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Borehole (Well) Drilling Process
Water 4 Kids International (W4KI) is reaching out to the poorest communities in East Africa and Central India that are suffering from the lack of safe water by providing long-term access to clean water through life-saving deep water wells, rain harvesting and water filtration projects.
In addition, Water 4 Kids equips and trains recipient villages to maintain their water projects for years to come in order to provide the greatest impact within their community. Water 4 Kids also monitors existing wells to make sure they are open and fully-functioning, while offering them an opportunity to learn about The Gospel, good hygiene and basic sanitation.
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Our drillers looking for water.
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Water 4 Kids International has a unique and proven process for providing remote villages that are suffering from the lack of safe water with a long lasting deep boreholes. Our sophisticated steps involve identifying villages in greatest need, purchasing the land, geological/hydrological surveying and drilling, educating the villagers, opening and dedicating the well, and monitoring the well to ensure it is open and fully-functioning.
Water 4 Kids International oversees the entire borehole process. Each identified boreholes projects have multiple teams dedicated to that project including Check, Survey, Drilling, Pump Testing, Casting & Fitting teams. Each team includes the area project manager, community leadership committee, and a safety officer who’s required to remain onsite during the entire boreholes drilling project. This ensures that the process is not compromised in any way.
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| Water 4 Kids Program |
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Taxi Drivers 4 Clean Water
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The operation begins with an appointed community leader going out into the various districts and looking at proposed villages that are in greatest need. Specific guidelines have been established to ensure that no money is exchanged (between appointed community leaders and village local chairmen), no private deals are made, and that wells are not being drilled on individual’s private land. The appointed leader makes a well site recommendation and then the Area Project Manager visits the village to confirm the need. The distance villagers have to travel to fetch contaminated water, the population of surrounding villages, and other social services such as schools and medical clinics are major factors in determining the greatest need. Photos of the existing water source and village demographic information are taken as part of the process.
Soil samples taken from the well site.
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Once all of the information is collected, a report of the area is written and sent to the department of International Development at Water 4 Kids International. This vital information is entered into our program, which will be used at a later time to connect the village in need with a potential donor. A W4KI letter is hand-delivered from the Project Manager to the Local Chairman asking for a partnership with the village for determining the possibility of drilling a borehole for their village. The Local Chairman must agree to the Water 4 Kids partnership, cooperate and be friendly with our team that will be visiting their village during the borehole process. A significant part of the partnership is for the receiving village to agree to take responsibility for maintaining and repairing the boreholes should it ever need repair.
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The boreholes that we deliver to the village is a gift – in Jesus name. Everyone is free to drink regardless of gender, religion or tribe. With that, comes a responsibility on the part of the village. First, they are required by Water 4 Kids to set up a Water Usage Committee who will be part of the education process and who will determine the regulations for the boreholes regarding water usage, maintenance and the safety of the boreholes.
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Water testing
Cementing the platform
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Water 4 Kids requires an individual in the community to donate a plot of land to the village for the boreholes. This small act brings dignity to the village and confirms the partnership with Water 4 Kids International. A hydrological water survey is completed in the area for the boreholes to ensure there is water underground and to also determine the amount. Although the local government drills boreholes of only 50 feet, we feel that shallow wells are still unsafe for human consumption – that’s why Water 4 Kids International only drills wells that are at least 150-300 feet deep. Water 4 Kids will do everything we can to provide a village with a life-saving boreholes. If water is not initially found after drilling, the surveyor will do another survey and another drilling will take place. If a village does not have any water, a new village is transferred to a new site at no additional cost. With this method, Water 4 Kids can show donors that a borehole has been provided for a community with their generous donation.
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Finished boreholes with protective fence installed by the village Water Usage Committee |
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After teams of drilling, testing, pipe fitting, castings, the borehole is almost complete. The final construction phase is concluded with adding of the hand pump onto a cement platform and a final chain is installed until the official opening of the boreholes. Thousands of villagers are invited to attend the well opening along with local government officials, local pastors, our project manager, and other important leaders of the community. At this important and historic well dedication, another level of education is given to the community about their ongoing care of their new boreholes. From this day forward, the village accepts responsibility and ownership of the well through their Water Usage Committee that regulates the usage and maintenance of the well. One of the local pastors gives a special blessing over the borehole, turns it over to the village in Jesus name and invites everyone to drink regardless of religion or tribe. The borehole is officially turned over to the village and everyone is welcomed to drink from the well – especially the children. Encouraging the children to drink often from their new well can promote good health, keeping the children healthy – warding off preventable and treatable diseases like dysentery and malaria. It is a beautiful and historic day – one that villagers will pass down for generations. After opening a borehole for 30,000 in the village of Bulundira, an elderly man shared with us "I am a dying man, and I thought I would never live to see fresh water in my village."
Through our generous donors, our local ministry partners, government officials, local drillers and villagers, together, we are impacting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people through the gift of fresh water. Water 4 Kids' proven process is restoring hope through safe water...one village at a time.
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Pastor Wilber Wabwire Sigombe inspects and drinks the fresh water from the new well.
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Water 4 Kids International is a division of Hope 4 Kids International – a faith-based 501(c)(3) non-profit committed
to help children around the world that are suffering from
extreme poverty and disease. Water 4 Kids is restoring
hope through safe drinking water…one village at a time.
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