Sabon Gari "B" Borehole Repair, April 28, 2011

Sabon Gari "B" is a district on the edge of the city of Mayo Belwa. It is actually, not in the Mayo Belwa Local Government Area (similar to our Counties, but they do not have any lower formal government.) It is in the Fufore Local Government Area. The town of Furfore is probably 2 hours away. They get little services from Furfore and nothing from Mayo Belwa. Their biggest benefit of their location is that the Governor is from Mayo Belwa. Mayo Belwa and the surrounding area get a lot more hours of power each day than most of the rest of Adamawa.

History of Bad Contractors: The people of this area got together and formed a water committee, raised money and hired a contractor to drill a borehole. He was not an good contractor. He drill down and told the people that he had drilled 150 feet and could not drill any more. They talked him into drilling more. So he did a little. Now he told them his pump was not strong enough to take the drilling mud out of the hole. So he put in casing and screens and left a pump behind. Of course nothing he did was correct or true. We found the bottom of the casing at 112 feet. The pump stand was not buried in 16 inches of concrete but just in loose rock below a thin slab. He never install the pump. Later the committee had another contractor come and air lift the borehole to clean it out and they installed a pump. The second contractor only did a little airlifting and went away. He did not know how to install the pump the first contractor had left behind so he got an old India Mark II from Jimeta. Because the pump stand installed by the first contractor was not properly aligned with the casing the second contractor cut a large hole in the bottom of the pump head for the pump rod to go through. This eliminated the seal between the pump head, tank and rising main. The pump worked poorly giving a muddy water. The concrete slab broke and the pump rocked with each pump stroke. In 2009 I gave the water committee $800 from profits for fair trade sales made by Citizens Into Action to repair the pump and start a fund for a future overhead tank. I recommended that they flush the borehole again but for a longer time, replace the entire pump with completely compatible parts and rebuild the pad with a proper foundation using Adams from the LCCN Projects Office to supervise. Unfortunately, I am told that the chairman of the committee got the money from the treasurer and left town.

Global Health Ministries provided some funds. Adams brought out a contractor we trusted an flush the borehole, reinstalled the existing pump with a proper 16 inch deep foundation and a much better reinforced concrete pad. They did not have the funds to replace the pump head. The stand still has a little misalignment with the casing. The misalignment is mostly caused by the casing not being vertical.

The new flushed borehole and re-installed pump worked for a while. Then it jammed. Someone, as adults we suspect children, had pushed rocks into the drain opening for the pump head, through the hole and fell down the riser pipe into the cylinder. The rocks jammed the piston in the up position.

Yakubu, Adams and I got to the borehole about 9 AM and got a man to find some young men to assist us in removing the pump and the pipes. Adams and Yakubu had not been able to contact anyone to tell them we were coming. We just showed up. Around 10 we had a crew together. Including a young strong motorcycle mechanic that will make an good borehole mechanic in the future. Adams has his name an phone number.

Yakubu holding the riser pipe.

We were hoping that what had been dropped down the riser pipe had jammed a rod near the top. So we would only have to remove one or two pipes and rods. No such luck, The rocks were small and had gone all the way to the cylinder. With the cylinder jammed in the up position  the junction of the pipe and the rods were not the same. We had to have someone stand on a barrel holding the pipe high in the air and some standing and overturned grain mortar to unscrew the rods.

We finally, got all 10 pipe removed and disassembled the cylinder to remove a few rock and peanut shells. Before we reassembled the pump suggested that we make something to cover the hole. We decided to take the pump head into Mayo Belwa to the shoe repair and sandal  maker to have him make a large rubber gasket with a smaller hole to make it more difficult for the kids to jam the pump. While Yakubu was off on that task we asked one of the young men to go to the plumber and get tape for the pipe joints. He came back with electrical tape. So one of the men told another young man where to find tape. I jumped on the back of his motorcycle and we drove to the auto repair area where they had electrical tape. I explained to the owner we wanted tape for plumping like toilets and pipes. He told the young man where to go. We drove to a small shop that sold hardware but not plumbing. They told him where the plumber was. We drove over to the plumbing shop. It was closed. The called the number on the board in front of the shop. He said he would come right over. A half hour he walked up. He first showed my electrical tape and then in the back of the shop he had the expensive stuff, teflon tape. 300 naria ($2). Off we speed back.

I got some people busy taping the the pipes and getting ready to re-install the pump. The retired pastor who lived near by had his wife and daughter fix us some rice with red sauce and meat. We went over to his house and had some lunch. Before we reassembled the pump I took out the plastic bailer I had made last year and sent it down to the bottom of the borehole to see if there was any more mud. It came out clean. So we sent the camera down with the long light hoping to see how many screens were in the borehole. The water was too cloudy to see anything.

We re-assembled the pump with the new hole greatly reduced by the piece of rubber that the shoemaker had made for us. We taped all the joints and choose the weakest pipes to go on the bottom. We were are the beginning able to pump 25 liters per minute. As we pumped the level in the borehole dropped by 20 feet. We stopped pumping and waited 5 minutes. One pump and we had water. This is the first pump I have seen in Nigeria that held its water. We will see how it is doing next year.

While we were there we saw that two compounds had outside taps where people were fetching water. I forgot to ask if the homeowners were charging for the water or if they were giving it away. The area currently has a lot of hours of electricity. The homeowners had boreholes with electric pumps and overhead tanks. From the reactions of the people in the area to the hand pump being fixed I suspect that they have to pay.

Yakubu spent a while with the Treasurer of the old water committee. Telling her that now that the pump is fixed they need a new water committee to oversee the operations and to raise money for maintenance and repair. Also to establish rules for the use and cleaning of the area. We also met with a local Community Health Worker that lived next to the pump. He is the unofficial pump supervisor. If he spots people washing their dishes or clothes at the pump he chases them away.

We headed home after a long day and a lot of sun. On Friday when we go to Banjiram I am going to take my wide brimmed herder hat.