Harvesting water in Ailuk
The following article was published in the Marshall Islands Journal, September 4, 2015.
By Karen Earnshaw
While water makers are being installed, along with their complementary solar panel or wind generator power systems, around the Marshalls, one group is working on devising a simpler, cheaper method of ensuring communities have enough fresh water for survival during dry times.
A month-long pilot project for harvesting fresh water using minimal urban technologies took place in July on Ailuk Atoll, which is one of the country’s high drought risk atolls. The project’s team was made up of the University of the South Pacific’s Majuro Campus community development and outreach coordinator, Dustin Langidrik, two British environment researchers Andrew Tweedie and Gavin Allwright, and RMI-USP Joint Education Program students Nathan Karben, Evalani Harris, Siu Moses, Ipauna Sualau, and Peter Kejai.
At the beginning, the team was armed with four simple evaporation system designs, which were tested before traveling to Ailuk. “We spent a week at USP’s Long Island Campus working out the best ways to set up the three different types of collectors,” Dustin said. All the systems are based on having a reservoir of salt water that evaporates and creates fresh water that is trapped and then runs off through a hose into a catchment container. “At first we had just three designs, a tent, a series of gallon water bottles, the Keep It Simple System (KISS), which is a big plastic sausage that’s designed to float in the water.” The last is called the polytunnel system and turned out to be the most successful on Ailuk.
On arriving at Ailuk, the water team first held a town hall meeting to make the islanders aware of the project and its purpose. “At first everyone thought we’d be using RO units (reverse osmosis water filter systems),” Dustin said. “But we explained we were going with something much simpler.”
The team needed more manpower to build the systems and for this they recruited six members of the new Non-Government Organization (NGO), the Ailuk Ook Local Fisheries Committee, which has existed for over a year and has more than 20 members, including women. The recruits were Jomie Bunglik, Haes Haes, Twin Typhoon, Rine Senight, and Cosby Alfred.
“At first, our Ailuk counterparts didn’t quite get the evaporation concept,” Dustin said. “But within a week they totally got it and were giving us ideas on how to best create improved systems using their local knowledge.”
Initially the plan was to install at least one system at every household in Ailuk’s main village — making about 50-plus — as well as four at the community center. “But the bulk of the materials for the project hadn’t arrived in Majuro by the time the team flew to Ailuk.” Rather than be a dampener, this turned out to be a great opportunity for the team to incorporate more local materials than they’d already decided on.
Andrew Tweedie said: “The challenge caused by the lack of materials caused us to work more with the students and fishermen on working out solutions. For me, this was the most inspiring part of the project. I watched as they saw what the problem was and used their knowledge of their situation and what resources they had to come with the answer.”
As well, the whole community consistently took an interest in the project, popping by to see progress at the two venues: One near the airport terminal, the other on a lagoonside beach. “And,” Dustin added, “Mayor Rufina Jack was supportive of the project from the beginning.”
Andrew said over the month they developed three methods of collection systems – land based, suspended, and floating – without relying on engineers or fossil fuel-powered systems.”
By the end of the project, the whole team had nine designs that all worked to some degree. “The most successful was the wedge design that uses the series of gallon bottles, in that it made the biggest quantity fresh water,” said Dustin. “But the collection method didn’t work and now we need to improve how we harvest the made water.
“The next most successful was the polytunnel design, which produced about half a gallon of water a day.” Obviously a family would need more than one system to produce enough drinking water, but with a cost of less than $50 a unit, this is a realistic goal.
Meanwhile, the community will receive many units that will show them where their water future lies. “I am going back to Ailuk next week, on September 7, to finish the project now the original materials are all there, having been shipped to the island on MV Ribuuk Ae.” In just one week using the skills learned in the recent project, Dustin hopes he and the Ook fishermen can produce a system for each house.
“If this project is a success and they continue to harvest water onging, we hope to replicate the water harvesting in other outer islands.”
Andrew, who describes himself as a green inventor and environmental photographer, chimed in at the end with his dream: “If the little drops of sweet water we managed to produce from brine (seawater) become a life-saver thanks to the Ailuk water project, then we can hope the skills learned will soon produce a torrent from the sea.”
The old ways
Harvesting fresh water from a coconut palm. Photo: Dustin Langidrik
A long, long time ago, people all around the Marshall Islands had methods of harvesting fresh water. Two of these, according to USP’s water guy Dustin Langidrik, involve palm trees and pandandus trees.
“The palm tree method is called in the Ralik Chain ‘mammak’ and in the Ratak Chain it’s known as ‘emmak’.” The harvester uses a very young palm tree of the type that will have a slope to its trunk and carves out a hole in the tree’s base. As the tree grows, the hole gets larger. When it rains, the water drizzles down the tree and into the hole. “I’ve seen ‘bowls’ in old trees, maybe 40 or 50 years old, that can collect two or even gallons of water.”
The pandanus method is to take a group of the leaves and, while still attached to the plant, make a plait and shape it like a gutter. “They then simply put a bucket under the gutter and collect the run off.”
Weather station
Water project participants with the donated weather station. Photo: Dustin Langidrik
To complement the water harvesting systems, the British researchers generously provided a mobile weather station to the community. It will allow users to predict dry periods. “It has a tablet that gives a digital readout of current and upcoming weather for about a week, including wind direction and humidity,” said Dustin. It is set up at the airport terminal.
Project partners
The University of the South Pacific’s Majuro Campus is one of the main players in the continuing effort on climate change by the Global Climate Change Alliance (GGCA). The Ailuk water project was co-funded by the United Nations Development Program’s Global Environment Facility’s Small Grants Program. The materials were sourced by local companies such as Do It Best, True Value, and Ace Hardware.
