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Water has many pleasant sounds, it sparkles, gurgels, flows, streams, drips all those sounds come from water, if it is available to give us its life giving energy.
But what if, when … ? Imagine your water pipe breaks down for a few days, drinkingwater is easily obtainable from the nearest supermarket and maybe you can use some of it to brush your teeth, what about cooking, washing, taking a shower or a bath, laundry or wash your dishes?
A normal household in Austria uses a 150 liters drinking water per day, according to a United nations study 50 liters goes to prepare food under hygenic conditions to prevent diseases. People in Africa have access to 20 liters of water per day!
In far too many settlements there is only one Borehole that caters for many families. Extreme weather condtions, longer drought periods and technical problems cause these boreholes to be out of order or not functioning properly. This is where the people mostly women have to walk long distances to get to the water points.
„A non functional borehole is as if you cut off the life vein of an entire family. When a well has been repaired and water is running freely it calls for a celabration, a true sign of happiness!“
In close team work with Government installations we choose Settlements where we can repair and maintain boreholes with your help and assistence to make sure the water flows and life is guarenteed. We adopt every borehole so to say, maintain it and brings this precious commodityto families and by doing so, enhance the lives of many families.
- Project 1: Okaokoaquinja
- Project 2: Otjivahiona
- Project 3: Okatjongwa
It ia amazing how fragile such a life vein works where an entire village depends on it. In Okaokoaquinja there are 12 families of the Herero people with 1500 cattle who ekes out a living there. At a depth of 160m under the dry sandy surface lies the water. To get down there, you need a borehole, pipes, pump and a diesel generator.
Rust and sand destroyed the upper 24 meter pipe and the pump and generator was not functional anymore.
To enable us to get the water running again, we had to replace 12,2 meter long pipes on top of the 163 meter Borehole. Then we replaced the pump element and the generator was serviced replacing all the necessary parts like filter, fan belt etc.
Higher up
The Borehole in this Herero village takes care of ten families with 1600 cattle. None of the families in this village have direct access to water, meaning they cannot open a tap in or near their homes. They have to walk to the Borehole and that is a daily task mostly performed by women and children.
Most men are either working in Windhoek or other towns. Since the Borehole is not functionong and water is not available the people have to walk long distances. The borehole pipe that goes down to 211 meter depth goes through 25 meters of sandy surface and afterwards through a rocky area. This causes that the water trickles through the surface after the short rainy period and there for only accessible through deep boreholes.
Overhauling this borehole, we replaced the rusty pipes to the Borehole by using a Corrosion free PVC pipe. 15 each 2 meter long pipes on top of the borehole were replaced. The driveshaft and pump element had to be replaced and the Diesel generator which was beyond repair, was replaced with a functional second hand generator.
Higher up
The 25 Herero families that live here, does so under the poorest conditions in a far away village. The huts are 3 to 4 kilometers apart there are not even roads to their homes. Since there is no infrastructure there are no water pipes from the the only central Borehole to the huts. There is a big tank at the Borehole where the families fetch their water from, sharing it with their 2000 animals.
This Borehole that should bring the water from a depth of 83 meters to the surface is supported by a windmill. Since 3 of the windmills' leaves were out of order, the engine failed. Weather conditions caused more damage to the Borehole, rusted pipes etc. After we fixed all the necessary items, the people have access to water again, although we cannot spare them the daily trip to the big tank.
Higher up
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