Archive for the 'boreholes' Category

Nigeria: Lagos – Water Everywhere But Not to Drink

Published on 04/04/2012 in boreholes, contaminated water, groundwater, peak water, tap water and water shortage. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.amazonaws.com

“Dry wells: Most parts of Lagos depend on water from shallow wells for domestic and other household uses. Some residents of Awodiora Town and Achakpo in Ajeromi Ifelodun LGA told VF that they do not have access to pipe- borne water. Even the wells and bore holes are now dry because the rains have not been forth-coming.

Human consumption

According to them, the water from these wells and boreholes are unsuitable for human consumption as they are usually yellowish and smells. They noted that the only option available is to patronise water vendors for drinking. “We can only use the water from wells to bath after purifying it with chemicals like alum”, they disclosed.

Although the Achakpo community in Ajeromi Ifelodun can boast of a water scheme provided by Messrs Guinness Nigeria Plc, residents of the area, alleged that the taps are usually dry and this scenario has necessitated their patronage of water hawkers. Another resident explained that the Guinness water project is too far from his residence, hence the only alternative is to buy water outside.”

Read more: All Africa

 

lily victoria

Zimbabwe: Govt to De-Commission Boreholes

Published on 03/30/2012 in boreholes, contaminated water, wastewater and waterborne diseases. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.portaltoafrica.com

“The typhoid outbreak has affected more than 3 400 people who have been treated at council clinics.

In an interview, Harare health services director Dr Prosper Chonzi said some of the boreholes likely to be sealed off include those situated near graveyards in Warren Park.

He, however, said not all contaminated boreholes will be sealed off as some of them are in areas which hardly get tap water supplies.

City authorities last month indicated that there are more than 20 000 boreholes in Harare with just 3 500 on the council database. This means most boreholes were drilled without council approval, raising fears they were improperly sited and could be contaminated.

Some of these boreholes set for de-commissioning are said to have been sunk near sewer lines. Boreholes should be sunk about 30 metres away from dump sites, graveyards and sewer pipes.”

Read more: The Herald

 

lily victoria

The Prem Rawat Foundation Partnership Brings Clean Water into Niger Village

Published on 03/11/2012 in boreholes, drought, groundwater, policy, solutions and outreach and waterborne diseases. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Photo retrieved from: www.tprf.org

“Residents of Ebagueye in the parched Azawak region of Niger danced in celebration last month as the first water gushed from a borehole that will provide them with a reliable source of clean water year-round. TPRF has contributed $40,000 to the nonprofit Amman Imman Water is Life to help fund the drilling and upkeep of the borehole, which brings pure, fresh water from a natural aquifer more than 600 feet underground.

The project is a collaboration with Vibrant Village Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides direct assistance to help people in vulnerable communities around the world. Ken DeLaski, VVF’s founder and director, also sits on TPRF’s board of directors.

Amman Imman was founded in 2006 by Executive Director Ariane Kirtley, then a Fulbright Scholar conducting public health research in the Azawak region, a dry plain about the size of Florida bordering the Sahara Desert. In recent years, drought and political turmoil have disrupted the traditional way of life to the point where half of the Azawak’s children die before the age of five, mostly from dehydration and water-related illnesses.”

Read more: The Prem Rawat Foundation

 

lily victoria

Moleps water blues to end soon – Kedikilwe

Published on 02/29/2012 in agriculture, boreholes, management, peak water, policy and water technology. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Retrieved from: Mmegi Online

“Addressing a Kgotla meeting in Molepolole yesterday, the minister said that in an endeavour to stop enormous water losses in the area, WUC intends to introduce a system that will be operated from any place in the country to instruct a borehole to pump a certain amount of water at a certain pressure into a certain tank. This would stop water losses since measurements would be set in place, he said.

He noted that usually enormous amounts of water gets lost in overflowing reservoir tanks especially if there is no one to stop the borehole from pumping.

“The system is already in place in 216 of the 373 villages that WUC has taken on board.  We hope that we will have it here in Molepolole in July this year,” he said. The project will not cost anything less than P3 million, he said.

Also, WUC has identified and fixed 21 leaking pipes. The project is expected to end this month. It had been reported previously that the village loses about 32 percent of potable water underground due to leaking pipes.

The minister furthermore said that they are expecting about P3 million to buy three bowsers that will help provide water in the village.”

Read more: Mmegi

 

Sami Oueida

Drought Ravages Farms Across Wide Swath Of Mexico

Published on 02/08/2012 in agriculture, boreholes, climate change, drought, peak water, rivers, tap water and water shortage. 0 Comments

Photo retrieved from: www.npr.org

“Rodarte says that for the past two years, the crops that he’s planted here have failed. Normally, he plants beans and corn to feed his family, and oats to sell. He says he hasn’t harvested anything because the land is too dry and there’s no water.

This is an arid part of Mexico, but normally there’s a rainy season between June and September, allowing farmers to grow crops during the summer. They also tend cattle on the scrubby rolling hills dotted with cactuses.

Rodarte has lived here all his life and says this is the worst drought he’s ever seen.

“Now most people are leaving,” he says, “to the cities, the coasts where it rains, or to the United States. That’s where the people are going to work. And those who are abroad in the U.S. are the ones who are sustaining the families here. They send us a little bit of money.”

The drought is extending across a broad swath of central, northwestern and northern Mexico.

Sugar exports are expected to drop 40 percent, and one top military official says the lack of rain is even hurting marijuana production in Durango. Many farmers have been forced to sell off their livestock as pastures and watering holes run dry.

Government To Provide Aid

President Felipe Calderon has pledged billions of dollars in assistance to the hardest hit states, and vowed that no one is going to starve because of the crisis.”

Read more: NPR

 

lily victoria

Botswana Bushmen Drink From Reopened Borehole

Published on 09/06/2011 in boreholes, mining, policy, privatization and water rights. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.commercialpressuresonland.org

“Survival International says Botswana’s Bushmen are drinking water from a borehole in the Kalahari desert for the first time in nine years.

It is a significant victory against the government that once evicted them from their ancestral lands.

The government capped the well at Mothomelo in 2002 to help force the tribe out of an area rich in diamonds.

In 2006 a court ruled the eviction illegal. But few Bushmen returned because the only water available was in handmade sand depressions.

Only in January did a court rule that the Bushmen have a fundamental right to water.

Survival International said Monday the Mothomelo well was re-drilled and a solar pump installed by Vox United charity working with Gem Diamonds, which mines in the Bushmen’s lands.”

Read more: Trib.com

lily victoria

Water and sanitation in Katine

Published on 08/11/2011 in boreholes, contaminated water, hydrology and policy. 0 Comments Tags: .

Photo retrieved from: www.guardian.co.uk

“Here, as in many parts of rural Africa, fetching water is a woman’s job, as are most household chores. Therefore, a water source that is not only closer to home but safe goes some way to improving the lives of women such as Ati. Her family pays UShs 500 (18 US cents) a month to the water source committee elected by the village. That money, she explains, would be used for repairs if the borehole broke down.

Given that Amref drilled 11 boreholes in the first three years of the Katine project, eight in one year sounds a lot. But Amref’s acting water and sanitation officer in Katine, Lenox Ochan, says this became possible after abandoning plans for a UShs 150m ($54,000) motorised water pump for Tiriri health centre.

Local government and health centre staff had opposed the pump scheme because it was too expensive to build and maintain, especially since the national water utility has since extended piped water to the health centre. But Amref had appeared so insistent on the pump that its abandonment is seen as a victory for local officials – and for villagers such as Ati who have got boreholes built with the money that has been freed up.”

Read more: Guardian

 

lily victoria