Fixing the Local Water

I was prepared to contribute to the cost of repairing the Makumira water scheme and through negotiation, the Agency contributed Tsh100 000/- as a setup grant for our new assignment. This was a generous act.
Before the funds came through, the environment teacher, Nnko, asked me to help with 'emergency repair'. The told me that he and a few students were looking for a blockage [the reason water was pouring out that breather pipe] and had shattered the plastic pipeline.
With three students we set off in the Toyota to the small farm where the breather pipe was located. Well I still don't understand what these guys were trying to achieve but the had split a large hole in the 100mm pipe and the force of the water was eroding the soil from the person's farm! Severely so and there was a crop of beans growing with plants about 30cm tall being washed out. I felt so sorry for the old woman who farmed there - as I had met her previously.

I knew a 100mm plastic joiner was required as well as some pipe and a plastic socket. I had all but the joiner at home so told Nnko to arrangewith the fundi that I would pick him up in a couple of hours after I had gone to town to buy the joiner. I called in at home to collect Tsh30 000/- [all the cash I had at the time] and hurried off to town.
I had not realised what the time was as I arrived at Tanga General at 12:30pm. In those days the town shut down at 12:00pm to 2:00pm so I had to sit and wait, all the time fretting about the soil being washed away on the old woman's farm. My patience was to be tested.
Hakuna haraka Tanzania - there is no hurry in Tanzania - that's the saying.
A few minutes after two, the Indian woman who owned [or part-owned] the hardware shop arrived with a bunch of keys. She chose one, and handed it to the man who had been left on guard. He undid the top padlock and handed back the keys. She chose another key and he used it to open the middle lock and handed the bunch of keys back. The Indian woman chose the next key and handed it to the guard who undid the bottom lock, then handed the keys back and opened the doors to reveal steel doors like those of an old fashioned elevator. These were chained with a single large padlock. She chose the key and he undid the lock and slid open the doors. There was another double door there locked by a normal door lock and she found the key for him to unlock. The shop was in darkness as there were no windows and on turning the switch, the Indian woman found there was no electricity, so the guard was told to start the generator. Well it had no petrol! There was a torch, but the batteries were flat, so the guard was sent to a nearby shop to purchase some batteries.
While he was away the Indian woman asked me what it was that I needed. Yes we have one she replied but we had to wait until the guard returned with the batteries. The joiner I wanted was in the storeroom which was locked with two padlocks and the opened doors revealed yet another which also had two padlocks.
Smiling the Indian woman brought out a 100mm plastic joiner and asked for Tsh40 000/-! Despite doing previous business with the woman she refused to lower the price or trust me to bring 10 000 at another time so I left the shop somewhat frustrated!
I went to Bulk Supplies and was told that the did not have a 100mm plastic joiner in stock, but I saw they had a display board with all the joiner on it attached by wire. I told him I would have that one and he reluctantly undid the wire. I held the joiner in my hand and said, ' That is Tsh30 000/- - right?' And without waiting for an answer, I hurried out not looking back.

Of course I was late getting back to the fundi, but I had gathered up the equipment, Mw Nnko and the students. The actual repair was simple and we agreed that any more repairs would be left until the funds came through and we had the equipment ready. I told Mw Nnko and the fundi that we must respect protocols and include the village authority in any discussion as the water scheme belonged to the villages all the way down. Later I compensated the old woman who had lost most of her crop, but that was strictly between her and me.

I had already met the village chairman who was a pleasant man, as was his secretary who I met much later as he worked at the Primary Court at Usa River. They were pleased that we were going to improve the water for the villages the pipeline served and he promised any cooperation that he was able to provide.

The agency provided us with Tsh100 000/- and I was prepared to match that amount so I though we would be able to make a difference. The village populations had heard that we were going to carry out the work and as encouragement, I guess, I was regularly told of the problems being faced due to an irregular water supply.

The first day I took Mbise with me as well as Moses, a Maasai guard from the secondary school - a short man and likable - Loti just referred to him as 'Maasai' and inferred that all Maasai were rather backward. Loti came with us, the village chairman and of course Fundi. Of course Loti and the village chairman waved their hands about giving directions - not getting them dirty.

I drove down as close to the weir as possible because we needed to carry the materials to repair the wall of the weir. There was a need to cut vegetation from around the work area and I bumped the top of my head on a branch. It did not hurt that much and I continued working but blood began to pour down my forehead. I felt the top of my head and realised that a large thorn was stuck there ans by this time my companions had seen the blood and were concerned. I wet my handkerchief and dabbed the wound trying to stop the bleeding, but Mbise demanded that he take a look. I was worried that they would try to dig it out with a needle and I knew the dangers of that. The chairman carried those nail snips that work like tweezers and Mbise grabbed the thorn with them and pulled it out! It was quite big and Mbise & Loti wanted me to go home - I felt fine [well I used to be a logger!] and carried on for the rest of the day.
The weir was built with concrete blocks and there was damage to them and water was escaping at one end causing more erosion. I taught them about using a dry mix of gravel, sand and cement to fill fertilizer bags and lay them in place. They fill in the gaps and become solid - this worked very satisfactorily.
But now I was to learn something. We needed to block of the water to remove the air vent pipe down the hill. Fundi used the trunk of a banana tree to plug the pipe! It worked very well.

With the weir repaired, we were off to the next work site. Even in four wheel drive the Toyota could not climb the greasy slope! We were stuck! There was a winch on the front of the vehicle, but I had never used it but it was easy enough to rig up. Moses pulled the rope out and I attached it to a tree - oops it pulled the tree out. We tried it on a larger tree with the same result! Moses was fascinated that pushing a button on the winch could pull out a tree and I could see that the moment he had the chance he would have a go. His chance came when we hooked the rope to a large rock - before we could stop him, he pressed the green button and the rope tightened before we could get clear! Luckily nobody was hurt and while Loti was growling at him, I put the vehicle in gear and the winch at the same time so we popped out of that difficult spot.

We plugged the inlet pipe and went to where the air vent was located. Our intention was to remove it completely and instead make inspection boxes at regular intervals, so water could pond in them and continue down the line - this would allow air pressure to be of assistance. We made the ponds out of concrete blocks and they had a capacity of around half a cubic metre [shallow, with a large surface area]. This worked well and after about four days the job was completed. Though on one farm I had to compensate for about a sack of beans that was estimated to be lost through our excavations.

The water source was a limited supply and it seemed the Fundi or his mate was in charge of turning water on and off to the various lines. Nkoaranga hospital was of course his priority. But for the time I was there, water came on from 7:00am to 7:30am as regular as clockwork - sometimes there would be more but that half hour was enough to fill two 200 litre drums for the nursery and enough for each day's usage in the house tank. Sure we had to manage it well but that was ok.
I never asked for this favor and I have no doubt it was a favor but I have no idea who actually turned the tap on/off at the Nkomansa reservoir. Later I did ask a favor of the village chairman and that was for a line to go to Mama Upendo's house - that was granted but Fundi was careful to take the inlet for that line from the upper third of the main line - meaning that Mama Upendo received water only when the pipe was running more than two thirds full. That was fair.

Of course 'what is good for the goose' - Mama Mfupi saw that Mama Upendo had a water tap, so she too wanted one and she wanted it to come from the line to our house. That compromised what the scheme had been set up to do and would compromise the nursery water.
She claimed it was a secondary school reservoir so directly approached the Headmaster - whose wife was a teacher at Makumira Primary School as was Mama Mfupi.
They used Mw Nnko and some boys to make the fittings without telling me, but Mbise alerted me and I had them change it to the line going down to the secondary school which, at least in my opinion, they had every right to change as they saw fit.
But if goes to show the troubles water can bring. For me, once I had fixed the water scheme, as soon as there was a problem, village people would stop me to ask for it to be fixed. However that's not how development should go, so I wrote an official looking document stating that I had handed the water scheme over to the village; I gave them an assortment of joiners and other materials and suggested that they find funds to keep the scheme going. They have set a water rate to households to pay for repairs to the scheme and that is still going. Sure there will be some misuse of funds but they keep a book of payments and expenses and it operates well.