Digging wells in Niger seems surprisingly cost-effective. Thanks for writing this analysis, really good work!
Some questions I had:
If we assume that each well serves an average of 1,200 people, does this mean that none of these 1,200 people had access to clean water before this well was dug? Or are there cases where an existing well was already supplying clean water, but it was located further away? In other words, can we attribute all of the credit for giving these 1,200 people access to clean water to this well and this well only?
How much water can one well supply per day/​hour/​minute? Let’s say we want to provide at least 20 liters per person per day. That would be 24,000 liters per day to supply 1,200 people. Can the well handle such a level of demand?
point 2 is actually a really good point. pumping s 20l Jerry can with a borehole takes at least 2 minutes even accounting for transfer times between Jerry cams etc. Asuming 12 hours of continuous pumping 6am to 6pm (unrealistic) that would mean 30x12 20 litre Jerry cans a day which is about 360 jerry cans. People often do use under 20 liters a day on average despite WHO recommendations (we do even lol) but i would say 500 people might be the absolute limit that a borehole could realistically fully serve? And even that feels quite unrealistic.
I’ve also NEVER seen a borehole that heavily used here in UgAnda, but it might be possible in other places?
my math could be a bit wrong but I’ve never thought about it like that before, thanks @Mihkel Viires 🔹 .
EDIT on googling, it seems that standard boreholes are usually designed to serve communities of 200 to 300 people usually with up to 500 a stretch in some cases. Stacks up with our thoughts here!
I think the 1,200 people all did not have access to clean water before the well (ie they weren’t traveling further to other wells), but I’ll see if Willie can confirm that!
Water supply-wise, I don’t think there’s any worry of the well running dry. As far as how much water can be extracted per day, I’m not sure and maybe Willie can help answer that as well, but in all our discussions we never heard of any issues related to this, so I suspect it’s not a problem
Digging wells in Niger seems surprisingly cost-effective. Thanks for writing this analysis, really good work!
Some questions I had:
If we assume that each well serves an average of 1,200 people, does this mean that none of these 1,200 people had access to clean water before this well was dug? Or are there cases where an existing well was already supplying clean water, but it was located further away? In other words, can we attribute all of the credit for giving these 1,200 people access to clean water to this well and this well only?
How much water can one well supply per day/​hour/​minute? Let’s say we want to provide at least 20 liters per person per day. That would be 24,000 liters per day to supply 1,200 people. Can the well handle such a level of demand?
point 2 is actually a really good point. pumping s 20l Jerry can with a borehole takes at least 2 minutes even accounting for transfer times between Jerry cams etc. Asuming 12 hours of continuous pumping 6am to 6pm (unrealistic) that would mean 30x12 20 litre Jerry cans a day which is about 360 jerry cans. People often do use under 20 liters a day on average despite WHO recommendations (we do even lol) but i would say 500 people might be the absolute limit that a borehole could realistically fully serve? And even that feels quite unrealistic.
I’ve also NEVER seen a borehole that heavily used here in UgAnda, but it might be possible in other places?
my math could be a bit wrong but I’ve never thought about it like that before, thanks @Mihkel Viires 🔹 .
EDIT on googling, it seems that standard boreholes are usually designed to serve communities of 200 to 300 people usually with up to 500 a stretch in some cases. Stacks up with our thoughts here!
I think the 1,200 people all did not have access to clean water before the well (ie they weren’t traveling further to other wells), but I’ll see if Willie can confirm that!
Water supply-wise, I don’t think there’s any worry of the well running dry. As far as how much water can be extracted per day, I’m not sure and maybe Willie can help answer that as well, but in all our discussions we never heard of any issues related to this, so I suspect it’s not a problem