Positive and Negitives of the Spring 2011 Trip

This trip had some positive and some negative results. That is to be expected.
Positives:
1. We did get the Sabon Gari pump near Mayo Belwa working again and found a young man that could become our repair person in Mayo Belwa. When we came back a week later the women said the pump works good but as they pump the pumping gets hard (heavy) and the flow decreases. When they stop for a while and it is easier.

2. We got the Danish borehole pump working in Dumne although it does not work continuously. They have to stop pumping and wait "one hour" to recharge. Few of the women have watches and almost every pump that is slow to recharge the women have told me they have to wait "one hour". Adams is considering adding some more pipes to the pump to increase the amount of water pumped before recharging and decrease the recharge time. However, the problem may actually be similar to Sabon Gari where they are stopping because the pumping is getting harder because the water level drops as they pump and they have to lift a heavier column of water further up the riser pipe.


3. We got to know the water situation in Dumne better by visiting all 13 boreholes. Only a small area of the town is involved in this project. The exact boundaries need to be better determined.

4. The bailer I designed in 2010 was finally tested and worked. This could be a useful tool for future work.

5. I was able to help Yakubu on several non-water related projects he needed help on.

6. I have a better idea on how to build a machine to deepen these slow recharge boreholes without spending $3500 to $5000 to drill a new borehole.

7. I am more convinced than ever that we can produce fire wood from waste paper and sawdust as a revenue producing project for the urban poor. I was able to design two different prototypes and hope to build and test them over the summer.

8. I am encouraged that the Women's Fellowship may become the vehicle for implementing the Sanitation and Hygiene parts of the WASH Program even without a formal funded program from the LCCN.

9. I got to visit two villages in the Jos mission field and seen that there is as big of a need here as in Adamawa.

10. I got more practice driving on roads where drivers pay no attention to rules.

Negatives:
1. There has been little movement toward the LCCN forming a WASH Program.
 
2. I was not able to meet with the Archbishop. He was traveling to the USA and several other countries and returns as I leave.

3. I was not able to travel to Taraba State to visit the Bali Project Mission Field to start a water evaluation.

4. I was not able to return to the Abuja Diocese for my first meeting with Bishop Ben and to fix a couple pumps and discuss the future of WASH in the Abuja Diocese.

4. The School pump at Dumne works as good as when we arrived. Once Adams "fishes" out the 7 pipes and 8 rods we dropped down the hole they will have a slow recharge pump at the school. Which is better than no water.

Disappointing Day in Dumne

Today was a disappointing day in Dumne. Yakubu, Adams and I drove to Dumne for our third trip there. We planned on re-installing the pump, tank and cylinder I fixed over the weekend. When I tore apart the cylinder I could understand why they say they used to pump and pump and get little water. The foot valve gasket was worn through and the piston cups worn. Today we discovered leaks in the pipes also. Water was leaking out almost as fast as it was being pumped. Our hope was to get this the pump at the school working as a slow recharge pump. This is a pump where you get three or four buckets of water and then wait for water to come back into the borehole. That is the best this borehole at the school will ever do until it is either deepened or replaced. While we are in Dumne we also will check on the status of the Danish Borehole we got working last Friday.

At the edge of the village just before Dumne I saw someone standing by the side of the road up ahead. It turned out to be a straw man near the Primary School. You can see Dumne in the background. The road to the right goes to the Market we went to Friday and to the left goes into the main part of Dumne, (See last Blog).

When we left last week the plumber and driller we hired to work with us had disassembled the borehole by the school and due to a broken head, the tank being stuck to a pipe, and a bad cylinder we decided not to re-install it. We had stored 3 new pipes and the 9 pipes we had removed at the Pastor's house next to the borehole and took the broken parts back to Yola for repair.

Mistake number 1. I ASSUMED that the plumber, being the paid "expert", had inspected the pipes as they removed them and we did not need more pipes. Wrong. Disappointment number 1. Almost all of the pipes that were removed needed replacing. The threads on most had rusted through. As we were re-installing the pipes I realized the mistake. We had left a few pipes stored up the hill near the Danish borehole last week. Yakubu and Adams drove up there and got three better pipes. At the same time they asked the women at the borehole if is had a constant flow. Disappointment number 2. The borehole is slow to recharge and after they have been pumping for a while the water runs out and they go wait in the shade. We will have to bring more pipe and rods from Yola and lower the cylinder another 9 meters. This will put the cylinder at just beyond the maximum depth recommended for this pump. It also makes it doubtful that the borehole will be able to support a solar pump and tank.

Adams decided that only 3 of the 4 pipes stored the Danish borehole could be used. The school borehole was installed by a Chinese driller and the casings were not installed straight. They also used too thin of pipe and when threaded the threads almost went all the way through the pipe. Due to corrosion, they now go all the way through. We decided on the nine pipe to install. From the 5th pipe on the misaligned casing started to cause us problems. We were using a pipe clamp that was bolted to the pump stand. It is suppose to center the pipe over the center of the borehole. That works when the pump base is installed with the casing centered in the pump base. Unfortunately, the pump base was not centered over the borehole. The pipes were going down the side of the borehole and the cylinder was carching at each casing joint. We had to open the clamp all the way and remove the pipe from the clamp at each joint, get it past the joint and put it back into the clamp. Until we were installing the 8th of the 9 pipes we were going to install. We could not get it past the joint with the clamp attached to the pump base. So we told the boys who had the lifting tool (C-wrenches) to hold the pipe while we removed the clamp. Mistake number 2. We did not watch the boys while Yakubu was taking the bolts off that held the clamp to the base. They relaxed. Someone touched the clamp release bar just enough to loosen the clamp from the bar. The  eight 3 meter long pipes quick slide down the borehole. I yelled. The clamp did its job and stopped the pipe when the top coupling hit the clamp. No one was hurt.

Now mistake number 3. This mistake probably prevented a serious injury. We had not installed the T-handle on the 8th rod sticking up out of the 8th pipe. We looked at the pipe now flush with the clamp and someone said where is the rod. The rod was no longer sticking out the top of the pipe. That means that a pipe joint in the borehole had broken. The fall never hurts you. It is the sudden stop at the bottom. The sudden stop had ripped the eighth pipe out of the coupling from the lower seven pipes. If the T handle had been installed. It may have caught the lower seven pipes and we would not have 7 pipes and 8 rods at the bottom on a 9 1/2 pipe deep borehole. On the other hand. Yakubu had leaned over the pipe clamp to unloosen the bolts and if the tee handle had hit him with the weight of 8 pipes falling three meters the T handle would have caused him serious injury. Safety, Safety, Safety. We get so focused on the task at hand we do not step back and look at the whole picture. We had too many people around the work site. It is good to learn lessons when no one is hurt. As we used to say at Home Depot. Many of the safety rules were made after blood was on the floor.

On Friday we arrived with a non-functional borehole and left with a non-functional borehole. Today we are leaving with a non-functional borehole with a cylinder, 7 pipes and eight rods resting on the bottom. Adams will return after I leave with a "Fishing Tool" that can be lowered into the pipe and catch onto the rod that is about 5 meters down. They can then lift the string of pipes and rods out. They will bring along new pipes for this borehole and a few more pipes for the Danish borehole. We will lower the pump cylinder to the maximum recommended depth on the Danish borehole and the women should be able to pump more water with less stopping each day.

On good thing happened today. The bailer I built and brought last year got it first use today. We successfully demonstrated that we can pull the mud out of the bottom of a borehole without a compressor.To have completely removed the mud from this borehole we would have had to bail for several hours. We did not have that much time. We quit after four 5 gallon buckets. We got most of the sand and grit out but the fine mud just mixes with the water. The common way to remove mud and sediment is to hire a compressor at around 40,000 to 60,000 naira depending on how far from Yola the work site is. We could hire local labor at 1000 naira per day in most villages (in a town the size of Dumne we would have to pay more.) If we hired 4 young men per day we could have them bail for five days for 1/2 the price of a compressor and it put money into the village rather than a Yola based contractor's pocket. I also sent the video camera down the hole. The water was clearer than other boreholes but the focus changed once under water and I could not see the any detail of the pipe or screens (assuming the Chinese contractor installed any screens.)

On our way out we stopped at the straw man for more pictures.
this will be my new Facebook Profile Picture. When we stopped in the village the women who we resting under the a large Neem tree broke out on clapping and laughing when they realized that  Bature (White Man) was stopping to get his picture taken with the School Crossing Guard. They told us that when the Primary School is in session they put up this straw man to tell people to slow down.

Solar Cooker, Canned Hot Dogs and Tomorrow to Dumne

 Hot dogs come in a can here. Refrigeration is not reliable except if you live where you have a good supply of electricity. Those places are few and far between. Since I do not have a regular kitchen I eat a lot of stuff from cans. They sell small cans of baked beans. I cut up a couple of the hotdogs and have beans and winnies. They sell a canned vegetable salad that I mix with a can of tuna fish and make a tuna fish salad sandwiches. It make about three sandwiches. The vegetables include potatoes, carrots, peas and other things. It is a different kind of tuna salad sandwich.

This year I took one box that large water bottles came in and opened it up and taped on some aluminum foil to make my solar cooker. In 2009 I took couple  boxes and cut out an intricate design from the internet for a solar cooker, carefully glued on the foil and it work pretty good. This year I took the simple route and about 15 minutes and made a cooker that may actually work better. The sunniest days have been when we were out somewhere cooking ourselves. Today the sun came out and I decided to move the cooker outside at 2 pm with some Ramon noodle like stuff in it. When I checked it at 3 the noodles were fully cooked and the water was gone I added more water and the spices. Adams showed up and it was time to drive to the shop that was making riser pipes for us to use tomorrow. I brought the cooker inside and later in the evening I had warm noodles.

Tomorrow we head back to Dumne with two vehicles and two pump teams. We are going to try to fix two pumps. The Danish pump that we worked on two weeks ago and did not get it done and the pump that is hard to pump and has little flow. It we are lucky we will get both pumps fixed and will be able to go see the third pump that has been recommended to be replaced.

We spent much of today trying to buy parts for the repair. There are few parts available. Most of the dealers had access to pumps and rods but the riser pipe was hard to find. The dealer we used most often has raised his price to 3000 naira per pipe ($20). Adams is not used to paying this much. His pipe appears to be schedule 40 and is actually 3 meters long. He did not have 10 pipes; Adams made a deal with another dealer and we saved around 20,000 naira. The problem is that he was making his rising main by cutting some lighter weight 6 meter pipe in half and adding threads. When I looked at the pipe I figured out why we have been having trouble with the 3 meter rod joint not matching the 3 meter pipe joints. The 6 meter pipe they are cutting in half to make 3 meter riser pipes are actually 5.8 meters long. So each section of pipe is about 2 inches shorter than the rods. When you get to 10 pipes the rod joint is more than 20 inches up into the pipe. We plan of putting in 14 pipes at the Danish borehole at Dumne. This means the last rod will be misaligned by over 2 feet.. We have a rod that has had about a foot cut off of it that we will use as we reinstall the pipes. We may have to cut the end off of another rod and cut new threads onto the rod. This will make the job a lot harder. in the future we should not use this substandard pipe. We the extra couple bucks to get the right stuff and make the work easier for us and for future repair people.

It is after 8 pm and they just shut down the generator. all the bugs that were flying around the light are on on my laptop screen, in my hair and otherwise being pests. I will not review this post. Until later this weekend, I have 8 days left before I return to Minnesota.

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.)