Drilling and Testing Boreholes in Mulenje

This post is a follow up to two previous posts dated May 31, 2015 and July 19, 2015.  All three deal with the effort of developing water sources for Mulenje Community School and some of the surrounding communities.  The May post dealt with locating the boundaries of the Mulenje Village and the July post dealt with the locating possible sites for wells.  This post now starts to develop the water sources.  It has been hard work getting to the point where we can drill the 5 boreholes.  Convincing the people of the village that we are serious about helping them is a challenge since they don't have a lot experience with organizations providing help.  The other challenge is getting them to contribute funds for the establishment of the water points.  We have persevered for several months through this process and now have a project approved to develop their wells.  Now there is another type of hard work, manual labor.  We are removing the drill rods from the hole we just drilled.  You see it is easy work for the man with the white shirt and tie.

But then he has to sit back and observe.  I had the man that was sitting in the chair get up so I could sit down in his recliner and then he took my picture.  His first with a camera.  I thought he did a pretty good job for a beginner.

  

 Or maybe even take a nap in the shade of the hut.

After we finished drilling we took a break for the week-end and then started into pump testing and taking samples for water quality tests.  Here we are measuring the water level as the pump (generator operated submersible pump) is taking water from the borehole.  The yellow tape measure has a sensor on the end of it that sends a signal when it touches the water.  We record the water level at intervals so we know how fast the water level in the borehole is dropping.

 We also record the water level at intervals after turning off the pump to see how fast the water level is recovering in the borehole.

This one is flowing at about 1.75 liters per second.  We pumped out about 10,000 liters of water while we were doing our test.  This borehole could easily handle a submersible electric pump but there is no electricity anywhere near. 

Now it is time to stop in for a little relaxation.  We found this string instrument in the local Catholic church.  It is close to the school so we stop here because their pit latrine has a concrete floor.  It is the best in town, well maybe best in the bush.  

Finally it is back to work coordinating with the village on what they need to do so we can continue.  They just need to contribute a small amount to the expenses so that they can feel ownership of the well.  Oh well.  We can't break the culture either of the men sitting one place and the women somewhere else.  The water is for the women but the men want to dominate the control.  We require 50% participation from the women on the Water Committee.