Mozambique

BACKGROUND

In Mozambique, the river, which was almost 2 miles away, was their main source of water. They did have a small spigot in the village, but it is contaminated, as the pigs, goats, sheep, and people use it. We met with the Chief of the village and he showed us where he wanted the well. We had several villagers dedicated to helping us with this entire project. The soils was fairly easy to dig through, as it was some of the river soils that was washed onto the floodplain from the big river flooding that they just had. We were able to dig a well at approximately 42 feet. We taught them how to dig the well; make screens on the casing; case the well; and build a simple pump. After the first failed attempt at casing, the pvc kept getting caught on the walls of the well, we pulled it all back up and tried again. We reamed out the well, shaving the sides of the wall straighter and were able to put the casing down with no problems. We build the pump and put it down the well, only to find that there was not enough pressure when pumping due to the significant size difference of the external and internal piping. We rectified that by building a thick rubber donut piston, with large plastic washers that took up the excess space and created good suction.

After retrofitting the internal pump, it ended up working beautifully. There was great suction, excellent recharge, and lots of water. It was a record trip: three days to dig, case, and build a working pump. We taught them every aspect of this project. We knew that we had taught them well when we found out that they taught another missionary how to use our equipment. And they were able to explain to her what we did and how we did it. This gives us great hope that they will continue putting wells in and around this village

Photo Gallery