Tekyekrom

Location 1 in Tekyekrom - in GoogleMaps

kontihene

Location 2 in Tekyekrom - in GoogleMaps

weeding

digging

digging

red soil

red soil

Lunch in Tekyekrom

Nicholas Ofori-Atta, the local manager

Hole on location 1

First inches on location 2

First inches on location 2

After two days of drilling on location 2

Orange earth on location 2

Cassava for fufu

Cutting cassava

Crew cooking lunch

Praying before work

Water supply

and cook

plantain

Crew eating fufu

Water found on location 2 in Tekyekrom

Tekyekrom is situated on the Dunkwa-Obuasi road. We have succesfully drilled for water on 2 locations there. EcoSan Ghana found water on Location 1 and Location 2, using the FloFlo. See a video of the drilling on YouTube.

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The FloFlo

The FloFlo is an ancient drilling tool, modernised by dutchman Floris de Vos in 2011 (see Facebook page) The FloFlo employs a hoist using a three legged tower. The drillbit is repeatedly hoisted and released to pulvarise the hard soil as it hits the ground. Once a substantial amount of soil has been pulvarised, the drillbit is replaced by the bailer, equiped with a valve, to pull out the soil. Thus it is a manpowered drill tool. Anyone can do it, and it is cheap and efficient.

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The First Phase

Location 1 - The crew started working on September 14, 2016 (Bismarck, Akwasi Adea, Kojo Amoah, Dominic Asante, Yaw Fosu). The kontihene (head of the elders in the village) stopped by for inspection and some motivational words. After 2 days they had drilled 13 feet deep. On the third day (16/09), at a depth of only 17 feet, water was found. Two more days of drilling gave way to a depth of 28 feet (19/09/2016).

On location 2, after the first day (20/09) the hole was 8 feet deep. Then 16.4 feet (21 and 22/09), 20 feet (23/09), 24 feet (24/09), 27 feet (26/09), 31.4 feet (27/09), 35 feet (28/09), 38 feet (29/09), and 43 feet {30/09), and water was found at 46 feet deep (01/10). Three more days (03-10 to 05/10) of drilling gave way to the final depth of 53 feet.

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Costs

The first phase on location 1 cost 5 days of work, 1250 cedi (€284,-). For the second phase, we need casing pipes. We bought 100 meters of casing pipe in China; total costs including shipment and bank transfer fee: €1,171.95. We need to wait to know the local (from Tema port to location) transport costs, after which we can calculate the total costs per meter (€11.72/m so far) For this location we can use a standard cast iron waterpump for €149,-

The first phase on location 2 cost 14 days of work, 3250 cedi (€738,-), plus the costs for safety boots (240 cedi= €54,-). Due to the depth of the borehole, for this location we will need a solar powered submersible waterpump, which costs €406,-