Trip Summary

I was asked to write a Reader's Digest version of my last 2 1/2 months in Nigeria for a newsletter. I figured I would write a summary blog on my last day here. I am mostly packed and ready to head to the airport in about 5 hours. In all this was a successful trip. There were some frustrations. I had delayed my trip a few weeks so I would arrive after the Health Board had there two weeks of administrative training. Their training got delayed two weeks. At the end of the trip there was problems with transferring money to a driller and that delayed the drilling of the Waya borehole to the very end of the trip.

I should introduce myself for those who do not know me. I am Jay Johnson. I am a professional engineer. I am a retired Lt. Colonel from the US Army and Army Reserve. I have traveled extensively in my military and professional careers. Since 2006 I have been traveling to Nigeria annually. The first two trips were short two week visits with the Minneapolis Areas Synod / Global Health Ministries Public Health Evaluation Team. Starting in 2008 I visited by myself for visits of 6 week to 10 weeks. In 2008 my purpose was to start learning the people and culture. I visited all the Dioceses of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria and over 100 villages. This is when I composed my three priorities for village water. 1. A village wants to have enough water to survive. 2. They want the water as close to their village as possible. 3. They want safe water.

The Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria is based out of Adamawa State. Adamawa is a rural state in the northeast part of Nigeria on the border with Cameroon. It is mostly savannah. Deforestation is almost complete except in a few preserves and hillsides too steep to farm. They have two seasons. Dry season is from October to June. Rainy season is from June to October. In the southern part of the state the rainy season is longer and in the northern area it is even shorter. In the capital Yola the annual rainfall is about the same as Minneapolis. Except it is concentrated in a short period of time. Farming is mainly a rainy season business. We have had several rainfalls and the countryside is turning green. The vacant farm fields are now busy with people with hoes, or cattle pulling plows and tractors plowing. The sorghum has sprouted in some areas and the maize is being planted. On weekends the people from the cities head to their villages and plant their crops.

My original purpose in coming to Nigeria was to start my retirement career as a non-denominational water, sanitation and development consultant. All of my trips have been centered on clean water and sanitation, but have included work in community development. The three main organizations I work with are the LCCN Health Board Water and Sanitation/Hygiene (WASH) Team, the LCCN Deaf Centre and Spring of Hope HIV/AIDS Support Group. Over 90 percent of my efforts are with clean water.

This trip had a slow start as my main contact Yakubu Bulama the Water Coordinator for the Health Board and Projects Coordinator for the LCCN was working with the Health Board Administrative training for the first two full weeks I was in the country. I spent these weeks setting household in the old mission house on the LCCN Compound and visiting with the Deaf Centre. The guards at the Cathedral Church in the adjoining compound called my house the "falling down house."

 My travels this 10 weeks has probably totaled around 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) by road in public transportation and in LCCN owned vehicles. This was the most dangerous part of my time. Many of the drivers are not licensed. Some went from riding bikes to driving cars. Others drove motorbikes and drive their cars the same way. Few know the rules of the road. When I got my license I paid an extra 1,500 Naira ($10) so I did not have to talk to the driving examiner. The manager just gave me my license and told me that was what the extra money was for. 

Water accomplishments: There are more accomplishments than disappointments. Some of the disappointments are actually accomplishments (or steps towards accomplishments.)  The main two accomplishments were fixing the water distribution system at Banjiram and drilling two productive boreholes at Waya and a third at Polchi. (Waya and Polchi are in Bauchi State and are mission villages of the LCCN churches in Jos, Plateau State). We also were able to go to Timbukum, in the southern part of Adamawa State to start the review of the non-functional solar powered borehole that the Nigerian Government with money from the US Government had installed and never worked. We found that the pump was installed at the very top of the water table. The next phase which will do done after I leave will be to determine if the borehole is deep enough to lower the pump to under the water. We be a preliminary survey of the broken water system at the Government Secondary School in Hong that the PTA had asked for our assistance. In Pella we got to review the large hand dug well near the LCCN Maternity Clinic to determine the possibility and estimated cost to clean out the bottom of the well, cover the well and add a hand or powered pump. This is a highly productive well that has had continuous water for several decades. The water was over 6 feet deep. The hardest part of this project will be to find pumps capable of de-watering the well so the well diggers can enter and remove the several decades of debris that has accumulated.

Disappointments: We performed a geophysical survey of two points in the community around the Sabon Gari B District Church on the edge of Mayo Belwa. The survey indicated that there was not a significant amount of groundwater for a productive borehole at the two locations surveyed. However, there are several productive motorized boreholes operating in the area. The next thing for the community to do is to go to the owners of the productive boreholes and find out how deep they are and if possible measure the static and dynamic water levels. Likewise, the geophysical survey of the area where they want to install a borehole at Gada Biyu in Bauchi State found very little indication of groundwater. We have asked the geologist if an improved hand dug well might be possible. This village may require some more innovative system for obtaining water during the dry season.

Other Work: LCCN Deaf Centre is moving towards being able to serve more of the Deaf Community of Adamawa. Last week the Yola Bishop requested that the paperwork for the Ordination of Ruth Ulea as the first deaf pastor in the LCCN be forwarded to the Jimeta District Church. By tradition a candidate's home district is suppose to call pastors.Ruth's home church is in Arewa Diocese in Hong. They have sat on her application because she does not serve their community and for some other reasons. The LCCN Constitution on specifies that a District Church will call a pastor. In Ruth's case she provides Sunday School and church services in Jimeta and several other locations in the Yola Diocese. We fixed most of the roof leaks in the patio area where Ruth holds Sunday Services and I bought 7 sets of jewelry and some bracelets that some of the women make to support the Centre. They normally sell them for 300 naira in the local market. I talked them into sell them to me for 500 naira. I will be putting them up for bid on a website for a minimum of $10 (1,570 naira) with the profits going back to the Centre. I have started work on some concept designs for improvements to the LCCN Deaf Centre and improvements to the location that Church services are held at until a new church can be located, designed, financed and built. I was able to attend a meeting of the Spring of Hope HIV/AIDS Support Group. A part of the group has been trained in soap making. They only need $400 to buy the molds and ingredients for their first batch of soap. They have test marketed some of the soaps in their home villages and found that market to be more viable than in the more competitive Yola market. I hope to raise the $400 as a micro-loan when I get back to the US. I have made progress on fixing my "falling down house". The main opening that rats and mosquitoes come in through has been screened. There are two major roof problems that are washing away some of the mud bricks in the kitchen wing that will need attention soon or the kitchen wing will fall down. For the first time in the last three trips I have been able to stop and shop at Women of Hope store in Jos. I will be leaving the country broke but I purchased 71,000 naira of their merchandise. It will be for sale at the Mount Calvary Annual Fair Trade Fair the first weekend of November. I have a great tan from the elbows down and since I have driving the last month the left arm is now balanced with my right arm.


I almost forgot. After three years of sitting in Gaye Guyton's living room. The boxes of books that were collected for the Remi Foundation, the books I collected for the Bronnum Lutheran Seminary and the LCCN Deaf Centre arrived in Jos and I picked them up Saturday when we were there for the Waya borehole drilling. They were all distributed on Monday. The Deaf Centre library went from about a dozen books to almost 100. They are considering allowing the students to take some of the books home to read overnight. I have been in locked libraries at schools. Most schools to not have a library at all. The Jimeta Cathedral school has a room in their new expansion designated for a library but does not have books. The culture of reading is very small. Most students only read text books and some have workbooks.

Banjiram Last Visit During This Trip

Crowd at school taps before we added the 3" pipes.

 These are the before pictures. The borehole and tank are at a government secondary school. This is what it was like at the 10 water taps at the school everyday at 3PM when the water was turned on. There are 16 remote taps closer to the home. The flow at the remote taps is very little and does not last long. Most people walk the extra 200 meters to get in line. In a previous blog I discussed my redesign of the distribution system to try to get more water into the system each day and get it out to the village at the remote taps. Those who have followed my since 2009 have heard my three water priorities.

Crowd waiting at the ten taps at the school.

1. Have enough water to live.
2. Have the water close to home so you do not spend as much time fetching.
3. Have good quality of water.

On Thurday and Friday May 3 and 4 we went back to Banjiram to bring them the pipes and parts to improve the performance of the distribution system. The modeling for the re-design of the system starts to work with adding 270 meters of 2-½ inch pipe. It works better with 3 inch. Due to supply and demand currently the 3 inch pipe is cheaper than the 2-½ . I had been told that the buried pipes going out to the remote tap stands were 1-½ inch pipes. We only purchased fittings that would connect the 3 inch to the 1-½ inch. It took most of the morning to get the right pipes and the right lengths onto a truck to transport it out to Banjiram. The 6 meter long pipes that shop was selling were actually 4.92 meters long. We had to measure the pipes and recalculate how much we needed. We now needed 78 of the 4.92 meter pipe and they were still cheaper than the 2-½ inch pipe .

They did not have 1-½ inch tees so they sent out some boys to their other shop to get them. They finally, came back and tossed them in the bag of parts. I should have looked at them. They were 2 inch tees. It really did not matter because the pipe in the ground was actually 1-¼ inch. It also took a long time to get the 78 pipes from his other warehouse and loaded onto a truck. We made sure the driver knew where to go and we headed out at a little after 11. Our trucks had been parked facing each other. He went one way and we headed in the opposite. We had to get fuel and make a stop in Numan to deliver some paperwork to the Health Board Director. We did not know that the truck driver was headed to his house to get a second rack for his truck. He did not like the way the pipes were hanging on back of his truck with only one rack. The pipes showed up about two hours after we got to Banjiram. While we were waiting for him we had the people start digging a wider trench for the pipes and explained to the plumber what we were going to do. He was unconvinced that it would work, The pump in the borehole was only a 1-¼ inch pipe so he reasoned that it was too small to push water through a 3 inch pipe. I tried to explain to him. He just shook his head. He was being paid he will make the connections.

We off loaded the pipes by the tower and when the plumber was ready the men, women and kids all grabbed pipes and took them to the trench. On Thursday we connected assembled and buried all the 3 inch pieces and decided on what parts we needed to finish the work on Friday. We also looked at the existing leaks in the system and made a list of repair parts. We rushed back to Yola and started searching for the parts just before sundown. The shops were trying to close and get home before dark. Most of what we needed were found at the third shop we tried.

Friday morning, Yakubu could not come with us so I was the driver. Adams and I located the final parts and were on the road to Banjiram by 9. We arrived and called the plumber to drive down from Guyuk about 15 kilometers further up the road. Everything went smoothly until we started trying to repair the 20 year old valves and coupling that were leaking. I have to give the plumber credit. He was able to hammer and force these old rusted fittings loose. The leaks were because of the misalignment of the pipes as much as the age of the parts. Some of the old buried pipes had to be moved a few inches. We had hoped to be finished by noon so we could pump some water during peak solar power. We were finally able to get the leaks down to a few minor drips at just after 2 pm. 

Everyone stepped back to let me get a picture of the water.

Five hours of pumping had been missed for the day. The sun was past it peak and there was no water in the tank. Usually the tank is half full when the system is opened. At 2:30 we turned on the water to the distribution system. It now had to fill 260 meters of 3 inch pipes. The North Pipe stand that used to have only 2 of the 8 taps working had good flow at all 8 taps after taking 30 minutes to fill the lines. The South tap stand that usually had 5 taps flowing only had two. We had the women at the North Tap Stand singing and dancing and the women at the South Tap Stand looking for a rope to hang me with. Finally, Adams checked a valve that the operator had told us was wide open and found it was closed. A few minutes after he opened it the South Tap Stand had 4 of the 8 working. It was not late in the day and past the peak solar time. Adams explained to the women that the pump had been off all day as we worked on the system and there was not water in the tank. He told them it will be better tomorrow. (When we would be safely back in Yola.)

The next day as I sat in the LCCN Cathedral in Yola at a wedding ceremony for 5 couples a lady came and sat down next to me. She said "I am from Banjiram. You are a brother of Banjiram." She must live near the North Tap Stand.

Line for water at the artesian flow while we worked.

Night Flow Tank: Before the sun get high enough in the sky to start the pump and after it gets to low for the pump to operate the water in the borehole flows out of a 2 inch pipe welded to the casing. This artesian flow it collected by women from early in the morning until the pump starts and after the pump stops they are fetching late into the night. The operator asked me if there was any way to pipe this flow into the distribution system. I tried to explain to him that the forces underground that is forcing the water up to the surface is barely enough to get it to the surface and since the borehole is at the lowest place in Banjiram the force is not enough to move the water up to the taps. He would come back and ask again and again. I told him that since water only flows by gravity down-hill the water would have to flow into a tank and then be pumped out. We did not time the water flow but estimated it to be 10 liters per minute. For the 16 hours of  no solar power the artesian flow will be around 9600 liters. I have asked some of my geologist and engineer friends to calculate what he flow would be if we could lower the outlet by 4 feet. The first estimate is that it could add as much as 50%. The second response was that it would not be significant. Both from geologist. The civil engineers and mechanical engineers who specialize in fluid flow have not responded yet. I think it is somewhere between. I will have to wait to get to my fluid mechanics books at home. My gut feeling is that it is closer to the Neal’s estimate of 50%. If we can achieve 15 liters per minute we could build a 15, 000 liter underground tank. Purchase a small pump than will lift the water up into the elevated tank every morning and we would have nearly twice as much water to feed the distribution system. Currently, the system is opened only once per day at 3PM until the tank is empty and the pump stops pumping. With the addition of the overnight water the system might be able to be opened twice a day. The other option is to have a hand pump on the overnight tank and people could pump the water anytime they want to.

Concept of the Night Flow Tank

Night Flow with lowered inlet.

Sabon Gari District Church in Mayo Belwa

Goggle Earth Image from 2006. VES 1 is by the church VES 2 further up hill past the exist broken borehole.

I do not know how many times I have been to the area around the Sabon Gari District Church since 2008. The community is on the edge of the town of Mayo Belwa. But it is not in the Mayo Belwa Local Government Area. They are in Furfore Local Government Area. Across the highway and down the road a little way is the Secretariat for the Mayo Belwa Local Government. An easy walk from this community. But they do not get any services from Mayo Belwa. Furfore where their local government is located is about an hour by car south of Jimeta and they are about two hours north and east of Jimeta. Fufore LGA does not give them much services either.

The community got organized and hired a “so called driller” to drill them a borehole. He did not have a very strong rig and he did not charge a lot. He drilled down to his limit and had barely hit water. The people talked him into drilling deeper. After he drilled a little deeper he told them that his mud pump was not powerful enough to pump the mud out of the hole so he installed the casing and screen into the drilling mud and left. Long story short, they went through several “so called drillers” before they finally agreed to work with the LCCN WASH program and got the pump working. It did not last long as the pump stand and casing are misaligned and people pump on it from morning into the night.Today they told us that they hired someone from Jalingo in Taraba State to come and repair the pump and it is broken again. Adams and I agree that the rod is probably disconnected from the piston. I am going to figure the cost to put a small borehole pump into the casing that does not matter if it is misaligned. To give them the same amount of water flow as the hand pump which as about all this borehole will produce will probably be the smallest borehole pump made. Since the pump will probably cycle on and off as the water level drops it would waste a lot of expensive fuel to use a generator. A small solar system will make more sense for a daily operating costs. 

We were not in the area today to fix the pump.The community is interested in a second borehole and we had brought a geologist from the Upper Benue River Authority to do the geophysical survey to find a good spot for the new borehole. It had rained the night before and remained overcast to the weather was nice for working. Julius started by dowsing the area using two wires. If they opened up the water was getting less and if they closed the water was increasing. He first worked the area around the Sabon Gari church and decided on a spot. We set his equipment to do a resistance survey to determine the apparent depth to the water. 

I was first introduced to dowsing in the mid 1980’s when investigating a grain elevator explosion in southwest Minnesota. A local farmer informed me that there were old drain tiles running from the building that exploded out to a creek about a mile away. He grabbed some wire from the rubble and bent them into an L shape and proceeded to dowse for the pipe. He marked where the pipe was. I thanked him. Later that evening I took the wires and crossed back and forth where he said the pipe was and got the same reactions. I figured it was just my subconscious controlling the wires where the farmer had shown me. I continued doing cross sections out into the fields and found the outlet of the pipe about a mile away. Since then I have dowsed for wires and pipes, but I have never tried it for water. For me there was water everywhere and some areas where they diverged indicating less water. I would rather review aerial photographs and geological maps. But in built up areas like this the land has been disturbed and geological features have been obscured. I have an open mind. I still think there are some clues your mind is seeing in the area that makes you manipulate the wires.

After the finished the resistance test at the church site, Julius set out around the community looking for more areas that his wires told him there was water. He did not get much of an indication and decided on the second test area after about a half hour of walking around the area. This spot happened to be near the house of the man that was showing him around. This has already created talk about “why at his house. Why not at my house”. The second site is up hill and in from the dirt road that leads through the area. Its main advantage is that it is up hill. So when you walk to the site with your empty containers you are walking uphill and then downhill with the full containers. Most of the community will not have to walk uphill with their full water containers.The church site will be downhill for almost the whole community. 

After we finished the resistance surveys of both sites Julius choose we were invited by the Water Committee Treasurer to go to Twin Sisters Restaurant for lunch. They had four tables inside and two on the outside. The twin sisters are the Treasurer's sisters. I had my regular, rice with soup (red sauce, spicey, with two pieces of beef). Today they just had rice or pounded rice and soup.The area behind the sisters in where the food is dished up. I think the actual cooking is done out the behind the building where they can hand the food in through the window.

 As I was typing this into the computer, I was at my desk in the middle of the room under the ceiling fan. A young boy maybe 10 years old yelled from the street "White Man, How are you?" He was more polite than most of the street kids that yell through the fence. I noticed he was selling sachets of cool water. So I walked out to the fence and bought two sachets from him. The water in my frig was colder. so I put his in to cool down and went back to work.

Timbukum Another Government Project That Does Not Work

Timbukum

Our day started early. Yakubu Bulama showed up at a little after 6 AM. He is driving his old Toyota van today. The Health Board is using the Hi-Lux to visit one of the Community Based Public Health Care (CBPHC) sites. They are doing community surveys of the villages around the Bingia and need the four wheel drive truck. We will be headed south to the village of Timbukum. It will be several hours of pothole dodging. The section of road from Mayo Belwa to Ganye is one of the worst in Adamawa. Not as bad as the Lamurda road but much longer. Each way will be nearly 4 hours. Our original plan was to drive down the night before, stop at Dashen Bible College to look at their pump problem. Stay overnight in Ganye and meet with the Bishop in the morning before driving the last hour down to Timbukum. We found out that the Bible College did not have a problem and the Bishop was going to Yola for a meeting. So we decided to make it a long day trip.

Roadside Food Stand

I was up at 5 to shower and make some breakfast. We stopped and got gas, cool water to drink and some engine coolant at a station on the edge of Yola and headed out of town. Yakubu and Adams had not had breakfast. So we stopped at the first village outside of Yola to buy some roadside eats. The lady had fried yams, fried sweat potatoes and bean cakes. We got a small bag of the combination of all three and headed on. Yams here are a large tubular without a lot of taste. 

Yakubu’s van is 16 years old. As you go up hill the temperature rises and as you go down is lowers. We had to stop once on the way there and once on the way back to let it cool down. The mechanics here do not believe in thermostats. Most vehicles have had them removed. They also do not add coolant just straight water. I told Yakubu that the coolant helps the radiator from boiling over. He had purchased some coolant when we stopped for fuel. He added it to the radiator when we stopped the first time. The engine is behind the front seat and the radiator and fan is between the driver and passenger seats

 We passed the Bonotem Bishop in Jada as we were finishing the bad part of the road and he was headed into it. We arrived in Timbukum around 10:15. I went to look at the old pump that was slow to recharge back in 2008 when I last visited here and found it was still slower now. When you stop pumping you can hear the water leaking out of the riser pipes. Yakubu could not find the church chairman but a white man walking around the village drew a crowd. We spent about a half hour talking to the people about the hand pump. Then we got directions to get to the solar powered borehole.

Timbukum is a village north of Toungo in the south end of Adamawa State. At the request of the local church through the Bonotem Bishop the village has requested assistance in finding out why the Millennium Development Goal solar powered borehole and tank does not deliver water. This is one of the government projects that the village did not know about until the driller showed up and started drilling. The borehole, tank and tap stand are located at the government Dispensary. If you click on the picture you will get a larger picture you can see better.

Upon arrival at the pump we could hear the distinctive sound of the pump trying to pump water and air. The people present reported that in the morning they get one or two buckets of water then it only drips all day. It appears that the pump is set at the water table rather than below. We found water at 70 feet with the water level indicator. We shut down the pump and waited a half hour. There was no significant recharge. Also, indicating the pump is set at the top of the water. We decided to pull the pump but discovered that the power cable does not have any slack. It enters the borehole through the cap and is cemented into the concrete base. To lift the cap and pull or add pipes to the pump will require the cable to be cut and additional cable spliced on. We did not have the additional cable or tools to do this work. We could not determine the depth of the borehole without removing the pump.

After listening to the pump I climbed the tower to see how the solar panels were connected to the pump. The wiring job was very professional, with all loose wires secured. The circuit breaker that I turned off at the top of the tank had never been switched off since it was installed in 2008. After switching off the pump I laid under the solar panels waiting to see if there was any recharge. After they determined that there was no significant recharge we decided to pull the pump. As I swung around to climb down the steel ladder I smashed my right shin on something. I climbed on down and then we discovered that we could not pull the pump. So I went back up to turn the pump back on. It did not want to turn back on. Yakubu climbed up with a screw driver and I disassembled the case and cleaned out are the wasp nests and mud wasps nests and still could not get the circuit breaker to stay in the on position. I removed one of the two plastic bars that were holding the two switches together and pushed as hard as I could and it finally clicked into position. We will be leaving with the pump working the same as before. No worse and no better.

Best Case: The best case for this project is that the borehole was drilled to over 100 feet deep and the pump can be lowered into the water by three or more pipe lengths (30 or more feet). Lowering the pump will provide more water above the pump to be pulled into the pump. The pump will draw the water down in the borehole causing the water in the ground to flow into the borehole. Pumps will operate best at a minimum of 3 pipes under the water table in an aquifer that is quick to recharge. In slower recharging aquifers the pump will need to be much deeper. There are indications from the other water sources in the area that this will be a slower recharging aquifer. If the pump can be lowered then a water level probe needs to be added to the pump to switch the pump off when the water level starts to reach the inlet to the pump. This will create a non continuous flow but will increase the pump life. Pumping air is not good for a pump.

Worst Case: The borehole is drilled to less than 100 feet and less than three pipes can be added. A new borehole will need to be drilled. The first step in this process will be to perform a geophysical survey of the area to determine the apparent depth to water and the thickness of the water. Unfortunately, the location of the tank tends to restrict the location of the borehole to a reasonable distance to the tank for pumping and electrical wiring. Based on a short review of the general geology of the area it is anticipated that the borehole will be drilled through a shallow layer of overburden and into weathered and hopefully fractured basalt or other volcanic formation. The area is shown on some maps as recent volcanic activity. Recent in geological time scale. If this is true than it is possible that below the volcanic formation can be layers of formations which could be contain significant water. Drilling through the assumed volcanic layer will be quite costly. The geophysical survey will provide a more accurate estimation of the hydrogeology of the area. Since the village never requested or were not consulted about the borehole they do not feel it is their borehole. They may not be willing to spend much money to fix the situation.

We left Timbukum around 1 pm and headed to Dashen Bible College. Earlier as we had crossed a bridge we saw some boys in the middle of the walkway of the bridge selling mangos. We stopped and bought mangos. The were selling them at 10 Naira each. Fresh and tree ripened. We each washed one off and eat as we drove to the Bible College.

Dashen Bible College provides education to Evangelist and Catechists and also has a Secondary School. They have posted some of the highest scores on their various levels of exams in all of Adamawa. Their PTA had raised money and drilled a borehole on the school grounds. They had not consulted with the WASH Team and hired a driller without doing any geophysical survey. The borehole was successful but they had some problems with the pump. Back in February the principal had asked Gary of Global Health Ministries for some help. This was the first chance that the WASH Team had to come down this way. In the mean time the pump had been repaired. 

 

After a short visit we headed back towards Jada. We drove around Jada looking for a place to eat. None of the spots we found looked to clean. We headed back out of town when I spotted a small spot with cooking pots out front. It was a two table restaurant. The kitchen is at entrance. That is Yakubu's van out parked outside. They had pounded rice with sauce or vegetables. I had the red sauce with a couple bits of beef and a almost cool Pepsi. The even had spoons, forks and knives in a basket at the table. We were not in Numan. (That is a story from last years blog. Eating at a restaurant in Numan we asked for a spoon and knife and the waitress said “This is Numan.” )

 We also had time to stop in Mayo Belwa to see the pump that we have been working with for the last three years. It appears to have a broken rod. There is a rather long story about this pump, bad driller, followed by bad driller, and then the water committee chairman making off with the funds. The use is so heavy on the pump that it tends to break a lot. There may be an alignment problem The second bad driller had trouble aligning the pump over the borehole and ended up taking a cutting torch to the tank to make it fit. Then kids through rocks through the opening and jammed the pump. This year the rod is broken. I would not be surprised to find debris in the pump again. I think they need a new tank and head. The profits from the 2008 fair trade sale at Mount Calvary were used to support this project. Part of the stolen money.

In all we had a successful day. I am fairly confident of our findings in Timbukum and it is now three days later and I have not gotten sick from the roadside meals. I no longer limp and the shin only hurts when I twist the knee.

Ngbekendiwe - New Water Source Proposal

Ngbekendiwe: Try to pronounce that three times fast.  The "Ng" is mostly silent. With my level of hearing loss it is silent. The name means “place where grains are stored”. The village asked the Todi Diocese for assistance and the Bishop referred the project to the Health Board WASH Program. This was the WASH Team’s third trip to the village (my first). The WASH Program emphasizes community participation. In many past projects the participation was limited to contributing a little labor and collect sands and gravels for the concrete. The WASH team has learned that this limited participation did not produce community ownership. Now they are requiring a minimum of 10% up-front cash. People get serious when Naira is involved. But they have never been asked by a church or the government to participate in this way. This is something new to them. The WASH Team tries to emphasize that they are not here to give a gift to the village but to help the village to build create a sustainable project that they will own and operate.

Small Store near the LCCN Church.

This is not a very poor village, but not a rich village either. It has small stores and other local conveniences.  The village structures are mostly made of mud brick and thatch. There are a scattering of concrete block buildings with aluminum roofs. It is a clean and well kept village. There are several clay pits in the village for making mud bricks. This will be mosquito breeding grounds in the rainy season. The village lies above a tributary to the Benue River. This whole area was alluvial at one time. The village is a linear village along a small ridge line.

Dry borehole. Tank and all pipes have been removed.

The government has sent “so called driller” to install boreholes in the village. Mostly, around election time. Of the four that they told us about only one ever produced any water and the water is “salty”. Here salty means hard not necessarily tasting like table salt. Many time the driller can go deeper and get better tasting water. The trouble is that here they drill will not seal the boring between upper layer of “salty” and lower layer of water. 

Ngbekendiwe was about 1.5 kilometers long in this 2007 Google Earth Image.

 At today’s meeting the WASH Team met with the Chairman (also the local Imam), the Secretary and one committee member of the local water committee and the pastor of the local church. The other four members could not be found. They reported that they have formed subcommittees in different wards of the village and they have gone to the Local Government and received the proper papers to be a recognized social agency and can now open a bank account. They did not know how much money has been committed to do the project. Yakubu encouraged them to get the subcommittees working and collect the money needed to meet the 10% minimum. Open an account at the nearest bank and deposit the money collected. Soon the rains will start and they will be busy planting their fields. 

Yakubu , Adams, Chairman, Secretary , Committee Member and the Pastor

In earlier meetings they had been told several options creating a new water source. They had chosen to have a motorized borehole with a generator, pump, tank and a distribution system. The cost estimates they were given were general in nature. Specific, design and detailed cost estimating have not been done. I currently, have my doubts that this project will happen this dry season. The road to the village looks like a stream bed in many places. If they get the funds together by the end of April the new borehole could be drilled before the main part of the rainy season begins in June.

Back to Banjiram

Goggle Earth Image of Banjiram and the location of the taps. At the end of the blog is a view wider view.

My idea of by-passing the tank and pressurizing the water line to get water to flow at the remote taps was a little off base We went back to Banjiram last week to check out some details. One of the main items was to find the specifics of the pump data from the pump box. The box is gone. Someone had a use for it so it was taken out of the storage room and the paperwork is gone. Another was to check the actual distances the water had to travel. I was told 75 meter to a junction and then 150 meters in two directions to the remote tap stands. Actually it is 160 meters and 200 meters. These lengths make my idea not feasible except if you wanted to take 10 minutes to fill a 20 liter container.

Tank outlet configuration

 The next thing was to see what was buried underground. Once we had finished digging up the connection of the tank outlet to the remote taps Yukubu showed me the picture he took when they buried them. This is the pipe coming down from the tank outlet. The 2 inch pipe has two elbows to get around the foundation and underground it has a Tee. The right side stays at  2 inches and only goes about 6 meters where it goes into the School Tap Stand.

School Tap Stand with school in background

The school does not want the people from the town coming to the school to fetch water. They have allowed their borehole and tank to be used to supply more people in the village but they built two remote tap stands closer to the homes.

The picture on the left is the North Tap Stand and on the right is the South Tap Stand. You can see the school and the tank in the background of the North Tap Stand. Notice there are pots only lined up at the end two taps at the North and a well worn path to the school. The South Tap Stand has  buckets at all of the taps but mostly on the north end where the water comes in. The North Tap Stand is actually up hill from the school and the south is slightly down hill. We did an experiment and turned off all the taps at the School Tap Stand and we opened the tank. All the taps at the South got water. Only a little water on the North. Based on my hand level I am guessing the North Tap Stand is 2.5 meters higher than the borehole.

The two remote taps stands get little flow when the school tap stand is open. Resulting in people walking to the school every afternoon to fetch water when the tank is opened at 3:30.

I spent much of the weekend and Monday doing manual mathematical modeling of the piping system trying to come up with a solution that will work. There are also village politics involved. My best solution would not work because the farmer who owns the field will only allow one trench through his field. He had to be convinced to even allow one. He has a tractor plow his field. The plastic pipe will not withstand a plow hit.

Here is the solution I am currently proposing. We will still use a new pipe to by-pass the tank and pressurize the pipes with the pump. This should add up to 2 more meters of water pressure. But the 2 1/2 inch by-pass pipe will now continue down the trench along side the existing 1 1/2 inch pipe and go all the way to the north end of the North Tap Stand and connect there. In my models this solution started to work at a 2 inch pipe. But there are several unknowns that I could not put into the model. The exact elevations is one and the capabilities of the pump and pump controller. This was the first time since college I have run mathematical models by hand. Fortunately, I found a website that would calculate pressure drops for me. I several liters of fuel in my little generator while doing it. I ran the calculations for around 10 different combinations of pipes. If someone like me shows up in the future and sees the way this is piped, they will wonder "What kinds of drugs was the this guy on, when he decided to run the pipes like this?".

Just tot he south of this Google Earth Image is the dry river bed where much of the town gets its water by digging.

Waya - Long Trip - Several Challenges

 I written and re-written this blog a few times. It is always too long. I get too much into the technical details that would interest the people on the Minneapolis Area Synod, Water Committee but not what regular people would be interested in. Yes guys you are not regular people.

We started the trip to visit Waya from Jimeta in Adamawa state on Monday morning April 2. We traveled through Numan and up to Gombe where we stopped for lunch at a roadside cafe near the bypass junction. Clean place and the three of us ate for 850 Naira ($5.40). It was a quick lunch. Then back on the road for Jos. We had arranged for a 6:30 dinner meeting for the pastors, mission committee members and the driller from Jos. I was called on our way to Bauchi and asked to hold the meeting at 5:00 PM so people can get home before it got dark. The security situation in Jos makes travel at night difficult. I checked with Yakubu and my GPS, both said we will make it in time. We moved the meeting to 5:00.

As we were going through the railroad crossing on the east edge of Bauchi, a group of young men in safety vests, tossed boards with nails in them into the road and signaled us to pull over. We did. They told us they worked for the local government and were inspection vehicle certifications. This is a national program which authorizes the local government to certify vehicles and issue decals for the Local Government, State Government, Federal Government and other groups. Adamawa State was not yet doing this. We told them we were from Adamawa and would get the certificates when we returned. They said we could not pass until we paid 25,000 naira ($160). Yakubu told them we do not have that kind of money and explained to them that we were NGO's and were working on drilling boreholes in Bauchi State so their people could  have water. That they had educated us and we should now go. The young men were firm they wanted their Naira. We asked for their identification. They refused. We said OK one of you get in we will go to your office. They said no not until 4:00PM. We got out and hailed a taxi to go to the Bauchi Local Government offices. There we discovered the boys were working for a contractor for the local government tax collector. After an hour of arguing the head of the tax department called the contractor and asked him to come over. We ended up paying only 15,000 Naira and got the stack of certificates. Now it will be hard to get to Jos by 6:30.

We had our meeting with the District Pastor and the the District Church Mission team. Waya was not a concern to them. Then wanted to know when we were to start drilling in Polchi and Gadabiyu. I have not visited Polchi but did visited Gadabiyu last year. They said that the money for boreholes had been donated and they wanted the boreholes drilled. Yakubu explained the procedures to do the work. That the Water Team was part of the Medical Board now and the objective is to improve the health of the village. The village has to be prepared and have to agree on providing part of the funding, agree to maintenance, agree to sanitation and hygiene training and agree to building of VIP latrines if they do not have latrines in the village. They said the Danes did not have these requirements. The Danes do not require the village to give any naira just collect sand and give labor. We explained that our experience over the past five years is that naira was precious and labor or sand were of little value. If the village wanted to be part owners of the project they would donate a little naira. If they donate naira they will feel like they own it and will maintain it. I told them that we are not the White Man coming to help the Poor Nigerian. The Nigerian can help himself and we would help but we will not pay everything. The mission chairman seemed to understand but I do not think I made a friend of the District Pastor. It was now near 8 pm and the generator had little fuel. We arranged to meet the Catechist from Gadabiyu as our guide to Waya the next morning. We checked into our rooms to discover the water tank was empty that supplied the rooms and the barrels in the rooms were also empty. So we fetched water from the hand pump down by the main house and shared the little drinking water that was in our rooms. The next morning they turned on the generator and pumped water to the tank after we were at breakfast. 

 The next morning we were to meet the geologist at 8 to leave for Waya. They were there at 7. I am impressed with them. So far everything they have done has been professional and timely. Of course they wanted to leave and we wanted to eat breakfast. We did not know when our next meal will be. While we were eating they went to get camera batteries. We finished breakfast and needed to buy a little oil for the truck. The water truck is a 1995 Toyota Hi-Lux with a rebuilt 2.8 liter diesel engine. The only size of diesel engine oil the Total Station had was 4 liters. As we added the oil, the geologist called and we told them where we were. We joined up and then got another call. The Grace and Light Mission people had arrived back at Dogan Dutse Guest House with HIV test kits for their Yola office. We told them where we were and waited for them. The test kits were quite useful at the check points. When the soldier or police man asked what was in the bag and we said HIV test kit. He would look at me and I assume he assumed I was a doctor and would wave us through. Much easier than when our clothes or computer bags were on top of the piles.

Waya is a small village that was visited by a pastor from North Dakota a number of years ago. He was disturbed at the water the people were drinking. He decided he cannot help everyone in the world but he can help this one village. He has now contributed enough money to install two boreholes, two VIP latrines and provide sanitation/hygiene training in the village. VIP latrines are Ventilated Improved Pit latrines (not Very Important People latrines). The LCCN water program is part of the overall medical efforts of the LCCN to reduce illness and preventable deaths. Clean water at the water source by itself has a little effect on health. Clean water that is kept clean by proper sanitation and hygiene efforts have a greater effect. Hand washing, proper food handling and using a VIP latrine (followed by hand washing) will have the greatest effect on the health of the village. Sanitation and hygiene are harder to sell to the villages and the churches supporting the villages. Borehole water is seen as a status symbol and the cause and effect are immediate. When you are thirsty you drink water and quench your thirst. But for sanitation and hygiene the link between disease and sanitation is more remote and less easy to understand. When you get sick today it is harder to understand that it was caused by something you eat or drank up to 3 days ago. As long as I am up on my “Soap Box”, here is Jay’s understanding of the water priority for people living in rural villages: 1. Be able to collect enough water to live. 2. Have a water source as close to where you live and farm so you do not spend all day just collecting water. 3. Have clean water.

Hand dug well that is nearly empty. The water is muddy. Other hand dug wells had more water and were clear.

The village is split by a stream that floods during the rainy season. A single borehole would only help one side of the village. I changed my travel routine last year and visited the village on my way into Nigeria. Instead of flying from Abuja to Yola, I went by land and stayed a few day in Jos. The Jos District Church is the church that has worked with Waya in the past. The two churches in Waya are part of the Jos Distirct. Due to some confusion last year about two Pastor Emmanuels in Jos I was only able to visit Waya for a short time on a Sunday afternoon. I did not get in contact with the correct Pastor Emmanuel until Friday evening. During my brief visit I performed an initial survey and later created a draft project description and initial budget. It was 10% higher than the pastor had intended to donate. He said no problem, he can find another $1000.

Yakubu and Gary Sande from Global Health Ministries visited Waya last fall after the donor’s conference in Jos. They visited three villages. Waya and the two current mission out-reach areas of the Jos District (Gadabiyu anbd Polchi). Like my trip, their visit was brief in each village and they were not able to talk with the chief about the requirements of village participation, maintenance, sanitation and hygiene. I only visited 2 villages the third was too far for an afternoon visit. They started earlier and went to all three with the furthest village last and took back roads to Bauchi from there. They arrived late into the evening and totally worn out by the long day of driving on bad dirt roads.

 

We arrived at the less populated side village where the older Church is located with the driller, three geologists and their helper. We explained to the geologist that we did not want the borehole sited at the church because the Muslim part of the village would not use it. The geologist looked over the area and decided on three potential sites. While they were starting the geo-physical survey Yakubu went to the other side to speak with the chief. The chief had heard of the project and the village would be glad to participate. Wherever the geologist decide to put the borehole he will talk with the owner of the land and make sure they understand that it is a community borehole and he as chief fully supports the project.

 

We spent the whole day at Waya while the geologist performed surveys at six site. I spent most of the time in shade. In spite of SPF 30 sun screen my arms and neck got a little burned. This sun here is SPF 60. I had brought along a red and white checkered cloth. I soaked it in water and put it over my head to cool me and to protect my neck. I was told I looked like Yassar Arafat. As I walked up to the drillers they joked they thought that Al-Qaeda was coming. The kids would come to see the Batura but would not get close to me. For many of them I was the first white man they had seen. Others had seen me last year and Gary last fall. But they still would not get close to me until it was time for a picture.

The bad news is that the hydro-geology of the area does not look good. The basement rock is pretty solid and appears that the water is in the overburden and it the top few meters of the basement where the rock was weathered many centuries ago before it was buried. The plan is to drill through the weathered rock down into the solid material to make a reservoir to pump from. We will get the cost estimate for the work next week. We had hoped to find a site capable of handling a future solar powered borehole. But the rock fractures do not go deep. Even the hand pump may run dry. This is a site that my benefit from small check dams in the streams to force more water into the earth. The pro is a higher water table and less erosion. The con is that some loss of farm land could happen.

Little girl posed for me. I took several picture before a got a good exposure and good smile.

We ended the day at Bauchi with a visit to the Bauchi Church to talk to them about their project with Redeemer Lutheran of Minneapolis. Their companion congregation has raised enough money to install one borehole. The Bauchi Church has a mission field of six villages. All have similar problems with water. They want to put in six hand dug wells instead of one borehole. Gamakesa from the LCCN Rural Development Department had spent the previous day visiting all the sites. He will give us a cost estimate for the six hand dug wells with concrete walls, concrete covers and hand pumps after Easter. In general a properly built hand dug well is about half the cost of the borehole. The money that is available for their project will not cover 6 hand dug wells. They seemed to think that this was not a problem that Redeemer will furnish the funds. Yakubu went through the same conversation about participation that we had the previous evening in Jos. Then I told them that I was familiar with Redeemer Lutheran. That they are a small church in the poor part of Minneapolis. That they had worked hard for several years to save enough money for one borehole. I explained that Redeemer are involved with many programs in their own community. They feed the poor. They provide housing. They have youth programs and many other programs to help the poor in their community. Many of their members are poor themselves. They are a very active church that stretches their financial resources to the limits to help their neighbor in Nigeria and in America. It was hard for them to raise the money they have raised so far and do not expect that they will be able to quickly raise more money. (Sorry, my friends at Redeemer if I misrepresented you.) They were impressed that their companion was such an active church helping the poor. It probably is not my place to give the people a reality check. I have to be honest. People are always asking me to drill them a borehole. I look them in the eye and say "No". After their shocked expression goes away I tell them that "I will help you build your own borehole. Nigerians are capable of making their own boreholes. They do not need me or any other American to do it for them. We can help them by they must do it themselves."

Wednesday morning we left Bauchi headed home. Stopped at the Bauchi Church to say good bye to the Dean. His wife had hot water for tea and coffee ready for us and fried Irish potatoes. The night before he had said something about Irish and I heard coffee. I missed him saying potatoes. I asked if he was going to give us Irish Coffee? He knew what Irish Coffee was and laughed and said Irish potatoes. Yakubu did not know about Irish Coffee and did not know what was so funny. Adams, the Dean and I were laughing and poor Yakubu was wondering what the joke was. I explained it is coffee with alcohol. He asked they add a little alcohol to their coffee. We laughed again and said no, not a little. The Irish add a lot. (Sorry, my Irish friends but I have stereotyped you.)

As we were getting in the truck to head to Yola, Yakubu looked at his truck registration and insurance card. They had expired. We got past Gombe and we were stopped by the Gombe Vehicle Inspection Officers. Yakubu said "this will cost me." It cost us an hour and 7,000 naira. They had a manual typewriter with them and they typed up new registrations and new insurance papers on the spot. With as many people they had pulled over the wait was to get your turn with the typist. All very professional and official. Not like the young men in Bauchi. Like Bauchi any one with local plates were not inspected. We had plates from Plateau State.

Our final stop was in Lamurde. It was partially a waste of time. The Bible College was on holiday and the principal was not available. Global Health is interested in doing a borehole for the Bible College.The road from the main highway to Lamurde can hardly be called a road. Disconnected patches of asphalt. You spend more time on the dirt shoulder than on the road bed. Probably average 20 to 30 kilometers per hour. Finally, we stopped in Numan for an Nigerian lunch / dinner (pounded rice with okra soup and a little tuff meat. Got back to Jimeta before nightfall which is 6:30 this near the equator.