Catchment

Last Saturday when the group went the village to prepare for this week we had a plumber and carpenter come with us. They would be giving estimates for work they were to do. The carpenter asks for 600,000 cfa about 1500 usd. Given the cost for his work we decided to do the work ourself and that I would be in charge of the catchment. The catchment is the structure that will recieve the water for the system from the stream.

After the monday's arrival and cermonies, construction started on tuesday. Work begun on the catchment and pipeline that day. Justin led work on the pipeline and I led for the catchment. Tuesday some villagers and I diverted the stream and created a dam about the half the width of stream. Next we started digging for the catchment foundation. Digging is very had in the stream because there are some many rocks. The stream in also lined with sand, worms, crabs, and other things. We have dug about 50 cm deep for the foudation. Between tues and thurs we completed all the digging the half of the catchment and all of the collection chamber. Friday we started working on the form work. The village agreed to supply all the lumber for project, so tuesday one villager went to their local lumber store, the jungle. He cut down a huge tree and made 20 1x12's with his chainsaw. Friday villagers also cut down small trees that would be used for post, columns, and steaks for the catchment's form. Village cut the 1x12's to length with their machetes because the hand saw we bought from kumba is crap. I put together some of the form work to be used next week.

Next week, we will begin digging for the other half of the catchment. We will have to dam the whole stream and insert some pipes into the dam to pass the water. After the digging is complete we can start to cast the catchment. First we will pour a mud mat to protect against settlement into the soft soil. Then pour the foundation walls. In total about 2m^3 of concrete will be poured.

Overall work has been going great, everyone is working together well. Hopefully we can have water in some pipes by the end of next week.

All of us will be back in the village tomorrow and most will stay unitl friday.

talk to you soon,
mark