Probably the Best Driller in the World… But Who Knows?

Hi Everyone!

We have a lot to share. These past five days have felt like five weeks. We started off our week as Torrey mentioned with a meeting with our mentor, Steve, and our driller, Rashid. (She wrote our blog while we were still panicking so we decided to make it it short until we figured it all out.) We signed our drilling contract and determined the conditions of installation on our planned borehole. (At the depth we are drilling, it is technically called a well but everyone in Malawi calls them boreholes no matter what so that is what we will be addressing it as).

We then headed to the community to have our usual introductory meeting and to prepare the committee with the plan while we are here. There we learned that a new borehole had been installed just two weeks earlier, 300 meters from the borehole in front of the community center. This borehole was drilled by the United Arab Emirates just next to the Chief Kumponda 2’s house. The community members told us that only Muslim community members could use it, but then later clarified that anyone could use it but they installed the borehole there so that they could build a mosque in that location. (To further clarify both Chief Kumponda and his sister, Chief Kumponda 2, are Muslim so, Kumponda seems to have a very large population of Muslim members which is not representative of the Malawian population.)

This new borehole was actually a big concern for us because of its location. On our last trip, Torrey, Brian, and David went around to all of the boreholes in Kumponda 1 &2 and plotted them using a GPS. Torrey then returned home and used GIS to plot all of the points on a map as well as all of the households in the area. She then set a radius for each borehole to determine how far people needed to walk to their closest borehole and how everyone would be affected by potential new boreholes. With the new one in place, we were concerned that it would be too close to our proposed location and wouldn’t help as much of the community.

The community members then took us to the location that the hydrogeologist had surveyed, a random point in the middle of Agnes’, one of the committee members, farmland, a ways away from any houses and the main road. This was not the spot we had asked him to test and was a concern for the community who believed the distance from any households would lead to theft of the pump or damage to the system. (This has happened in the past at a borehole about 50 meters from the tested site.)

A view from the past, broken borehole. Clearly not the best location for a new one.

Torrey, Brian, and I regrouped and discussed our options in regards to the project. This was completed unexpected and we were not prepared to have to change our location for this reason. We discussed drilling in our original location, looking for a new location, not drilling, and possibly assessing for a new project. After weighing our pros and cons, we decided that our borehole would still have big impacts in the community as long as we got our hydrogeologist to come back and survey again in the spot we had asked for, as well as a few additional locations that we thought may have larger impacts because of the new borehole.

We quickly called our hydro to set up a meeting the following day and learned that both phone numbers that we had communicated with about the survey on WhatsApp went back to our driller who had denied doing our survey earlier that day. In a panic we called Steve and our NGO, Daniel, for some clarity. We were concerned about collaborating with someone who was lying about his participation in our project, especially after the poor quality results we received in our hydrogeological report and a very high drilling estimate he had sent a few months back.

We decided to meet the next day to sort things out. We spoke with Steve and Rashid and figured out that due to some sort of miscommunication, Rashid did not complete our hydrogeological survey but he did rent equipment to the man who did, as well as act as a liaison between us and the hydro which is why he was the contact we had on WhatsApp. He informed us that our actual hydro went back to Kumponda that morning to test some other sites closer to where we wanted them originally. We were pretty hesitant about the quality of work that was done last time so we insisted that he meet us again so we could observe that things were done as requested.

The surveyor teaching Torrey how to understand the readings

When we arrived back in Kumponda, not only the hydrogeologist and his crew were there but also the driller, his boss, the drill rig, and a full crew prepared to drill when we arrived. Frustrated by this miscommunication, we required another survey to be conducted exactly where we wanted it. We marched the crew around Kumponda with their equipment until we were satisfied with our chosen location. We ended up choosing a spot around 50 meters from our proposed location, which according to the VES (A way to check the resistivity to see the chances of hitting water), had the highest likelihood of hitting water.

Because the rig was already onsite, they decided that they would drill because then they could demobilize the rig right away.

We were informed that they would not start drilling until we had printed and signed our contract. So we left to find a print shop, only to realize everywhere in the vicinity had no power. We final found a shop that did, but realized it was close to the time that the bank closes, so we went there first and sent Steve to Kumponda to be prepared to drill. By the time we returned they had already drilled 36 meters and had already hit water twice in the process. We were really bummed to have missed the first bursts of water, but Steve will send us pictures of the excited community members.

The drillers drilled until 50 meters and laid out soil samples at about every meter for us to see. They showed us these rocks that they had pulled up and told us that they are a nightmare for drillers because they fall in on the hammer and make it super difficult to pull back out, but they also indicate that there is a lot of water in that location. The boss told us that it wouldn’t dry up for ninety years! (We have no idea if that’s true but it was nice to hear!)

The water wasn't too far down from here

So many of the community members came to see the drilling!

Torrey signing our contract!

Our minibus also got stuck in the mud! Luckily we had Brian, our translator Philip, and Mr. Masamba to push us out while Torrey and I sat comfortably in the bus.

The next day we arrived bright and early to watch the installation of the casings and the gravel pack. The drillers inserted several meters of casings as well as some slotted ones to allow water to flow into the borehole.

Drillers installing the slotted casings

Then the gravel pack was installed around that to filter out any particulates that could be found in the aquifer before it comes out of the pump. The drillers had a truck full of sand and women and girls in the community all came with buckets to help carry the sand to the borehole.

This woman helped carry the sand for the gravel pack with a baby on her back!

Next they did air development. Basically they pumped air into the hole to blow out any soil that fell in from the top as well as the water until it came out clear.

Brian helping carry the corn flour like a
true Malawian woma

Torrey helping make nsima

We then had lunch with the community to finish off the day.

My favorite eating partner

On Thursday, we started off at the bank, our fourth trip this week, to go get a cash advance to pay our driller and our housing payment. Because of our withdrawal limits, Torrey and I have been gradually taking out money to pay for our expenses, which means about two hour trips to the bank. Apparently in Malawi getting a “certified bank cheque” is a very long process that requires a written letter, a withdrawal, a deposit, and finally 45 minutes of waiting for two people at the bank to sign their names on the check. At this point I think we had gotten to spend more time with our new friends Lighton and Jessica at the bank than we had with all of the community members.

We then headed back to Kumponda to observe pump testing. We quickly realized that our observing would be much more like doing the pump testing. It seemed clear that the workers did not really know what they were doing when they were reading the gauge on a pump in the wrong direction. We quickly stepped in, with the help of the committee members and Steve, to take over on the readings and get the workers to take them at the right times.

Dorothy and Siyleni reading the gauge

Mr. Masamba measuring the depth of the water

Steve teaching the community members about pump testing

We also learned that they do not do step tests in Malawi, but after what we had heard from other mentors, we were lucky that they had any form of pump testing at all. We measured the flow rates and the depth of the water in the borehole and the level dropped less than a meter within three hours, which apparently indicates a very good source. (They said that it would usually be around 8 meters lower by the second hour.) They took recovery readings and started setting up to pour the concrete around the pump.

The community also worked with the laborers to install the hand pump. They all knew exactly how it was done and they showed some younger community members how to put it in place. The entire pump installation took about 20 minutes.

Brian, Dorothy, and Mr. Masamba installing the
pump handle

Installing the inner casings!

Everyone then excitedly rushed to wash their hands in the water.

The first pump of water!

On Friday we returned to find the concrete apron completed and a spot reserved for us to write on the platform.

Our well apron, complete with the handprints of 4/9 of the
committee members, as well as our thumbprints, or as Brian called
it, "The end of his career with the CIA"

We are now waiting for the laboratory test results which should hopefully be ready on Wednesday. The concrete will be completely set by next Friday and then borehole will be ready to drink!

We were blown away by how quickly everything moved and are now finalizing the details on the borehole. The government will be coming to help elect a community that will be in charge of ensuring the security and maintenance of the borehole. We will also be sharing some educational documents made by our awesome team at home and presenting the community with an operations and maintenance manual, even though they seem to have the maintenance under control.

We are hoping to look into some plans for the maize mill and continue to develop our relationship with the community!

To explain the title… One of the only beers you can find in Malawi is called Carlsberg which funny enough isn’t even from Malawi, its from Denmark. The slogan for the beer at least here in Malawi is “Probably the best beer in the world,” which is super funny to us because they seem so unsure and because its actually kind of sucky beer. So Brian thinks they should add “, but who knows?” to the end of the slogan. In the end you could’ve had a better more expensive beer, but the Carlsberg was still satisfying because it got the job done. So for us, our driller was like kind of a sucky guy. Yesterday he told us to bring the last payment to him on Wednesday and this morning we got a call asking when we would be making our final payment. These calls have been happening all week because he fails to listen to anything we have said so far. So yeah he sucks but he was cheap, he did his job, and our borehole looks great and has a ton of water.

Sorry its so long!

Sydney