Banjiram Trip -- March 30th

Tank and people waiting in line for water.

We had expected to leave for Banjiram at around 9 AM but it was closer to Noon before we left. Yakubu drove us to Numan and stopped there for a meeting of the Medical Board Staff. A church driver then drove us on to Banjiram. We arrived fairly late in the afternoon and did not have a long time there. Banjiram is town that was relocated when the Kiri Dam was built. It is the only place I have been to in Nigeria with streets laid out in rectangular blocks.

With only one Tap Stand working effectively, the lines are long.

Last year we visited here several times to try to determine how to get the borehole at the school to produce more water. It is a 300 meter deep borehole that is artesian but produces very little water except when pumped. They have gone through two solar powered pumps and one generator powered pump. Our involvement and Yakubu's on-going efforts has lead to having the solar panels tested, the bad ones removed and the total number increased from 12 to 18 and a new high temperature pump with controller installed. This was a collaboration of the town, the Guyuk Local Government, the school, LCCN Medical Board Water Team and Global Health Ministries. The new pump is producing a lot of water. But the new distribution system is not working and the tank is not filling. These are the main complaints. The distribution system sends water to three tap stands. There is one at the water tower with 10 taps (faucets) and two remote tap stands with 8 taps each. The remote tap stands do not get much water so most of the people walk to the tap stand at the tower and join the long lines.

View from the tower of the 10-tap Tap Stand

I am not sure who decided the sizes and locations of the pipes for the distribution system but they got it backwards.The largest and shortest pipes go the 10 taps at the tank and a smaller and much longer pipe run goes to the 16 remote taps that are at a higher elevation. Almost all of the water goes to the tap stand at the tank. The fix is relatively ease but will not be the optimum design because we are stuck with the pipes already buried in the ground. We are proposing to by-pass the tank and pump the water into the distribution system directly. Also we will add to flow control valves to the tap stand at the tank and to the lower of the two remote tap stands. We will let the tap stand at the highest elevation to determine the system pressure. Adjust the two new control valves until we get approximately the same flow from each tap.

When I proposed this the people said "but you have to fill the tank". To this I said "Why? The tank does not need water the people need the water." They argued that the tank provides the pressure for the system and I argued the tank takes pressure away from the system. That if we directly pressurize the distribution system we will give more pressure to the system and may actually fill the tank from the bottom more than it is currently be filled from the top. So far engineering is winning the arguments over "we have always filled the tank first". In many places they turn off the tap stands to let the tank fill and give less water to the people. The priority for me is to give water to the people not fill the tank. My fix may actually fill more water into the tank than the current system. This is a hard concept to understand.

Collection water at leaking joint.

One other costly fix is to replace all of the taps (faucets) with automatic closing valves (spring loaded). The current taps are turned on wide open all the time. Whether there is a bucket under it or not. Some water is wasted. I am sure that this will create complaints. We have a few other minor fixes (sealants on joints to reduce leaks, etc) and so improvements in sanitation but the main fix is the by-pass pipe, the control valves and the spring loaded taps.