Christopher considers Canterbury to be home although his family has lived overseas throughout his life. He is currently approaching the end of his third year of studies in Earth Sciences at Cambridge and takes particular interest in geophysics and the deep Earth.
Although not decided on long-term plans, he intends to continue his studies next year to complete a MSci, which will include a project modelling chemical processes at the core-mantle boundary. When not studying, Christopher enjoys playing music, running, bird-watching and is a member of the Christian Union and the Zero Carbon Society at his university.
Christopher was privileged to be able to visit Burkina Faso recently, a very rural country where a great number of people are dependent on drilled wells with hand pumps for clean water. In Ouagadougou he met Mark Collier, where they talked at length about hydrogeology in the country. Here Christopher presents the brilliant work of Mark and his colleagues:
Burkina Faso, located in sub-Saharan West Africa has a
population of 16 million, of which 80% live in rural communities. 28% of its rural population live further than
a kilometre from a source of clean water [1]. These people are often forced to use
near-surface water which can be a long walk away and contaminated by human and
animal excrement. The annual rainfall is
plenty to provide for the population’s usage, but for much of the country safe
drinking water can only be found in bedrock requiring drilling equipment.
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Fig. 1: A wet well.
Mark Collier is third from right.
|
Mark Collier, who has worked for Friends in Action (FIA) in
Burkina Faso since 2005, takes several volunteer teams each year along with a
drilling rig to these isolated villages. They work in the dry season to ensure a year-round water supply. In the far west, deep groundwater can be
found reliably in the sandstone with little exploration work. However, for most of the country, groundwater
is in fault zones in granite. During the
wet months, Mark uses resistivity surveys to locate water-bearing faults, which
show up as a negative anomalies in resistivity [2]. Connected fault systems are important because
isolated faults are often not sustainable water sources.
The teams use a mobile rig (Figs. 1,3) to drill down as much
as 100m if necessary. Using casings and
local materials, they protect the upper parts of the well from contamination
whilst allowing deep ground water in (Fig. 2).
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| Fig. 2: General cross section of a well drilled into granite in Burkina Faso |
Technical expertise in the construction is vital, but FIA
also recognises the importance of the relational side of development work. There are several steps that Mark and his
team take to address these issues.
Before drilling a well, they carefully consider its location,
collaborating with the locals. The drilling
site is marked out for some time before work begins. This ensures, for example, that the proposed
well is not in sacred ground where it would be unused and possibly offensive. Careful planning is necessary to make sure
the well is as easily accessible as previous, unclean water sources.
It is essential for the locals to understand that the well
is their property and responsibility after the construction. They are encouraged to help with the manual
labour, including the making of the well cover (Fig. 2), a visible sign of
their contribution. Mark encourages the locals
to take ownership through the formation of a well management committee in the
village to ensure good maintenance and sustainability.
During the work, the team camps in the village and share the
locals’ food. A Burkinabé – from Burkina
Faso – pastor accompanies the team who helps with communication, as mostly
tribal languages are spoken in rural areas, and explains the compassionate
motives for drilling the well. Through
building personal relationship, the locals trust that the well is a good and
necessary gift. The volunteers receive
gifts from many villages, often local produce such as chickens.
FIA started drilling wells
in Burkina Faso in 2005, and have drilled almost 200 holes. Their success rate has increased with better surveying. This last year they had twenty-five wet wells
from thirty holes (83%) compared to the national average of 60%. Since 2005, only one of their wells has
stopped functioning. In the village of
Zitonosso, an existing well (not drilled by FIA) had silted up. FIA offered to replace it if the village
could cover the cost of the hand-pump, about $1500. Overnight, the village provided the funds,
and the well was replaced in March (Fig. 3); a testimony to the sense of value
and ownership of these wells among the Burkinabé people.
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Fig. 3: Drilling in Zitonosso (photo courtesy of Mark
Collier)
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[1]
http://www.indexmundi.com/facts/burkina-faso/
[2]
Resistivity Methods, United States
Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov/epahome/index2.html
Christopher Barry was the overall winner of the GfGD Blog Competition 2012, winning a 1:50,000,000 Geological Map of the World with explanatory notes, and a 1:40,000,000 Map of Global Groundwater Resources .
Christopher Barry was the overall winner of the GfGD Blog Competition 2012, winning a 1:50,000,000 Geological Map of the World with explanatory notes, and a 1:40,000,000 Map of Global Groundwater Resources .
