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Conclusion of 52 Pumps in 52 Weeks – Senegal – Project 19 - Thiawando, Community Well
This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd and Garrison Harward. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK
HERE.
Garrison reports:
In the course of any good appropriate technology’s development things should be changed, innovated and tested to ensure that the product is always improving and ends up as the best possible version of that technology. Yes this is the normal course we should be and are taking but it occasionally leads to innovations being tried that simply fail. That’s what happened here with Thiawando #2.
We decided to try out a new turn block system (the thing that sits at the bottom of the well to turn the rope and send it back up the pipe) which we thought would be much simpler and easier to produce on a large scale. The previous block was a piece of PVC tediously shaped into a 180 degree “U” and placed in a block of cement to make it sit on the bottom. The new system was a little metal square made out of tube steel that straps to the pipe so that the rope can theoretically roll over any edge at any angle as it turns around and then goes into the pipe. A little confusing I know, and the pump thought so too. This system worked perfectly on our experiments with Pump#14 but for some reason it didn’t work here causing us to put this pump on hold for over a month.
In the end we went with the old system which we know works perfectly well. We’re still not sure what went wrong but it’s better to go with what works while we figure it out.
The rest of the install went really smoothly. This being the second pump here, the village was familiar with the process already and had all the materials collected and waiting when we got there. They made the cap while we hung out with the kids and let them practice their English with us. There is a CEM (Junior High) not too far from the village, so lots of the kids are starting to learn English. They have big dreams, much bigger than a pump can provide, but we’re happy to be moving in the right direction with them on the long road Senegal is traveling.
Pump Output: 35 Liters/ Min
Total Number of People Benefiting: 800
Funder: Vicki Ringer
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