[PDF]Rain Water Catchment Tank Project

T MICROFICHE
REFERENCE
LIBRARY

A project of Volunteers in Asia



From Ferro to Bamboo; A Case Study and Technical
Manual t o a Rain Water Catchment Tank Project

by: Marcus Kaufman

Published by:

Yayasan Dian Desa
P.O. Box 19

Bulaksumur, Yogyakarta
Indonesia

Available from:

Yayasan Dian Desa
P. 6 Box 19

Bulaksnmur, Yogyakarta
Indc.i aia

Reproduced by permission of the author.



Reproduction of this microfiche document in any
form is subject to the same restrictions as those
of the original document.




FROM FERRO
TO BAMBOO

a case study and technical manual
to Yayasan Dian Desa's rain water
catchment tank project
MARCUS KAUFMAN




Yayasan Dian Desa is a private, Appropriate Tech-
nology Development Foundation located in Central
Java, the Republic of Indonesia. This case study and technical
manual of the Foundation's rain water catchmant tank project
was produced with the support and co-operation of The Asia
Foundation, a U.S. based, non-profit organization. The Swiss
Center for Appropriate Technology at ILE also provided valuable
assistance. Reproduction of any or all parts of this publication
is absolutely okey.



Marcus Kaufman

1983 Yayasan Dian Desa

Post Office Box 19 Bulaksumur

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

All rights reserved

Research assistance : Christine Arisanti
Cover design and layout : Marcus Kaufman
Original artwork : Haryoto
Technical assistance : Edwin Soedjarwo



Cows? If we had enough water around here to raise
cows, I'd grow two crops of corn instead.

— Gunung Kidul Farmer



SPECIAL THANKS TO UNICEF AND THE INDONESIAN
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH FOR THEIR SPONSORSHIP OF
THE DIAN DESA PUBLICATION PENAMPUNG AIR HUJAN
BAMBU SEMEN FROM WHICH MUCH OF THE TECHNICAL
INFORMATION FOUND IN THIS BOOK HAS BEEN DRAWN.



Yayasan Dian Desa



Yayasan Dian Desa (YDD) is a private, non-profit foundation
which, for more than ten years, has been conducting its own brec
of development activities in rural communities throughout Indone
sia. Project activities cover a wide range, from improved farm-
ing and food processing techniques, to social research and the
publication of various technical manuals and reports. YDD's
principal work however, has traditionally been in village water
supply, and it is in this capacity that YDD has had its most
far-reaching effect on the communities in. which they work.

The Foundation's history goes back to 1969 when Anton Soe-
djarwo (YDD's founder and present Director) and four students



from Gadjah Mada's engineering school, inducted some "hands-on"
volunteer work on the slopes of Java's Mount Merapi. This single
project, a gravity supply water system serving just one village,
grew and grew, and eventually led to the birth some years later,
of Yayasan Dian Desa itself.




Anton Sozdjanwo Ue£t) In 7975 j htUUL on the.
&lop


Water

While considerable progress has been made in Indonesia since
1969, millions of families in rural areas still suffer from a
perennial scarcity of clean drinking water. In many regions
this is due to recurrent drought or simply chronically low rain-
fall. But other factors, such as deforestation, pollution and
extreme population pressures, have also contributed to compound-

2



ing the seriousness of Indonesia's water-supply problem.

It should be no surprise that water, the most/ basic of hu-
man needs, is a matter of primary concern to rural villagers and
to the Government and non-government groups active in village de-
velopment work in Indonesia. Organizations such as OXFAM, UNICEF,
and CARE for example, receive countless requests for assistance
with water supply projects (YDD like several other Indoneisan
foundations, conducts a considerable percentage of its village
based projects with funds from such international organizations).
The Indonesian Government also spends a respectable portion of
its development money on both drinking water and irrigation pro-
jects.




Appropriate Technology

YDD describes itself as an "Appropriate Technology Group"
and as such always attempts to design village water supply sys-
tems which utilize simple, low-cost technologies. These pro-
jects, to a large extent, depend on local skills and resources,
and on the active participation of local community members in
all stages of work. YDD points to this "self-help" aspect of
•".heir work as one of the main reasons they have been successful
in so many of their community development programs which begin
with water supply.




P*e-p/u?/ec£ mzztuiQ utitk total n.UA.dznt& : zntejUng
the. mcLuibtAzam



YDD's Director, Anton Soedjarwo describes their approach:
"Instead of just 'dropping* a foreign piece of technology in a
village setting, and then *oing on our way, we take a more care-
ful, sympathetic approach. Our field workers live in a village
for some time before any 'hard-ware' work takes place; and
through surveys and discussions with the local people they at-
tempt to determine what types of technological changes are fea-
sible and appropriate for each particular village. In this man-
ner, we hope to achieve a state of 'village development' which
is more meaningful and lasting than a mere piece of equipment
can ever be. Our normal strategy is to work through key, local
individuals on what we call 'social overhead' projects (such as
water supply) to address needs most crucial to local villagers;
needs which perhaps are preventing them from ever progressing to
a point where they can enter into the mainstream of Indonesia's
'Development Economy. * Our next step is to work on secondary
projects (again through the same key, local people) to raise in-
comes and local standards of living. Our experience has shown
that this strategy is a viable approach for a wide variety of
community development problems."

Ferro Cement

In 1978, YDD began experimenting with what, for them was a
completely new technology: ferro-cement . Ferro-cement is a
peculiar construction technique consisting of a reinforced frame-
work of .iron rod (rebar) and chicken wire plastered internally
and externally with a thin layer of Portland cement. Ferro-
cement has for years been successfully used for boats, jars,
walls and roofs; but YDD's goal was to design a ferro-cement



water tank which could be used for rain v ter catchment in i ..-
lages where rain represents the only feasibly exploitable water
resource.




VznJw-c.emQ.nt n.ool atop Vixm VeAa't VogyakaAta
czvitoA:


In 1978, after a number of isolated experiments, YDD final-

3

ized a preliminary design for a-lOM "two family" tank. The tank
was looked upon as having great potential. The construction pro-
cess was such that it could easily be mastered by the ever-clever
Indonesian villagers. The tank was, as well, priced consider-
ably below other available alternatives (masonry, steel, fiber-
glass); and its small size was felt to be much more appropriate,
espcially in terms of maintenance, than larger, communal water
tanks. With this new technology in hand, YDD's water supply
staff" were ready for some trial, village-based work.

6



Gunung Kidul

The dry range of mountains southeast of Yogyakarta, known as
Gunung Kidul (the Southern Mountain) is a particularly critical
area in every sense of the word. The land is largely deforested,
good soil is extremely scarce, and ground water virtually non-
existent (porous limestone covers most of the region to a con-
siderable depth) . Local residents draw their water from drain-
age ponds and subterranean caves and often have to walk many
kilometers to do so. Very few other sources of water exist and
in the dry season (which often lasts as long as six months) wat-
er becomes as scarce as money, in most of Gunung Kidul.

It was in this context that YDD first introduced the ferro-
cement rain water catchment tank on a trail "pilot project" ba-




fCufa and gocut6 Jin Gunung KLduJL



sis. Together with a select team of local "cadre", they built
first 20, then 60, then 100 tanks in a small hamlet called Sido-
rejo.




hi doJdbj {eJiAo-cmnvvt natvi wateA catchment tank

In an early progress report, YDD's principal field worker
described the basic principles behind the project:

(1) The project must be implemented such that local
community members fully participate in all stages of
work. In this manner, technical skills as well" as
confidence and self-esteem will be developed.

(2) The project must be designed such that depen-
dence on outside products and materials is kept to a
minimum.

(3) Local lifestyles and traditions must be consid-
ered in planning all tank locations.



(4) Project work schedules must be matched with
local time constraints.

(5) The transfer of technical skills and mainten-
ance know-how must be considered a primary goal of
the project.

(6) Local opinions regarding water consumption and
water use patterns must always be taken into con-
sideration .

The tanks were originally intended to serve as a water re-
source of "last resort"; meaning that villagers would continue
to use existing local sources for as long into the dry season as
they could - and turn to the tanks only when these other resources
were completely exhausted. In this manner, a safe supply of
water could be held in reserve, to be used during those two to
three months of the dry season when 'fresh water was completely
unavailable. The planned follow-up activity for each tank pro-
ject was most often the introduction of a new crop (winged bean)
or food processing technology (cassava dryers) .




JmpKovzd ccu>6ava dAyeJU, : a loWm-wp activity

9



>



YDD conducted other catchment tank projects in 1978, in ,
villages throughout Gunung Kidul - using their original ferro-
cement tank design and following a project plan similar to the
one used in Sidorejo. Local village cadre continued to play a
large role in the implementation of the projects and the quan-
tity of tanks constructed soon began to be numbered in the huii-
dreds. However, feedback regarding the appropriateness of the
original tank design soon required that several changes be con-
sidered. A better, more efficient means of constructing the re-
bar frame was needed, as was a more permanent and effective tank
filter and lid. Early in 1979, YDD designed a new ferro-cement




Btnding fizbaA

tank which incorporated these two changes as well as several oth-
, ers. The new tank however, did not even begin to address a num-
ber of other criticisms which were being voiced about the ferro-
cement technology; most basic of which concerned the cost and

10



availability of the essential raw materials - rebar, chicken
wire, cement and sand.

Considering the economic means and standard of living of a
typcial Indonesian farm family, it is easy to understand the fi-
nancial problems posed by the ferro-cement tank technology. In
short, an individual farmer would be hard pressed to purchase on
his own, the materials needed for a ferro-cement tank. While
ferro-cement is certainly less expensive than many other types of
tanks, its cost is still beyond the means of all but the most
wealthy villagers. This fact alone, greatly limited the extent
to which the tanks could ever be financed and built by villagers
themselves without the assistance of YDD or- some other outside
agency. Thus, the extent to which the tanks would be spread with
purely local initiative was limited, and several of YDD's own
principles were, therefore, not being met in the project. The



technology was not easily reproducible (given its prohibitively
expensive cost); and as virtually all raw materials had to be
procurred outside the village, villagers were forced into an un-
desirable dependency on imported goods.

It is at moments like these that YDD's "careful, sympathetic
approach" to village development pays off: many of the villagers
involved in the project had already developed a strong sense of
pride in their ability to build tanks and thus participate in
solving a common local problem. These cadre were by no means
mere "coolies" on the job - rather they were the daily managers
and engineers on a fairly sophisticated development project.
Thus when faced with the problem of transforming the ferro-ce-
ment technology, such that it could more easily and economically
meet local needs, the cadre were equal to the task.




VMagz cocfce: no mete cootie* on the. job



Bamboo Cement



In late 1979, a discussion took place in G. Kidul between
two of YDD's field staff and one of the principal village cadre.
The village head, Pak Sumamo was also present. They discussed
the days' work and in particular, the rise in cost of rebar. As
they had done many times before, they considered new ways in
which they could reduce the quantity of rebar needed for each
tank - or better still, eliminate the rebar from the construc-
tion process altogether . Then Pak Sumamo made the observation
that the ferro-cement frame in many ways resembled his cassava
storage bin, except of course that his storage bin was made of
woven bamboo. "Would it perhaps be possible to replace some of
the rebar with bamboo?," he queried. The local cadre, Pak Har,
said he thought it might work and added that in constructing pit
latrines, he often used a cylindrical woven bamboo liner, which
he plastered with cement. Such a cylinder could conceivably be
built above ground and function as a water tank.

Thus was born a new hybrid technology: Bamboo-Cement.

Experiments with the new technology progressed swiftly, with

trial tanks of various shapes and sizes being built in Sidorejo.

3

The majority of the new tanks were large (10M ) cone-shaped af-
fairs, "kind of like the Colombia rocket;" but soon a smaller

3

"single-family" tank was designed (4.5M ) which has since become
the YDD' standard. With the development of the small bamboo-cement
tank, YDD's field staff began to witness the spread of the tech-
nology beyond their own project area. States Haryoto, one of
the designers of the final bamboo tank design: "Many villagers
in Gunung Kidul were already adept weavers of bamboo, thus they
quickly mastered the frame construction technique. And since the

13



new tanks no longer required expensive rebar and chicken wire,
the overall cost was now acceptable to many farmers."




Bamboo: the. basic turn mat&Ual



Since the bamboo tanks' original development in 1979, some
200 have been built by villagers throughout Gunung Kidul on their
own initiative. The role which trained village cadre played in
this regard was again very significant. In many instances trained
cadre were the principal* means whereby other villagers learned of
and mastered the bamboo-cement construction process. This ability
of Y00 trained cadre to, in turn, train other cadre is but another
indication of the benifits of following a participatory approach
in such development efforts.
14



HoJbpAMQ handi : cad/ie. training cad/ie.



Problems

In 1980, YDD's "Social Section" conducted research to deter-
mine to what extent the new tanks were indeed successful in ad-
dressing the problem of dry season water scarcity. Their find-
ings show that "misuse" or "improper use" of the tanks was ram-
pant/ and that to a large extent, the tanks were not yet achiev-
ing their intended effect on the local water situation.

They found that, ironically, the tanks were most useful in
the rainy season; as at such time they were a convenient source
of good, clean water. In the dry season, however, many tanks
were left empty. Apparently, quite a few tank owners were ex-
hausting their convenient supply of tank water in the transition



had a totally unanticipated effect on existing water resources:
a new local practice, that of filling the rain water catchment
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