crazymalc.co.nz - Home Page of Malcolm Trevena

Water Pumps

30th January 2006
Emma, a fellow volunteer, raised a heap of money by doing a sponsored swim in England. She plans to use some of the money raised to install water pumps in the poorer Barangays (villages). She has struggled to get to the project started, mostly due to the painstakingly slow speed in which things happen here. See Number 8 in the Worst Experiences List for a good example of this.

We finally managed to organize:

Some transport
Some potential water pump spots
People to meet us at said spots
Some time off school/other projects

Checking Out Potential Spots
I headed out one Monday afternoon with Onal, Emma and Eden to check out some Barangays. Onal was kind enough to drive us around in his very flash S.U.V.

Onal is an interesting fellow. He is Dumangas' biggest celebrity. His many achievements include:

Becoming a councilor of Dumangas
Appearing regularly on the local television channel called G.M.A.
He hosts a local variety show called Bongga! which includes, among other things, gay boxing.
He also hosts the entertainment section on the local news.
Gwapo. Bello. Handsome. Call it what you want. He has the looks...
I'm sure this helped him in becoming a councilor.
Becoming a really good singer
When I introduce him to people, I often say he is the second best singer in the whole of Dumangas. After me of course...
He has released an album (or maybe albums?) of romantic ballads. I so want one.
Has poor taste in hats
When he was running for councilor he released a series of hats. This fellow, a long time supported of Onal, was sporting one of the hats on the day we went out.
Despite the hats being very cheesy, I still want one. Onal is trying to hunt one down for me.
Being a good guy

Back to the Project...
We spent the morning driving around three different Barangays and everything went surprisingly smoothly. People met us. We looked at potential spots for water pumps. We made decisions.

We decided to do the following:

Replace some old pumps
Some pumps are just plain old. This one just works. You have to tip a liter or so of water into to get it started because the gasket inside of it went a long time ago.
Move some pumps and dig deeper wells
The best place to put a pump at is about three meters away from the well. This way, all the old crappy water that probably contains soap and other unmentionables does not seep back into the well.
Some of the pumps we looked were located far too close to the well.
This one, for instance, is going to be replaced with a new pump which will be located further away from the well.
That particular pump services about 15 households, but only just. The locals are very careful in rationing their water. We're going to make the well deeper by about 6 meters. This should provide ample water for the 15 households.
Resurrect old wells
This well is no longer used because it is just too much of a pain to maintain. It is located in a very flood prone area, and when the rain comes the well gets filled with all sorts of crap. Branches, dirty water, mud and the like. The locals have just given up trying to maintain it.
So we are going to:
- Clean out the well
- Lay down some concrete
- Install a new pump
  When they did used the well, the used a bucket and rope to extract the water.
- Fully enclose the well so that it will not get filled up with crap when the rain comes.
The well is also located in a public place, which is very important to us. Some of locals have their own private wells and they tend not to share it with neighbours. I'm guessing it's because of the limited amount of water that they can get from the well, but I don't really know. The same also applies for schools

All our pumps will be installed in public places

If you go way back by the way, this is how the pumps used to look. A very labor intensive method for getting water.

The Deals
All the deals we have struck up so far have the labor being supplied by the local community and Emma's funds supplying the parts.

This is good for two reasons.

It's cheaper
Which means we can supply more pumps. The only thing that is going to stop us spending all the funds is time. You think it would be easy to spend money, but it has proved to be a very slow process.
Ownership
This is something we have discussed at length. People have told us about other community projects that have turned to custard. Sometimes the locals think that since the volunteers paid for and installed said project, then they are responsible for maintaining it. Which means, of course, that the project is not maintained and soon falls into disrepair.
We figure that if the local community installs the pumps, then they will treat them as their own and the pumps will less likely fall into disrepair.

The Real Superstar
I've said "we" a lot when I wrote this up, but this is much more Emma's project than mine. She raised the money and is doing most of the organizing. She is a real superstar at that sort of stuff.

I'm just trying to help out where I can and nod sagely at appropriate points.

Emma and I have both had lots of business experience and have the unique ability of being able to find our own bum with both hands. We seem to work quite well together.

Update
Emma shares a flat with Paul, another volunteer. Both came with me to Negros, so their flat was unattended over the weekend. While they were gone, P10,000 ($NZ 250) was stolen from Emma's room. This was money that was set aside for the water pump project.

It was inside a belt bag, under some clothes and behind two locked doors. The doors were not forced. So, someone has keys to their flat and is using them maliciously. They are both moving out to homestays.

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(c) 2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena.
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