Dumne Borehole, Camera Tests

Today April 11, Yakubu, Adams, and I drove to Dumne to see the progress of the water committee and to look at the two boreholes. First we stopped and talked to the LCCN Dispenser at the Dispensary. He had 5 patients this morning but now had time to work with us. The local water committee has done nothing in the way of planning for an improved sanitation in the area. I have the feeling they were told that they need to do it but not given any education on sanitation and the benefits of the Ventilated Improved Pit latrine or the need to have a latrine. The Dispensary and the Bible School do not have latrines. After we discussed sanitation we went to the borehole that has not worked for two years. It was originally, drilled by Danish missionaries.Between 30 to 40 years ago. No pump was attached for many years. A hand pump was later added. It broke and the local government fixed it . It then broke again. With only one pump of the handle I knew that a rod had broken so the handle was no longer connected to the pump. We decided to disassemble the pump to see what was wrong and to test my borehole camera.

We got some young men to come help us with the heavy work. We disassembled the head and tried to remove the tank we could not remove the tank. So we lifted the first pipe out of the bore hole with the tank attached. Then there was no rod joint found inside the pipe at the pipe joint. So there we stood holding a 3 meter pipe up in the air with the tank section of the pump still attached at the top. Where is my hardhat?  This picture shows us doing something you are not taught in pump repair school. We are cutting the rod. The rod joint was over a meter above the pipe joint. We could not hold the pipe high enough in the air to reach the rod joint. So we had to cut the first three or four until the joint was close enough to unscrew. When we pulled the second pipe we found the broken rod. It appears that the cylinder had become jammed and they pumped so hard that they broke the rod. It was not that hard, we managed to break a rod also. In total we removed 13 pipes for a total depth of 39 meters (128 feet). We found the water at only 27.5 feet from the base of the slab. An old man at the site said he was young when they drilled the hole. It filled quickly when they broke through a rock layer. The total depth of the bore hole was 200 feet. The water meter that someone donated to the LCCN did not work properly. We found the depth to water by watching the light of the borehole camera as I lowered it. When the light disappeared we pulled it out and measured the length to the water mark on the  camera housing.

The camera worked well above the water level. But the way I attached the rope caused it to scrap the sides of the iron casing and drop rust into the water. We also did a lot of scrapping while removing the pipes. when the camera went under water it was too cloudy to show much. The pictures of the pipe above the water were pretty good. Under water I could not see much. Initial conclusion. The camera may work better in dry bore holes or boreholes that have plastic casing instead of iron.

The governments last repair had used inferior pipes (they bent when we used a pipe wrench on them) and inferior rods. After sending three cameras down with three different lights, we decided to install the cylinder we brought with us and as many of the rods and pipes that we determined to be usable. This way the people in the area would have water until we returned with good pipes and rods. As we were installing the pump head I needed the young men to lift the rod and head a few inches so I could remove the rod clamp. Unfortunately, they lifted it up more than a few inches and snapped another rod. It was now after 4 PM and we did not have time to remove the nine rods we had installed. We cleaned up and left the community with the same problem they had when we arrived. Only now we know exactly what needs to be done to fix the pump. We arrived back in Jimeta/Yola at 6 PM. I was covered in rust, dirt, oil and whatever. I drank another liter of cold water showered with warm water and washed my hands about 4 times before making a sandwich for dinner. When I post this I will take another shower. (I pour a few liters of water over my head is what I call a shower.)