Thursday, September 12, 2013

Update on the Water Project pt 5


Pipeline reaching Crossroads Church
Although the project is taking longer to complete than anticipated, Phase 1 is now complete. A 1,5km pipeline has now been dug from the Crossroads site to Crossroads Church and piping has been installed. 2 water tanks have been placed - one at Crossroads Church and one at Crossroads site. A pump house has been built at the Crossroads site which will house one of the diesel engines. A 2,500 litre water tank has been placed next to the pump house.

To test if Phase 1 works, water was pumped into the 2,500 litre tank at the Crossroads site and then pumped to the 1,000 litre tank at Crossroads. It took approximately 1 hour for the water to reach Crossroads and fill the 1,000 litre tank. A second test was done as the villagers came to Crossroads Church with their 20 litre containers to collect water – running water from a tap. With water already being in the pipeline from the first test run, it then took approximately 15 minutes to fill up the 1,000 litre tank at Crossroads Church.



Containers lined up as villagers wait for water
The villagers lined their containers and each adult/child was able to access clean running water. We are now into the 3 driest and hottest months of the year (August – October). At present, the 1,000 litre water tank can cater for 50 villagers living in and around Crossroads Church if each villager has a 20 litre water container. We are hoping to have two 10,000 litre water tanks (20,000 litres) placed at Crossroads Church and another two 10,000 litre water tanks (20,000 litres) placed at the Crossroads site. Approximately 2000 villagers will benefit from these two water access points as they will now have a constant source of clean running water for domestic purposes.

First container being filled















Phase 2 has started.........



Happy days for the villagers with easy access to running water 


Written by Molly Manhanga