emergency community borehole replacement

7/10/2019

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!!

2 Comments

Shane Seaman

7/11/2019 20:48:15

So I have to ask the burning question...who donated this equipment in the first place? Secondly, why was there zero maintenance done for 15 years?

Arthur

7/13/2019 20:59:00

Hi Shane.

Thanks very much for your interest in our work and your very pertinent question: The borehole was orginally orginally drilled and equipped in 2004 by an NGO based based up in Shakawe, called TOCADI (Trust for Okavango Cultural and Development Initiatives), which ran out of funds and became defuct several years ago.

Tocadi partially built a stone protective wall around the borehole in about 2008/9 and then the job was finished off by another non-profit based much closer in the Dobe area, called "Word-to-Africa Botswana," shortly after that.

However, no work had been done on the external (Namibia-made) "Juwa" pump or on the internal parts of the borehole.

I've known the community since 1999 when I was involved in a land mapping project for Kuru Development Trust that led to the siting of the borehole. On a personal level my wife and I have been providing humanitarian related support on a regular basis since 2008 but we only registered KWT as a non-profit in 2016.

Well before 2016, being long concerned about the borehole, we had appealed unsuccessfully to various organizations for maintenance assistance. So we ended up only repairing what we could personally afford to do at the time (i.e. the pump's mechanical parts). We also replaced the solar panels after they were stolen in 2012, which was a personbal financial stretch for us at the time.

The timing of a donation received very recently by KWT was very fortuitous as it was the first time we, as a new organization, have been able to afford to do the long-needed repairs, which coincided with the pump suddenly failing. So that allowed us to spring into action right away. The timing of it all has been quite incredible.

Many thanks agin for your interest, it is much appreciated.

Best regards,

Arthur

emergency community borehole replacement

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