emergency community borehole replacement

Over the weekend of June 22nd and 23rd, we carried out emergency repairs to an ageing  community solar borehole that, after 15 years of no internal maintenance, had finally failed only a few days earlier.  This left a very remote San community and their animals completely without drinking water (exacerbated by the current severe drought in Botswana).  With the clock ticking and both the community and their animals dehydrated and in grave danger, we managed to get the water supply going again after 4 days of no water.  Whilst waiting for the installation team to arrive, we also orgnized a private water delivery of 500L to help stave off everyone's severe thirst!  The old "see-saw" type pump, panels and internal rods were all removed and replaced with a completey new system incorpoarting a submersible pump, piping and cables, new panels and control box, with a complete flush done beforehand to extract loads of accumulated dirt and other contaminants at the bottom of the borehole (60m below ground) which had been affecting the quality of the water supply. We are thanful for the hard work done by Water Africa's field team, who worked well into the night to get the job done.  A huge thanks to Mike and Karen McCune and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for their funding support, which made all this possible!!