.png)
Below are pictures from four separate village plots watered early in the growing season with the wells provided by Lifestream Charities donors to keep the plants alive until the rains could come. The results are incredible!
There was one dry hole (in Razi) and one underperforming well (in Dare); so in all the villages except those two, the brethren basically pump during the day when they are in the field. The solar panels are then removed at night to prevent theft. From a practical standpoint, there is no pumping without the sunshine any way when using solar for electricity to power the pumps. ;-)
Depending on the well (each village differs) they pump the tank full and average approximately 4 to 5 tanks of water a day and they are limited on volume of water pumped based on the amount of time the sun is shining. The wells are too deep to make manual pumping practical or effective. If we would have installed bigger pumps in the current wells, the pumps would pump the wells dry and there would be a waiting period for the water to refill. The current pumps installed in the wells has been working well according to the proper tables and graphs by the pump suppliers to pump out the max water in the fastest time, yet not so fast as to run the well dry.
In order to provide more water in the areas that have been proven to have accessible water, the plan is now to have two (2) wells delivering approximately the same amount of water each. The bore holes are not drilled next to each other of course, but within a viable distance from the intended delivery spot. Each of the nine (9) viable locations would have two wells, two tanks and two systems which would deliver double the water in the same time.
This new phase of the project is predicted to supply enough water to raise crops with very limited amounts of mid to late season rains resulting in a sustainable food supply for the people there for years to come.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this project so far. We hope you will be able to continue supporting this effort to its conclusion with this new phase of the project.