HEALTH AND SANITATION
25
HEALTH AND SANITATION
25
“Of course, there are exceptions to every
rule, and even in parts of the US, there are
millions of people without clean water in
their homes and even those without any
water at all.”
Because their basic needs have been
neglected by the county and state in which
they reside, residents have made significant
efforts to uplift, empower, and support each
other in their community development goals.
In their fight for water and wastewater
services, they have established grassroots
organisations and committees such as the
Sandbranch Development Water Supply
Corporation (SDWSC), Project Dreamhaus, and
the “Sandbranch … Everybody’s Community!”
coalition (Strategic Vision and Plan for
Improvements to the Sandbranch Community).
Additionally, they won a Sierra Club
Environmental Justice Award for their
grassroots efforts united around a common
but ground-breaking goal of providing
potable water to the overlooked community of
Sandbranch as well as a USDA search grant
to supplement donated funds (Sandbranch …
Everybody’s Community).
Each of these organisations works through
the Mount Zion Baptist Church, which serves
as the Sandbranch Community’s primary
source of social services and water distribution
(Strategic Vision and Plan for Improvements
to the Sandbranch Community). Because of
its historic prominence in the community and
current role in distributing donated bottled
water to community members, the Mount Zion
Baptist Church would be an ideal site for a
Community Plumbing Challenge project.
While there are plenty of areas in the United
States with large-scale issues involving water
and wastewater treatment and infrastructure,
Sandbranch is the one location that would
benefit the most from a project with the
style and scope of a Community Plumbing
Challenge. In 2017, the Community Plumbing
Challenge in Bekasi, Indonesia, involved a
Design Week, a Phase I Construction Week,
and finally a Phase II Construction Week,
also known as the Legacy Project, with
the entire project spanning about one year
(Community Plumbing Challenge 2017:
Final Report). It involved the construction of
several toilets, a new septic tank connected to
evapotranspiration absorption (ETA) beds for
safer wastewater disposal, increased on-site
drinking water supply, and further renovation
such as improved lighting and ventilation
August 2019 Volume 25 I Number 6
(Community Plumbing Challenge 2017: Final
Report).
A project here in the US would ideally be
comparable in magnitude, which would be
feasible for a small community of only 80
residents. It should also be located near a
major city, as Sandbranch is to Dallas, in
order to accommodate a full design and
construction team. Additionally, the proximity to
a wastewater treatment plant leaves open the
possibility of a Community Plumbing Challenge
to help connect the town, or at least one
building, to the municipal water supply, as was
done in last year’s project at a public school
in Indonesia (Community Plumbing Challenge
2017: Final Report).
Community gathering centres such as schools,
recreation centres, and churches are perfect
sites for projects of this nature because they
maximise the impact by increasing the number
of individuals affected while focusing on one
physical location. Completing a Community
Plumbing Challenge project at the Mount Zion
Baptist Church, which already provides free
bottled water and social services, would finally
give the community access to flushing toilets,
sinks, and showers for the first time.
Hopefully, the day will come when Sandbranch
residents have clean running water in their own
homes. Even then, any public restroom and
even showering facilities built in the church
would continue to benefit the community
because of the many meetings it hosts and
services it provides. In the event that residents
do achieve their eventual goal of individual
household plumbing, public facilities would also
be useful as back-ups for when residents have
problems with their plumbing systems at home
and cannot afford immediate maintenance.
It is truly a tragedy that a neighbourhood
so close to a wealthy, industrialised city
like Dallas has been struggling for so long
to be incorporated into the civilisation that
surrounds it.
The residents of Sandbranch deserve and
have fought for the basic services that modern
society is able to provide. It is now up to us,
the bystanders, to lend a helping hand to our
brothers and sisters in need. PA
www.plumbingafrica.co.za