Ipalamwa Site Visit

Engineer Byemerwa met me at 7:30 again to visit the well site at Ipalamwa. We first visited the Kilolo Star well drilling operation in Kilolo which Engineer Byemerwa had not visited before.  Then we stopped at the Kilolo District water engineer's office where I found out that the government engineers are surveying all the water source points in Tanzania starting in Iringa Region.  The Kilolo District Water Engineer, Abdi Andalu, showed me an Excel spreadsheet where they are recording gps and functioning status for each well.  They are also taking photos of each source.  These reports will be valuable to us to determine the status of the wells we have had drilled.  I took his email address so I can send him the GOWGOL well logs to add information to their database. The driver stopped at one point to get out and Engineer Byemerwa remarked that he was "Inspecting a Bore Hole".  That is Water Engineer version of "Checking the Tires".   We went through Kising'a, which is my church's partner village and delivered medical supplies purchased by Lutheran Church of Peace for the Kising'a dispensary.  We continued on to Ipalamwa on a beautiful day with dry roads.  This was my first time visiting Ipalamwa and Lutheran Church has sponsored many Kising'a students at the Ipalamwa school.

I first met with the Headmaster, Rev. Ombeni Sawike, and she explained the water situation at Ipalamwa.  They have 300 students and are collecting water from a river source about 1 km away.  Water gets added to a 1000 liter storage tank and many students have been ill from the water.

We then went to the well site and found it capped with a tree stump.  We used a weighted water bottle on a cable to collect a sample of water and measure the depth and water level of the well. We found water at 26 meters and the bottom of the well was at 59 meters.  The 33 meter column of water sounds good but what really matters is the recharge rate.  It was reported to be 1000 liters/hour by the drilling contractor but it appears that the well has not been developed and had a proper pumping test yet.  There was sediment on the bottle when it was pulled up from the bottom.

We next checked out the generator and water storage capability.  All they have for storage is a 1000 liter tank that is set up to collect rain water but right now is used to receive the buckets of river water brought up by the students.  A rule of thumb for water usage at a school with pit toilets is 25 liters  per student day so 300 students should need 7500 liters of water per day.  They need at least two 5000 liter storage tanks mounted on raised supports for water pressure.  Engineer Byemerwa says that a 5000 liter tank costs 600,000 while a 10,000 liter tank is 2,000,000 so two tanks is the best deal and allows water to be pumped to two locations.  If the 1000 liters per hour rate is accurate for the well, they will need to run the generator longer than the current 4 hours or we will need a solar power to pump all day.

The generator they have is a 7.5 KW generator driven by a diesel engine.  This engine is also used to drive a maize miller for making ugali flour.  The headmaster said their fuel consumption is only 3 liters per 4 hours of operation which is much less (1/10) than at Image.  Perhaps because they have shorter distances and are just using it to light a few buildings. We measured the distance from the generator to the bore hole to be 100 meters.  As we left, we saw several students who were ill resting in the shade looking very uncomfortable.  We took four of the students with us to drop them off at their home dispensaries in Kising'a and Lulanzi.

Meeting with the Headmaster

Examining the Bore Hole

The 1000 liter storage tank

The river water in the tank

Generator with maize miller at right

Sick students waiting in shade

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.

Kilolo Star

The St Paul Partners Board had a very nice meeting with Ron Reed of Kilolo Star on Feb. 5th. Ron has founded Kilolo Star well drilling organization and vocational school in Kilolo, about an hour drive from Iringa. St Paul Partners met with Ron to discuss future partnership with Kilolo Star for well drilling and well sustainability. Kilolo Star already has a model in place for collecting small monthly fees as an escrow for future pump maintenance as a way to ensure sustainability for a well over time. Kilolo Star also has a vocational school that teaches well drilling and other practical skills such as masonry, carpentry, tailoring, and computer skills.

Kilolo Star Drill Rig


Each well crew is named after a different animal. This all female group is the Mama Simbas (lionesses):