Water plays a very vital role in the lives of all living organisms. In actual fact, water is indispensable to life and one of the reasons that make the habitation of planets like Mars still doubtful to man. The presence of water anywhere in the universe is a major indication of the presence of life.
Nigeria is a country where citizens are responsible for the provision of their infrastructures most of the time. Basic amenities such as roads, water, security, and electricity are provided by citizens living in a particular environment. For example, the roads within my neighbourhood were constructed by the house owners in the community, and not just that, their maintenance is also done by the community. Since the electricity supply is also epileptic in most places, what most people do is to run an independent power generating set or solar and then augment with government-provided electricity.
When it comes to security, each community hires local hunters as their security. Each apartment in my house pays roughly $5 for security monthly and compliance is enforced by different means.
Government-provided water is severely lacking in most places and only comes once in while for those that are lucky enough to have the water network within their neighbourhood. Hence, most citizens resort to digging wells or boreholes to take care of their needs. This is why water storage tanks of different sizes litter the horizons of most Nigerian communities.
If you are lucky enough to have built a new house in Nigeria and you are looking to solve the water supply problem before moving in, you can choose to go with a mechanical borehole or manually dug well. Each method has its own merits and demerits.
The mechanical borehole is preferable when water purity and abundance are the ultimate goals. The mechanical borer digs deep into the aquifer, ensuring that water of higher purity and abundance becomes available. One challenge with mechanical boreholes, however, is that water cannot be drawn out manually. It has to be with the assistance of pumping machines.
Manually dug wells usually encounter a problem of inadequate water, especially in the dry season. Aside from that, the water is often considered less pure than a mechanical borehole, although there is a dearth of scientific research to back this up. One thing, though, is that water can be manually drawn out from manually dug wells using drawing utensils. Hence, it comes in handy when issues arise with pumping machines.
I was lucky enough to have witnessed a well being manually dug just a few days ago. Because the job of well-digging is more about brawn than the brain (although some level of expertise/skills is required), only able-bodied men are able to take up a career as well diggers. A special instrument is used to manually dig wells.
Without any formal education, the diggers first surveyed the entire site (a plot of land) for the best location for the proposed well. Years of experience have taught them how to locate wells on a site for maximum water supply. After surveying, next is to recommend the best position to the owner of the site and if everything goes well, digging commences immediately.
They choose the radius of the well based on whether the owner plans to put concrete rings after digging or otherwise. wells with concrete rings are usually of bigger radiuses as compared with those without rings. This is because the concrete rings take up part of the radius of the well.
The diggers charge per foot and their rates vary depending on how compact the soil of the site where the well is to be located is. Loose soils are easier to dig and are usually charged at lesser rates as compared with compact soils which are usually quite hard to dig.
In the case of my friend's site, the diggers agreed to dig at a rate of approximately $2 per foot. They commenced work and were able to dig 15 feet the first day.
The second day, another 10 feet were dug and the water table level was reached. At this point, the diggers refused to continue digging unless concrete rings are brought. This is because further digging without supporting the walls of the well with concrete rings may endanger the life of the person digging as a mini-landslide may end up burying him alive.
In addition to the concrete rings, the diggers also refused to carry out further digging at the same rate as before. A total of 25 feet have been dug and 5 more were recommended for adequate water with a high level of purity. Hence, the job was renegotiated and they agreed to put all the required concrete rings and dig further down for an amount summing up to like $60. They advised that the rings should be provided as early as possible so as not to complicate the whole process of further digging as the more the delay, the likelihood of a mini landslide occurring in the well blocking the water channels in the process.
We proceeded to where concrete rings are being sold within the neighbourhood. Each concrete ring measures 3 feet in height and the total depth of the well is to be 30 feet. Hence, a total of 10 rings were required. We were able to negotiate the price of the ring and each one was sold for roughly $17.
We made the necessary payments and the rings were transported to the site where the well is being dug. The diggers promised to commence work the following day.
On getting to the site the following day, work has already resumed. The first 2 rings have been installed into the well and further digging has been done. The water in the well was first removed before the first ring was installed. The process of installing the rings down the well is a very elaborate and risky one.
First, a very strong rope is tied to the ring in a manner that makes it easy for it to be suspended inside the well. Then, the end of the rope is tied to a stake strong enough to support the weight of the ring.
Thereafter, the ring is painstakingly moved to the mouth of the well and gradually suspended into it using the rope tied to the stake to regulate the speed of suspension.
Sometimes, the ring may get stuck in the middle of the well before reaching the bottom. In such a case, one of the diggers will go into the well and carefully unstuck the ring by digging around it. This is how the rings are suspended into the well one after the other until all the rings are put into the well.
During the process of lifting the rings into the well, one of the rings got broken and it took a lot of effort for the diggers to get rid of the broken ring from the well. In the end, we had to get one extra ring in the place of the broken one. The entire work finished within 6 hours and the workers were paid their dues. Next would be to buy and install a concrete cover for the well.
This is one of the processes that Nigerians go through in trying to get water for their day-to-day use. It was quite an experience!
