Image Well Status

Engineer Byemerwa went out to Image again to check the performance of the pump and collect a water sample.  He also needed to check a new water source at the base of the mountain that was to be inaugurated  the next day with a celebration with the Kilolo acting commissioner.  The extra pipe had been sent and used to connect all the way to the 3000 liter tank at the kitchen.  This tank was filled from the well the night before in an hour. 

  We started the pump again and ran at full speed to see if any dry run errors occurred.  It looks like the well can deliver about 3000 liters of water running at full speed.  There is a tee at the kitchen tank that connects to a water system that can fill the 2000 liter tanks at the 6 dorms and also connect to the 5000 liter tank.  Image has an experienced water system technician who can do this work.  The only warning messages we saw were undervoltage readings at 210 V which the generator is not quite stable.  The pump speed was slightly reduced when these warnings occurred (from 10,700 to 10,400) and the motor stop point for undervoltage isn't hit until 150 V.  The pump temperature was running at 56 C (Shut off temp is 85 C and restart temp is 75 C so this is running cool).

We collected a water sample at the end of the pipe using a sterile whirl pack and set up two colilert tubes to test for bacterial contamination.  After 17 hours of incubation attached to my body they show no contamination.  I tasted a little bit of the water and it is not salty but there is some fine silt that makes the water cloudy coming from the well.  This silt settled from the water sample in the whirl pack overnight to leave totally clear, colorless water.
 

Kitchen Tank has tap in kitchen near by.

Tee at tank, left to girls dorms and right to boys.

Termite mud trail leading up to ceiling, trail to the left had been broken.

Termite damage at window in computer room where control box is mounted.

Image Pump Installation

 We went to Image to install the pump on Saturday(3/19).  Matthew Amani, a recent Tumaini Community Development Graduate, met me at 7 over breakfast and shortly after 7:30 Byemerwa came with a driver, electrician and two plumbers.  The 7 of us packed into the car and hoped that the rain and government vehicle would keep us from being stopped for too many passengers.  The rain stopped as we arrived at Image and the team jumped into action.  The Headmaster arranged to have the students start digging trenches for water pipe to go to the 3000 liter tank at the Kitchen and to lay electrical cable to the nearby computer room.  We were lucky that the Computer lab has a main control box for the generator circuit and we were able to add a circuit breaker for our pump.  The electrician went to work mounting the Grundfoss control box on the wall and wiring it to the main line. Image has a man who manages their water system, Robert Magina, who was excited to see that the pump comes from Denmark.  He spent 3 years in Denmark working with Danida on water projects.  Image is lucky to have an experienced person to manage their water system.

The plumbers assembled the well head with a water meter, shutoff valve and connections to the 1.5 inch pipe. We brought 200 meters of 1.5 inch pipe but were 50 meters short to reach the tank at the kitchen.  We measured the well depth again and got 65 meters so the pump was installed at 60 meters to leave room for sediment.  The pump was assembled and we had to use candles to heat shrink the waterproof splices.  The pump was lowered into the bore hole and connected to the main power.  Engineer Byemerwa hit the on button and the pump immediately started gushing water out of the well.  An initial low voltage warning (190 volts) was corrected at the main control box and we reversed the wiring to make sure we had the correct pump rotation.

Students started collecting water right away and the pump was filling a 10 liter pail in 8 seconds.  The water was cloudy but we expect that to clear as we continue to pump out the well.  The headmaster again tested the water for biological contamination by taking the first drink from the well.  Byemerwa cautioned them that the water needs to be tested before it should be drunk but I think they are so happy to have water that it will be used anyway.  Byemerwa has water testing materials for ecoli and had a nice pamphlet from a UN program on how to test.  The materials they recommend are Colilert tubes and 3M Petri film plates, both of which I have used in the past.  I hope to bring back a copy of the pamphlet to 3M to make sure they are aware of it. We left Image just as it got dark (after failing to find the extra 50 meters of pipe in Ilula) and got back to the Lutheran Centre at 8 PM after watching a spectacular sky as the sun set. 

Students digging 650' trench to kitchen.

Control box with main box in center and solar system on right.

Connecting pipe to well head.

Lowering pump, Mathew Amani is facing  in center w striped shirt

First water, everyone wanted to touch and splash their faces

The Headmaster preparing the test for biological contamination.

Byemerwa and Magina discussing final installation details.

The connected well head, they will construct a brick box to protect it.

Image Site Visit

Engineer Byemerwa met me at 7:30 this morning with a plumber and driver to go to Image and inspect the well site to determine what we need for installation.  The bore hole is right in the middle of the Image Secondary School campus.  Image secondary school has 850 students, almost half girls, and 36 teachers. Their water now has to come from a town supply about 1 km away.  This means that many students spend what should be class time carrying water.

The bore hole was partially open with just a plastic covering and a few bags of gravel pack around the top.  We were told the well was 100 meters and decided to try to collect a water sample with a plastic water bottle with a rock to weigh it down.

We hit water at about 25 meters and it came up looking clear and clean. The headmaster was eager to taste it because he was worried it might be salty. We discouraged this because the well had not been treated with chlorine and could be contaminated but he tested the water for both salt and bacteria by taking a taste. We are still waiting for the bacteria test results.

The cord pulled up from the bottom measures 33 meters doubled over so the well depth is 66 meters or twice as long as the distance you see in this picture.  Since we hit water at 25 meters, that means we have a 41 meter water column.  The 66 meter depth does not mesh with the 100 meters reported and we still do not know what the replenish rate will be when we start pumping.

 Image school has 10 water storage containers, 2 2000 liter tanks at the admin block, a 5000 liter tank near the football field, 6 2000 liter tanks at each of 6 dorms, and one 3000 liter tank at the kitchen.  Right now all are empty.  The tanks by the dorms are piped to each bathroom stall for wash water.  All the tanks are connected with plumbing so we only have to connect our well to a couple connection points and add valving to control which tanks get filled.

It takes a lot of water to feed 850 students.  The kitchen has huge cooking bowls on a fire hearth for making wali (cooked rice), ugali (maize flour paste) and porridge.

Image school runs a generator from 7 PM to 11 PM so students can study with the lit classrooms. This will also be the source of power for the submersible pump. The generator consumes 8-10 liters/night for 4 hours, 7 nights per week. They pick up diesel in 60 liter drums and a nights consumption costs about $12.

While I was touring the campus to check on the storage tanks Byemerwa went to look at a potential spring source in the mountains nearby.  They also are thinking of bringing water down from this source (like the water in the town) for additional volume for things like washing and irrigation.  The mountains above Image are beautiful.

I also toured the computer and science labs.  I brought DVDs and a flash drive with educational materials but the computers are older with only CD drives.  They do have one good laptop and I demonstrated the 8 GB flash drive that had a collation of Wikipedia articles for the UK syllabus (150,000 files), a medical encyclopedia, several digital science texts, and a collection of audio books including classic short stories, the entire new testament, and Hurlbut's bible stories.  I thought these could be used to practice listening to English as well as being interesting for the students.