water from the filtration to the bathroom
• Bracketed pipe for the system

June 27th 2013

• Completed piping to and in the bathroom, including shower head and sink

June 28th 2013 Went to Las Malvinas to look at the school rainwater catchment system. Ended up with an alternative project to fix the rainwater catchment system in the Play.

June 29th 2013

• Bought materials for the rainwater catchment system in the Play in Las Malvinas.
• Fixed the toilet/sink system, and first flush. The first screening still has to be modified.

June 30th 2013 Started Construction on the Play rainwater catchment system.

• Removed roof
• Fixed bent sections of the roof
• Disassembled the rainwater catchment system
• Cleaned the tinaco

July 1st 2013

• Finishing touches on the filtration system in La Yuca
• Water sample was brought to Puradom to see if the water is potable

July 2nd 2013

• Repaired leak in filtration system

July 3rd 2013

• Worked on constructing the roof in Las Malvinas
• Worked on completing powerpoint for our project presentation
• Received results from Puradom of the current water qualtity. Test results indicated that the water was not potable.

Reasons for water quality failure are as follows

• Not enough bleach was added to the system
• The bleach was not allowed to sit in the water for 4-5 hours before we tested for water quality
• We did not wait long enough for contaminated water to clear and the bleach water to come through
• Due to limited amounts of water, the cleaning and testing process was rushed

July 4th 2013

• Presentation on our projects

July 5th 2013

• Finished constructing roof for Las Malvinas

July 6th 2013

La Yuca

• Attempted to make videos
• Assisted another group to finish their project

Las Malvinas

• Installed the PVC gutters
• Drilled a hole into the cap of the tinaco for the PVC inlet
• Created the primary screening
• Finished constructing and gluing the first flush

July 7th 2013

• Completed Las Malvinas project with the addition of a faucet and adding silicone to a leak.

July 8th 2013

• Took video of La Yuca project, no electricity was unfortunate
• Finished primary screening and with it the project in La Yuca