Water Well Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/592194
village well sites for Wells for Relief In- ternational. Powell doesn't know of any other partnership like it. It's quite an undertaking since there are a little more than 1000 wells drilled as of September. They are mostly in the Volta Region, located in the eastern part of the country, and the rest in the North- ern Region, in the northeast. The purpose of the GIS mapping is to establish basic information about each well site: village name, date installed, pump and model, depth of well, water quality, number of people using hand pump, and contact person in the village. Information is gathered by interviewing village leaders. The team from Villanova that trav- eled to Ghana in October 2014 consisted of a professor, graduate student, and un- dergraduate student. With the assistance of one of Wells for Relief International's pump mechanical teams and a district water and sewage official, they mapped nearly 250 village wells in one week. Powell and the Villanova team re- turned to Ghana last month to complete more mapping of the well sites. Powell hopes the team can return again in spring 2016 and stay for three months to complete all of the well mapping. Wells for Relief International sub- contracts with Ghanaian-trained pump mechanics who will be able to access this database to fix non-working pumps. Soon they'll be able to click on a red dot where a well is located on a Google map and have the data appear. The preliminary report of the 250 wells mapped, located in the Ketu South District in the Volta Region near the Gulf of Guinea, showed an operation rate of nearly 75%, according to Powell. The wells produced more saltwater than anticipated, leading pipelines to be constructed to villages from high production wells. "I want to get that number up to 90 percent," Powell says of the operation rate. "We're never going to hit 100 per- cent. I want that number to be in the 90s." These 250 wells were drilled nearly 10 years ago by Ken Wood, Powell's longtime drilling colleague. Wells for Relief International is a strategic partner with Wood's organization, Lifetime Wells For Ghana Inc., featured in the November 2013 issue of Water Well Journal. The little more than 1000 wells being mapped for Wells for Relief Interna- tional were drilled by Wood and his team (600 wells) and Powell and his team (400 wells). "We estimate between 750,000 and one million people now have clean groundwater to drink instead of swamps, rivers, and mud holes," Powell says. "The key now is to help them keep the pumps functioning." Keep 'em pumping Like any other piece of equipment, a hand pump is vulnerable to breaking down over time through steady use of it. The most common problems Powell has seen are broken rod couplings, seals in the plunger, and cracked drop pipe. He has installed the widely used India Mark II and III hand pumps, but now chooses the Afridev, designed for heavy-duty use. In a 2013 Rural Water Supply Net- work report, How Three Hand Pumps Revolutionized Rural Water Supplies, the India Mark II/III, Afridev, and Zim- babwe Bush Pump are listed as the three most successful and widespread pump designs in the world. The report states over the last quarter century hundreds of thousands to possibly millions have been installed. Because women and children are responsible for obtaining most of the water for households in Ghana, the pumping systems need to be easy to use. 24 November 2015 WWJ waterwelljournal.com THE FUTURE from page 23 David Powell, CWD/PI, helps with a hand pump installation in the Volta Region of Ghana. Because women and children are responsible for obtaining most of the water for house- holds in Ghana, the pumping systems need to be easy to use. Photos courtesy Wells for Relief International Inc. Find out about the Developing Nations Fund The National Ground Water Research and Educational Foundation's Developing Nations Fund provides small assistance grants to benefit the quality of life for people in developing economies around the world without access to plentiful supplies of potable groundwater. To learn more about projects that receive funds, visit www.NGWA.org/Foundation/ developing_world.