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Training local technicians in borehole drilling
01.04.2006
How much formal education do you need to site and drill boreholes successfully? International NGOs assisting in the rehabilitation of infrastructure in Sierra Leone have found that a hands-on borehole training course for local technicians has been both popular and successful. -
Bridging the water supply gap using locally fabricated drilling rigs in Nigeria
01.10.2011
Water supply coverage in Nigeria is 58 per cent. In order to bridge the gap and meet national and MDG targets thousands of boreholes will have to be drilled in a relatively short time. To achieve this, different approaches incorporating a variety of solutions are needed. Emphasis has to be placed on solutions that are affordable and will allow households and communities to meet their need for potable water. A phenomenon that may contribute to bridging the gap is ongoing local fabrication of drilling rigs from discarded materials. This paper evaluates the potential of the locally fabricated rigs to produce cost effective boreholes and contribute to increasing the water supply coverage. -
Nuggets from an old book: A Practical Handbook of Water Supply by F. Dixey (1931)
01.01.2017
Frank Dixey’s A Practical Handbook of Water Supply, published in 1931 is briefly reviewed. The text is correlated with current knowledge and experience. It is evident from the book that some of the present challenges in the water supply sector have been around for a long time which leads to the conclusion that effecting a change takes time. Development agencies therefore need to set realistic targets and time frames. Some of the rather old texts should be consulted and reviewed periodically as they may contain very useful information.