Day 3 - Monday, Sept. 7th - Start Drilling, Teaching Hygiene

We loaded up the truck and drove to the community this morning.  We walked around the community and visited a few houses. Most had hand  dug wells, some with submersible pumps. But you could see scum on the surface of the water in the well, and the water had been making people sick.

The trick to providing clean water is to drill past the first water zone into the second or third, because that top zone is where the contaminated water filters down to. Contamination can be from latrines, pesticides, even spilled diesel or gasoline. Most natural contaminants will filter out if passed more than 50' or 100' through sand, but chemicals, perhaps not. The water table is shallow in this area (15'-20') so we should find clean water below that; we're targeting 60' or so.

Phyllis taught a hygiene class to the ladies this morning, and children this afternoon. 46 kids this afternoon, and they're expecting more tomorrow. I'll let her fill in the details later.

The rig was already on site so just hooked up  hoses and  refueled, and were ready to go. We're drilling with air as I said earlier; this means you really know when you drill into the water... the air blows from the well carrying dust initially, and mud when there's water. Woodie, from Crossroads, was drilling when the water came in, and ended up covered in mud. A good initiation! We drilled below 50' before we had to quit for the day, so should finish drilling, then run PVC pipe (casing) tomorrow.

Hand dug water well

Monday Afternoon Children's Hygiene Class (46 kids)

Air Drilling - Water Flowing Out of the Well With the Air.
Lots of Sand and Mud Blowing Too