Moshe, TZ – Ginja Primary School is very happy with the performance of its new water System – Sep 2025
The Ginja Primary School’s teachers, parents and students are very happy and proud with the end product of this water project because it is a sustainable quality structure that is consistently supplying water to the school’s Grow-own-Breakfast vegetable and banana tree gardens.
We send our sincere thanks to all the supporters, Sue Lay in Australia, Betterlives Board, Ginja parents, teachers, children and Deo’s Local Eng Friends (Arch Lukas, Eng Shita,) We are praying for the Late Ponsian Matemu Soul to continue to rest in Peace, Amen. We will always remember him for his extraordinary volunteering as an engineer for our projects and with this one on is a very special way of saying goodbye to us.
The project Implementation was a challenge for meeting our Design, Schedule and Budget Quality targets, but the lessons learned are extremely valuable and will be applied to the next school’s water system project. Ponsian was very sick and unable to assist with the initial design, which was a structure of 4 pillars with a concrete slab on top and walls below around the pillars with a roof in between making up a small store room, with one entrance door together with a varendra roof in front of the door for garden workers to rest in shade and meet to plan different activities in the gardens.
At the end of 2024 Betterlives board funded Tupendane with the total amount of 10,937,000 TZS to improve the existing manual bore hole source of water with an electric pump and raised water tank tower for gravity flow supply of water for drinking and to the toilet block, kitchen, and gardens. The design changed with the introduction of a strong central pillar (5th Pillar), as a result of poor communication of the engineer’s design, which was not followed by the building team. Also, the lead skilled builder was sick for a long time, so a new fundi replaced him. A protection chamber over the well was added to protect water quality and the pump infrastructure, and a simple fence added to safeguard from children playing with and damaging the piping.
The lesson learned is that technical team consistency is key at all the time of the project, and the labor team was difficult to manage as we contracted with them for fewer projects recently, so they gave priority to their other customers who have more projects that assure continuous income.
The project’s schedule of activities was originally due to finish at the end of 2024, but in the end was completed by 10 February. This was because misscomunication about things like taking 21 days for concrete slab curing, and personal challenges as mentioned earlier. Christmas and New year holidays also played a part.
Betterlives Management’s interest in quality assurance impacted the flow of work and the machinery (winch) work plan. Mobilization of the machines like winches from Moshi is a very time sensitive activity. Economic considerations for the project also led to some delays because of relying on community participation efforts and different contributions to the project.
The main schedule lesson is that during planning we shall give enough cushion/buffer time to accommodate suprises, and that it is difficult to get support from local community during the holidays. Also, either scheduling enough work for the building teams or raising the pay rate so as to maintain their consistency and focus.
The project budget was not to exceed 10,937,000 TZS / US$ 4,300. There has been a 24% budget increases to a total amount of 13,598,899 TZS / US$ 5,300. The reasons are lack of proper professional technical planning of the project, and lack of close site supervision by the project manger to coordinate design and quality expectations between the engineer and building team. Matching the project manager and building team’s work and quality check schedule is key, especially when there are changing team members.
There was also insufficient contingency budget. This was needed when the design and schedule changes impcated the costs. In conclusion, we need to be guided by engineering estimates for the project at all times, based upon a professional engineer and the project manager designing and scheduling the activities.
We have gained more experience necessary for the future projects through the learnings above. We have already seen the Smiles and Joy on faces of the children, teachers and parents after the completion of the project, a situation which has fulfilled our souls with all gratitude after all the challenges of the project. We are very sure the lives are going to be more enjoyable and that makes us appreciate the project more. Our Tupendane team is now ready for the next water system project.
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