WfZ PHLOGS

By wellsforzoe

St Patricks Day

17th March 2016:

Pretty pathetic really. A single flag and no celebration.
We had thought (for about 10 seconds) of having a little parade (as a bit of a joke) in the centre of the City ??, but on quick, second thoughts we decided that this was the best we could do, despite celebrations of the day all over the globe.
Why? Malawi is no place for jokes at the moment, and I feel that arrest at gun point may be the result.  Any group of police I see have at least one with a gun. Even single cops have guns. Best of all was an armoured personnel carrier, trying out its functionality yesterday.
There is a lot of discontent about the hunger/famine situation and a few other little matters as well. There was a suggestion of protest marches, and so the guns.
Anyway no time for Irish Jokes, St Patrick or no St Patrick.
On a much more serious note the other picture is the real story of the day. It is a concrete cover for a well. A week ago we went to a district called Mzimba and returned today to assess the need and see what could be done.
We knew that the need was enormous and it now looks that at a conservative estimate over 300 pumps will be needed.
On a better note looks like some organisation cane about 5 years ago and asked the villagers to dig wells and that they would be back to install pumps, but it never happened YET!!
So the good news is that about 60 wells have been dug. The team made ten well covers and the second pic shows one of them.
All going well they will return, making the two and a half hour journey (each way) to install the ten pumps. Naturally there is enormous excitement and they will be accommodated by the local people if they stay overnight, which I assume they will.
Oh just an idea: Many of the pumps used in Malawi have a maximum working depth of 6 meters depth, and when the water table falls over the years, the well goes dry and the pump is useless.
Most of the wells found were between ten and fifteen meters deep, so an answer to the earlier issue of the no show (of the NGO).
Our pump has only ever gone to 23 meters, but here we may have a new challenge, but we will take that challenge when it comes.

Comments
Sign in or get an account to comment.