Digging a well

There are three basic kinds of water projects that charity:water does. The most common is a hand-dug well. These usually go to a depth of about 70 feet. The hole is about six-feet in diameter. It is, as the name suggests, dug by hand. Then concrete forms are made on side and lowered into place. Some of the concrete forms are made to let water in. The space around the concrete and at the base is filled with gravel. The well is topped with a slab of concrete and a fence is built around it. A hand pump is mounted with a pipe down to the water. The water seeps into the well continuously and throughout the year. The second type is a spring protection. This is used where there's a spring already. A concrete reservoir is made for the spring to fill and gravity-fed taps are attached to the reservoir to provide access. Sometimes you can even get a shower into the deal. Both of these cost about $4,000. The third type is a shallow bore-hole. These can be 500-1,000 feet deep and require a drilling rig. They are narrow holes - less than a foot in diameter. Frequently they will have a hand-pump, but they can also have a powered pump.

The first well we visit is a hand-dug well. We travel along a good road for about 45 minutes out of Axum before turning off onto a dusty track right down the middle of a village. There are houses on both sides. We pass the grocery store with a foosball table outside. We don't go very far before the jeeps stop and we get out. We walk a little further down the road with kids all around us. Then we get to the bluff and we can see the well down below. We scramble down a steep grade trying not to slip or to run over a child.

At the bottom of the hill we cross a stream - the most active we've seen yet. There are a lot of men crowded around the pit. There is a generator running to provide power to a pump which keeps water out of the pit as it's being dug. There are three men working the well. Two are in the pit. One uses a pickaxe to break up the rock and soil. The second loads it into a bucket. The third pulls the bucket up and dumps it out. We learn that they are hired because the job requires training as you go deeper. They are hired locally and paid at most 15 birr per day ($1.75). When blasting is necessary that is done by the supervisor from REST. There are ladders made from rebar by REST. They are made in about six-foot long sections. Each one hanging on the one above it. In one sense, it's amazing how simple it is. In another it's amazing that they do this to a depth of seventy feet. Before leaving we again sit for speeches; receive our shower of popcorn; and eat bread and honey.

After climbing back up the mountain I come across a hopscotch court. I ask one of the children to teach me the game. It is a five by two box grid. There is a single stone placed in the first box. While hopping on one foot you kick the rock to the next box then hop after it. The boy does this all the way down the five boxes and back the other side. I make it one box before kicking the rock entirely too far.

We go to our next well which is a shallow borehole. When we arrive they aren't drilling. I think this is so they can give us the show that occurs when they start drilling again. Once we're situated they start the rig back up. Within a few seconds the hole starts spraying water up the full height of the rig - at least twelve feet. Ketachoo explains the whole process of drilling to me. The different bits for rock and stone; how they keep adding sections of drill; how they drive the pipe into the ground. This is all pretty low tech stuff, but it's interesting to me.