Radionovka Sanitation Project – Ukraine

Location
Radionovka, Ukraine

Community Description
Radionovka is a small village of 1,500 people, located near the most polluted city in all of Europe, Kryvy Rog, Ukraine.

The community does not have running water. However it has local river water piped into water stations throughout the village for local use.

The water in the water stations contains leaves, dirt, and usually leeches, and is not sanitary for consumption. The stations are located near open sewage reserves that are not covered or contained in any way.

Raw sewage emerging from apartment buildings currently runs off through open trenches.

An apartment building located near the Radionovka Secondary School is occupied by teachers and their families. The school has undertaken this project to assist them to alleviate this intolerable sanitary condition.

Project Description
This sanitation project will eliminate the raw sewage that surrounds the apartment building. Sinkholes will be created for the sewage to run into the ground, where it will be naturally filtered and cleaned. The sewage coming from the apartment building will be piped to the sinkholes.

Four soak pits will be created, all connected by plastic PCP piping. The first will be located at the main sewage pipe that comes from the apartment building. It will be two meters deep and two meters wide. Then it will be filled with larger rocks 3/4 of the way to the top, then small gravel. The next soak pit will be located 19 meters away. This pit will be 1 1/2 meters deep, and filled the same way as the first. The third pit will be located another 20 meters away. It will be 1 1/2 meters deep also and filled the same way. The last pit will only be 1 meter deep and will act as an emergency runoff collector in case of flooding.

These four pits will run parallel to the apartment building and will be connected to other smaller pipes running out of the building.

Project funds will be used to purchase the rocks, gravel, plastic piping, and glue. They will also pay for the renting of a tractor to create the pits and trenches that will connect the pits.

The Radionovka Secondary School is helping with the project. The families living in this building (along with the capable men of the village) will shovel rocks and connect the piping.

This project arose out of an ecology week last semester that was created to teach about creating a clean environment. The students actually came up with this project to clean up the raw sewage.

A subsequent project is envisioned to filter the dirty river water to make it potable.

Project Impact
550 people will benefit from this project.

Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Alexis Ward

Comments
This is a practical and important sanitation project that will eliminate an extremely unhealthful condition for the residents of the apartment building. It will demonstrate a practical solution that can hopefully be replicated for other apartment houses suffering under the same conditions.

Dollar Amount of Project
$490.00

Donations Collected to Date
$490.00

Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 – This project has now been fully funded through the generosity of Hack & Slash, who have designated Water Charity as beneficiaries of this year’s Hack and Slash Christmas Special in Color held in Baltimore, MD.

The project is dedicated in honor of Maia Rodriguez.

We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify the PCV of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund future projects in the country of service.

This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.