Below are photos of all the school children of all ages helping their Mothers with the work - they repeatedly dragged a tarpaulin piled with sand and gravel from the river to help complete the tank foundations. The Mothers did most of the hard manual work digging the trenches for the footings for the storage tank foundations.
The 3 tanks (each can hold 16,000 litres) arrived from Nairobi on May 17 and May 19. After the original bore hole (for the well) has been drilled and we've hit water, the bore hole must be test pumped for 24 hours to determine the quantity of the water that the well can ultinataly produce on a sustained daily basis. The plan is for these tanks to hold the 24 hour flow of water that must be test pumped rather than having it wash away into the sand. The excitement in Ndandini Village is rising as the villagers start to see that their hard manual work is paying off and dreams may soon be realised with a well soon to be drilled.
After the tanks were installed, the piping was installed to connect the tanks to the kiosk which had also been built. Kenyan law dictates that all water taken from any well must be taxed. So there are 4 water taps to fill the containers that villagers bring. There is also one meter in the kiosk to measure how much water is used by the villagers of Ndandini so that the water consumption tax can be submitted to the Kenyan Government every 3 months based on the water usage.
Unfortunately while Duncan was in Ndandini managing the delivery and installation of these tanks, his home in Nairobi was broken into. His wife Catherine was threatened with being killed and then tied up and locked in a room while the house was ransacked and many items stolen including electronics (computer, printer, scanner, DVD player) but the good news is that Catherine was not physically harmed although very badly frightened. Duncan has tried, unsuccesfully so far, to use a cybercafe to send us the photos of the installed storage tanks since his computer was stolen in this frightening attack.
This coming week commencing May 24, 2010 Naivasha Drillers in Nairobi will be loading their trucks with casings and supplies to do the drilling. They will be mobilising to head out to Nadandini on Sunday May 30 - this will be the drilling rig and support vehicles. Jan and Terry plan to arrive in nairobi late on Friday May 28 and will be heading out to Ndandini with Naivasha Drllers and Duncan our Project Manager.
We will stay in touch and hope you will follow what portends to be an amazing, and we hope to be, a very "WET" experience!
This is fantastic! Looking forward to your blogs. So glad that Duncan and Katherine are okay.
ReplyDeleteI will keep my fingers crossed that the driller hit water and will be glued to this blog for any news.
ReplyDeleteThose of us who have been to Ndandini know what a difference this well will make to the village. Words can not express how grateful I am to "Mr. Terry" and "Mrs. Terry" for their work and dedication to the well project. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Joan
I am so thrilled, Jan and Terry, that you are "this close" to success. Everyone is so deserving of receiving all the water that the village will ever need.
ReplyDeleteI am saddened about the terrifying attack on Katherine and that she and Duncan should lose all their precious possessions, especially his computer and all it's project data, all of which is so hard to replace.
I will anxiously await the good and wet news.
Valerie