Wednesday, January 28, 2009
About Hand-Dug Wells
There are three types of water solutions that charity: water typically implements in Ethiopia – hand dug wells, shallow boreholes and spring protections. Our partners who build water solutions will always determine the best solution based on the specific situation. Most of the solutions in Ethiopia are hand dug wells that can go as deep as about 25-30 meters (about 100 feet). They are generally the most inexpensive solution so whenever there is sufficient water near the surface a hand dug well is the best solution. This will describe how our partner in northern Ethiopia – REST – builds hand dug wells.
A REST hydrologist will identify the site for the well and the local community will start digging the hole for the well. They will dig down to about three meters depth on their own. At that point local workers will be trained and managed by a REST technician. A tripod is placed over the hole that is used to raise and lower equipment into the well. In general, one laborer will be in the hole breaking up the dirt and rock; another will load the dirt and rock into a bucket; the third laborer will raise the bucket, dump the contents and send it back down. When they reach rock that can’t be broken with a pickaxe the REST technician will use dynamite to loosen the rock.
Frequently, the hole will have layers of soil and rock that helps to keep the walls of the hole stable and prevent any collapse. In this case the laborers may build the interior wall of the well out of stone as they dig. This means that they are building the wall from the top down. If the hole is mostly unstable soil, then a stronger wall is needed. REST will bring forms to the site to make concrete cylinders. They will then use cement that they have brought to the site combined with local gravel to make the cylinders. The cylinders are then stacked in the hole to make the wall. As the hole is dug the cylinders will descend and new cylinders are stacked on top. Each cylinder takes two weeks to harden after it is made and there are generally two molds on site so the site is limited to about six feet of progress every two weeks. The concrete cylinders or the stone wall will continue until the hole reaches solid rock at which point the diameter of the hole will narrow and digging will continue. There will be gaps in the wall to allow water into the well.
At some point water will start to seep into the hole. The point of the well is to get water and the deeper the hole is the more reliable the water supply will be. However, during construction the water creates a problem so a pump connected to a generator is used to pump the water out of the hole during construction. By this point it’s pretty messy work in the hole with water sloshing around mixing with soil and bits of rock to make a chunky mud. When the hole reaches it’s final depth, gravel is placed between the walls of the well and walls of the hole to filter soil out of the water seeping into the well. Gravel is also put at the bottom of the well for the same reason.
When the hole is completed a slab of reinforced concrete is placed over the top. The concrete holds the pump and seals the well from contaminants. A pipe is run from the pump down to near the bottom of the well. A drain is built into the concrete slab to take away overflow water. Finally a barrier – usually a stone wall – is built around the well to keep out animals. At this point the well is ready for use.
On our first day we saw a well that had just been completed. The water did not look completely clean. As the well gets used all of that soil will eventually get flushed out and the water will look and be safe. No filtration system is necessary because the soil effectively filters out contaminants as the water seeps down.
In general, REST will provide the technology necessary to site and build the well. That includes the generator and pump, the cement, the hand pump and the technicians. They will also pay local laborers about 15-20 Birr (about $2.00) per day to do the laborer. They may also pay a local mason up to 30 Birr ($3.00) per day to carve the stones necessary for walls. The local community will provide the labor to start the digging, they will often have to carry supplies in form the nearest road – often a considerable distance – or they will build a road so that trucks can get in. The local community will also provide all of the stones necessary for walls and the gravel for making concrete.
After the well is built REST will provide training for well maintenance and ensure that there is a well committee to manage a monitor the well. Most communities will pay a well manager to manage the well including locking it when it is not in use. A carefully maintained well will last for a long time - charity: water estimates twenty years, but it can be much longer. In Ethiopia the typical cost of a hand dug well is about $3,000 - $4,000 dollars and is intended to serve about 400 people – a cost of about $10 per person.
A REST hydrologist will identify the site for the well and the local community will start digging the hole for the well. They will dig down to about three meters depth on their own. At that point local workers will be trained and managed by a REST technician. A tripod is placed over the hole that is used to raise and lower equipment into the well. In general, one laborer will be in the hole breaking up the dirt and rock; another will load the dirt and rock into a bucket; the third laborer will raise the bucket, dump the contents and send it back down. When they reach rock that can’t be broken with a pickaxe the REST technician will use dynamite to loosen the rock.
Frequently, the hole will have layers of soil and rock that helps to keep the walls of the hole stable and prevent any collapse. In this case the laborers may build the interior wall of the well out of stone as they dig. This means that they are building the wall from the top down. If the hole is mostly unstable soil, then a stronger wall is needed. REST will bring forms to the site to make concrete cylinders. They will then use cement that they have brought to the site combined with local gravel to make the cylinders. The cylinders are then stacked in the hole to make the wall. As the hole is dug the cylinders will descend and new cylinders are stacked on top. Each cylinder takes two weeks to harden after it is made and there are generally two molds on site so the site is limited to about six feet of progress every two weeks. The concrete cylinders or the stone wall will continue until the hole reaches solid rock at which point the diameter of the hole will narrow and digging will continue. There will be gaps in the wall to allow water into the well.
At some point water will start to seep into the hole. The point of the well is to get water and the deeper the hole is the more reliable the water supply will be. However, during construction the water creates a problem so a pump connected to a generator is used to pump the water out of the hole during construction. By this point it’s pretty messy work in the hole with water sloshing around mixing with soil and bits of rock to make a chunky mud. When the hole reaches it’s final depth, gravel is placed between the walls of the well and walls of the hole to filter soil out of the water seeping into the well. Gravel is also put at the bottom of the well for the same reason.
When the hole is completed a slab of reinforced concrete is placed over the top. The concrete holds the pump and seals the well from contaminants. A pipe is run from the pump down to near the bottom of the well. A drain is built into the concrete slab to take away overflow water. Finally a barrier – usually a stone wall – is built around the well to keep out animals. At this point the well is ready for use.
On our first day we saw a well that had just been completed. The water did not look completely clean. As the well gets used all of that soil will eventually get flushed out and the water will look and be safe. No filtration system is necessary because the soil effectively filters out contaminants as the water seeps down.
In general, REST will provide the technology necessary to site and build the well. That includes the generator and pump, the cement, the hand pump and the technicians. They will also pay local laborers about 15-20 Birr (about $2.00) per day to do the laborer. They may also pay a local mason up to 30 Birr ($3.00) per day to carve the stones necessary for walls. The local community will provide the labor to start the digging, they will often have to carry supplies in form the nearest road – often a considerable distance – or they will build a road so that trucks can get in. The local community will also provide all of the stones necessary for walls and the gravel for making concrete.
After the well is built REST will provide training for well maintenance and ensure that there is a well committee to manage a monitor the well. Most communities will pay a well manager to manage the well including locking it when it is not in use. A carefully maintained well will last for a long time - charity: water estimates twenty years, but it can be much longer. In Ethiopia the typical cost of a hand dug well is about $3,000 - $4,000 dollars and is intended to serve about 400 people – a cost of about $10 per person.
We're back
Labels:
Shawn
I appologize for the lack of blog posts over the past week. We had difficulty getting content out of Ethiopia for a few days. We all left Ethiopia last Thursday.
Campbell and Rick headed off to New York for a few days. Chloe and Luke headed back home to England. Julia, Katie and I headed to London for two days before continuing on to Chicago on Saturday. The girls are back in school and adjusting. I will have both of them post some closing thoughts.
We have a lot of content to work through and I will try to organize it in some fashion and get it uploaded over the next week or so.
Campbell and Rick headed off to New York for a few days. Chloe and Luke headed back home to England. Julia, Katie and I headed to London for two days before continuing on to Chicago on Saturday. The girls are back in school and adjusting. I will have both of them post some closing thoughts.
We have a lot of content to work through and I will try to organize it in some fashion and get it uploaded over the next week or so.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Spring Protections
Labels:
Katie
Today we visited four spring protections. I was thankful that the people did not know we were coming so they did not prepare a celebration and we had the time to visit more villages. The spring protections were pretty cool because pipes ran to get clean water for a shower, cattle trough, a station to wash clothes, and a place with four spouts to fill up jerry cans. It was solving a big problem because the spring was clean water but the mud it ran into and the cattle contaminated it in seconds. Women would fight for the closest spot to the clean water, and that meant that people got very little clean water and almost all dirty water.
The people in these villages were wealthier and cleaner than the ones in Tigray. That is because ORDA has created a flag system. The red flag is the best, then the green flag, and then yellow. To get a red flag the family had to have a clean and enclosed pit latrine, a clean water washing station, house organization (separate rooms), animals living in different space than humans, and a dry waste composting. The family also had to keep their clothes clean, take showers, and keep the water they drink clean and not put their hands or cups into the jerry can. I thought this system was very good because it really kept the village cleaner and healthier.
Today we also visited a school. We visited the elementary school so they all had on purple uniforms. There were three thousand kids in the school and about eighty of them would be crammed into one classroom. All of the kids were very excited to see us and some made speeches in English asking for desks and chairs, they were either sitting on the dirt or small wooden poles that were elevated just above the ground. Scott got another traditional outfit (his third on this trip) but he is sick in Addis so my dad will have to deliver it to him.
Our cultures are so different in every way and when I get home I am really going to appreciate our excellent food and restaurants. In the villages they feed us bread that is usually injera which I hate, goopy honey which is actually quite good but you get sick of it, popcorn ☺, Sewa beer ☹, and today we got beans. Every night we go to the best restaurant in town, which is really never that good. I am also missing the nice bathrooms and beds. I am amazed at how the people live, but they must get very used to that lifestyle. Overall the people here are very friendly and if you wave to them they will smile and wave back. This hotel has huge pool but it looks kind ‘a murky.
- hi to the people at home and in Chicago who are reading this!
- Mom, say hi to mars and tell him to eat his food but not socks
The people in these villages were wealthier and cleaner than the ones in Tigray. That is because ORDA has created a flag system. The red flag is the best, then the green flag, and then yellow. To get a red flag the family had to have a clean and enclosed pit latrine, a clean water washing station, house organization (separate rooms), animals living in different space than humans, and a dry waste composting. The family also had to keep their clothes clean, take showers, and keep the water they drink clean and not put their hands or cups into the jerry can. I thought this system was very good because it really kept the village cleaner and healthier.
Today we also visited a school. We visited the elementary school so they all had on purple uniforms. There were three thousand kids in the school and about eighty of them would be crammed into one classroom. All of the kids were very excited to see us and some made speeches in English asking for desks and chairs, they were either sitting on the dirt or small wooden poles that were elevated just above the ground. Scott got another traditional outfit (his third on this trip) but he is sick in Addis so my dad will have to deliver it to him.
Our cultures are so different in every way and when I get home I am really going to appreciate our excellent food and restaurants. In the villages they feed us bread that is usually injera which I hate, goopy honey which is actually quite good but you get sick of it, popcorn ☺, Sewa beer ☹, and today we got beans. Every night we go to the best restaurant in town, which is really never that good. I am also missing the nice bathrooms and beds. I am amazed at how the people live, but they must get very used to that lifestyle. Overall the people here are very friendly and if you wave to them they will smile and wave back. This hotel has huge pool but it looks kind ‘a murky.
- hi to the people at home and in Chicago who are reading this!
- Mom, say hi to mars and tell him to eat his food but not socks
Monday, January 19, 2009
water in schools.
Labels:
Campbell
In taking a tour of a school, Campbell was surprised to learn they both studied the same subjects.
Without water, girls often have to walk long distances carrying heavy water. It takes away from homework. Here I met a girl carrying a lot of water yesterday evening.
The number one reason that girls drop out of school is because they don't have clean water or bathrooms.
Travel Day
Labels:
Campbell
We have to travel today and we are going back to Addis. We are all so tired and are just trying to stay awake this morning. Mr. Scott got sick last night and is still being CRAZY! Yesterday I made a friend in the first village and I gave out some crosses that we made out of grass. We had so much fun. I also gave out one of my bracelets but we had to walk really far to get to the well. We got to see a few villages yesterday and one of them had a lot of flies there. Kids had flies all over their faces, it was so disgusting it made my stomach turn because I felt so bad for them. I hate flies!
I did get to hold two roosters at one of the villages. I named them Brock and Crow. The villagers gave them to Scott but he didn’t take them with him. We stayed at the Castle Hotel the last 2 nights and the hot water tank was boiling HOT! I did get to talk to my Mom last night but we only got to talk for three minutes.
At the village with all the flies, they gave us the traditional clothes with a fighting stick and we are bringing them home with us.
We are delayed one hour for our flight.
Bye -
I did get to hold two roosters at one of the villages. I named them Brock and Crow. The villagers gave them to Scott but he didn’t take them with him. We stayed at the Castle Hotel the last 2 nights and the hot water tank was boiling HOT! I did get to talk to my Mom last night but we only got to talk for three minutes.
At the village with all the flies, they gave us the traditional clothes with a fighting stick and we are bringing them home with us.
We are delayed one hour for our flight.
Bye -
The Church
Labels:
Katie
Today we took a plane to a different region of Ethiopia. We went on two boats across the lake that is the source of the Nile. My dad and Mr. Rick got soaked on the ride, so Mr.Rick stayed behind while we went to see the church. He stayed with Julia and Campbell so he could dry off and they could climb on the rocks. The rest of us headed off to the church and on the way saw a pack of monkeys, and some cool coffee beans. When we got to the church there were tons of people because it was epiphany. They had a very gross and bloody goat slaughtering place and you could see them roasting the meat and bones in the fire. We had to pay to go into the church so we paid and a guide showed us around. He told us stories about the paintings one of which was about a man who ate seventy eight people and then got to go to heaven because he gave a man a drop of water in Saint Mary’s name. Another was a set of pictures of a saint being killed in at least twenty different ways. The guide explained to us that to pray out of services people could go into the outer ring. While they were in service they could go into the second ring, but only monks and priests could go into the inner circle with big doors that is the Arch of the Covenant. It was a very pretty church and had very interesting paintings. I had never seen a circular church like that!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The car
Labels:
Julia
Bump. Ouch. Bump. Ouch. Bump. Ouch. Bump. Ouch. That’s the rhythm of this car ride. OW! That was a huge bump. SORRY! I keep crashing into Campbell. These roads are terrible and I’m trying to stay still, but to no avail I must say. We are pretty much riding over rocks. Actually we are. This Mac keeps falling off my lap onto Campbell. I AM RIDING OVER A ROCK RIGHT NOW! Oh yah, and over in the mountains yesterday? We almost fell out the windows! We were riding in the back, I mean the back back. And, oops sorry! And, so its realllllly bbuumpy bbaack theerrrrre, andddd wweeee havvvveee tooo ttake motion sickness piiillllss. UH! My fingers aare literallllly bbounncing on the keys! OH! I feel like I’m about to fall of a cliff. We get so close to the edge when we are rounding the cliffs that CAREFUL! We almost run off them. Our driver is really good and makes the turns, and we have not run off a cliff. Yet. Also its amazing that our driver can see through the dust. I can barely see this computer screen sometimes. Okay….. sorry bout the extra letters here. Oh, I meant to type an (a) there. THAT IS A HUGE CACTUS. All my apologies for that one saw a cactus about as big as an apartment! And yes Campbell, I know I have only 22% percent battery on this, I thought you already typed something. And okay I’ll take a break. BUMP! OOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Byuey, I mean bye.
Yesterday
Labels:
Campbell
On our journey yesterday, I was amazed by all the houses. I was disappointed because we had to stay at the same stupid hotel two nights in a row. It was gross. We went to the well that was sponsored by the Budde Family which helped the villages and the school. They gave them these interesting gifts that they had made by hand. We got to take pictures of the children and with the children. They had very warm smiles and then it was cool to see the water shoot up from the ground.
The way we reached our sponsored well was in a pick-up truck because we couldn’t make it in the Land Rovers. It was too bumpy to get there in the Land Rovers. When we got to our sponsored well, we had no idea it was our family well. I was really happy and I wasn’t feeling very good but it made me feel better. When we left Mr. Scott told us that they had to make a road for us to get there and they called it Severance Way. We are not sure if he was kidding. The trip is a challenge as we have to go to the bathroom outside a lot and the food is disgusting.
I miss my family and I love you.
Mirror, mirror on the wall.
Labels:
Chloe
After a reasonably long drive we arrived at Berties Well – we were given a traditional welcome of music, dancing and popcorn! We moved onto the Well where along with the priest and other local important people we were asked to cut the ribbon and open the new well. From the new well we moved to the old water source which was filthy and we learned that it was a source of lots of health problems and that the clinic was over two hours walk away.
Later when I was taking pictures of the children at the well, Gebre was telling me that the people did not really understand what camera’s and photographs were. When I showed the children the photo I took of them on the camera display screen, they looked very confused. Gebre told me a story that he took a picture of 3 boys, and showed one of the boys and asked him who was in the picture. The boy said well they are my two friends, but I don’t know who he is (pointing at himself). Of course he would not know what he looks like, as they do not have mirrors, to me I could not understand this, because of course I look in the mirror before I leave the house, to check I do not have toothpaste or breakfast down me. But here that probably would not worry them, but not knowing how you look! Its just so different here its like a separate world.
Later when I was taking pictures of the children at the well, Gebre was telling me that the people did not really understand what camera’s and photographs were. When I showed the children the photo I took of them on the camera display screen, they looked very confused. Gebre told me a story that he took a picture of 3 boys, and showed one of the boys and asked him who was in the picture. The boy said well they are my two friends, but I don’t know who he is (pointing at himself). Of course he would not know what he looks like, as they do not have mirrors, to me I could not understand this, because of course I look in the mirror before I leave the house, to check I do not have toothpaste or breakfast down me. But here that probably would not worry them, but not knowing how you look! Its just so different here its like a separate world.
Friday, January 16, 2009
The Budde Family Borehole
Labels:
Katie
Today we got to visit the Borehole that we sponsored for a school. I was completely surprised because we walked out of the car and people were holding signs that said ‘we love Budde family’ and ‘Budde family is the way of development in Ethiopia’ along with the reoccurring ‘water is life’ sign. It was so nice to se all of the kids we would be helping. The village gave my family a basket and a wooden statue of a lady carrying a bucket of water. Then they gave us all limes which made our hands smell really good and were fun to try to eat. We got to see the rig digging which was really cool, and every three meters they pulled out a soil sample so we got to see how the soil got darker and moister as the drill went down up to sixty meters or one hundred and eighty feet. The people there were very kind and grateful to the charity and my family and it made me feel good to know that we were helping all those people.
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