In the
middle of Buhangija, there is a well. A well that is dry, broken and waterless.
Like so many things in the centre, it was installed by visitors with great
intentions and provided water for many months but through lack of care and
maintenance, it is now just another piece of metal for the children to play
with.
A few weeks
ago Paul asked Mr Magunya to come and visit Buhangija. Mr Magunya is a retired
man from our church who has managed water projects for Tearfund, Caritas and
Hilfe fur Bruder to name but a few. He immediately grasped the seriousness of
the situation for the children who live in Buhangija and has worked tirelessly for
the past two weeks. A grandfather himself, he has also been spotted taking a
quick break from work to play games with the little ones who crowd around him
to watch. His attitude and commitment to working for the good of the children
is very encouraging. He knows his stuff and has been able to find all the
fundis (technicians) that we need – in very quick time for Tanzania.
Two weeks
ago we opened the well and fortunately, found the pump in good shape - needing
just one new part and a bit of cleaning to get it working again. The condition
and depth of the well itself however needed closer examination and there’s only
one way to do that – send a man with a bucket 15m down a rope to have a good
poke around! The first few loads out of the well were full of sticks, shoes,
bottles and even other buckets.
Re-installing
the pump and watching fast, clean water flow out was a great moment and one
that was much enjoyed by the children and staff. It took time but the well is
fixed and should provide around half a bucket of water per child per day. The
nature of Buhangija is that things are not well maintained and tend to break. In
an attempt at sustainability, we have arranged for Mr Magunya to visit every
three months to check on all things water related. Hopefully that will help to
keep the water flowing in Buhangija for many years.
Its disrepair
is felt keenly during the mains water outages that happen so frequently here.
We can manage for 8 days without water; 350 children just can’t.
A few weeks
ago Paul asked Mr Magunya to come and visit Buhangija. Mr Magunya is a retired
man from our church who has managed water projects for Tearfund, Caritas and
Hilfe fur Bruder to name but a few. He immediately grasped the seriousness of
the situation for the children who live in Buhangija and has worked tirelessly for
the past two weeks. A grandfather himself, he has also been spotted taking a
quick break from work to play games with the little ones who crowd around him
to watch. His attitude and commitment to working for the good of the children
is very encouraging. He knows his stuff and has been able to find all the
fundis (technicians) that we need – in very quick time for Tanzania.Two weeks
ago we opened the well and fortunately, found the pump in good shape - needing
just one new part and a bit of cleaning to get it working again. The condition
and depth of the well itself however needed closer examination and there’s only
one way to do that – send a man with a bucket 15m down a rope to have a good
poke around! The first few loads out of the well were full of sticks, shoes,
bottles and even other buckets.
Cleaned
out, the well had just over 1m of water. A quick ‘pump’ (bucket removal) test showed
recharge was disappointingly slow. We decided to try to clean and deepen the
well to have deeper, faster water. For 5 days the ‘well fundi’ climbed down the
rope and dug in the near darkness to remove dirt, soil and rocks from the base
and sides. On the last day, the buckets of dirt were interspersed with buckets
of water as it started to flow in as fast as we could remove it – “good for the
well, bad for the workers” was the very appropriate quote! The end result is over
3m of water that’s refilling at an amazing rate.
Re-installing
the pump and watching fast, clean water flow out was a great moment and one
that was much enjoyed by the children and staff. It took time but the well is
fixed and should provide around half a bucket of water per child per day. The
nature of Buhangija is that things are not well maintained and tend to break. In
an attempt at sustainability, we have arranged for Mr Magunya to visit every
three months to check on all things water related. Hopefully that will help to
keep the water flowing in Buhangija for many years.
Click here
for more photos.
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