Current Projects

AMANZI will be working with partner organizations to bring this vision to life. The food garden, which will contain 18 different fruits and vegetables, will provide additional nutritional sustenance to learners. A contract worker will implement gardening and health programs with learners to develop and maintain the garden. (Pre-fenced location for the garden in bottom right of photo.)

Load-shedding (electrical outages) are part of daily life in the Eastern Cape. A solar powered inverter will power the pump for the 75,000L tank farm, the three-part water filtration system and the UV light for purification. This will enable learners and teachers to continue to take 5L of purified water home daily when there is no electricity at the school.

Riebeeck East Combined School has impressive rainwater harvesting potential. To capitalize upon this, the roofs were repaired, refinished and repainted, the asbestos gutters were safely removed and disposed of correctly, and new aluminum gutters were installed. With refurbished roofs and new gutters, RECS now has consistent water available and a healthier environment for learning.

A tank farm was installed to store 60,000L of water for use in the RECS kitchen, for drinking water and for hand washing. This is in addition to the 15,000L already secured for the school in 2022. A UV water purification system was also installed in the school kitchen to provide purified water throughout the day for learners and staff and for the school nutrition program. The project will also enable learners and teachers to take 5L of purified water home each school day.

Riebeeck East is a water scarce area. With this in mind, the RECS staff and School Governing Body chose to transition to waterless toilets. This transition has reduced the amount of water needed for daily operations at the school significantly, creating lasting water security for RECS learners and staff.

RECS has three brand new, carbon-neutral toilet blocks. Constructed using the biomass from invasive plant species, carbon that otherwise would be released into the atmosphere through burning or composting is instead sequestered in the concrete. This climate-smart product meets all South African national building regulations and is less expensive than traditional concrete.

In January 2022, Sawyer water filters were implemented in all classrooms at the Riebeeck East Combined School. These 0.1 micron absolute hollow fiber membrane filters ensure the removal of bacteria, protozoa, cysts and microplastics. With the implementation of these filters, 97 students now have access to clean drinking water at school.

In February 2022, as the COVID-19 pandemic persisted in the area, buckets for hand-washing were implemented in each classroom at the Riebeeck East Combined School. Learners are now able to wash their hands throughout the school day, and especially before eating and after visiting the toilet.

In February 2022, AMANZI - Water to Schools had a tank stand built and installed the 10,000L tank which had been donated to the school. In addition, a 2,500L tank which had been leaking was fixed, and moved to a location where it could be filled by a water tanker. This project increased the water storage capacity of the school from 2,500L to 15,000L.

In July 2022, a pump was installed to provide daily running water to the kitchen and classrooms at RECS. This pump will be integrated into the larger rainwater harvesting system once that is complete.