Life in The Trenches

Digging the trench for the pipeline has proved to be a bit more tedious than planned on paper. Even after completing the topographic survey and staking out points that we thought would be ideal for the pipeline, this only provided a false sense of security in knowing where the actual pipeline would lie. When your construction site is in the middle of the jungle, you must adapt your mentality and application of skills to the environment. With one of the plumbers, and a gang of machetes, we began tracing the section of the galvanized pipeline that lies near the stream. The terrain is very rock and steep, so the pipeline will "sleep" on the hillside near the stream and will be supported by the earth as much as possible, and some concrete columns. Much of this clearing will occur when we lay the actual galvanized iron pipes, upon completion of the collection chamber next week.

Digging began and continued for over one week for the section of the pipe that will be PVC. This proved to be the tedious part of laying out the areas for digging.Most of the terrain under which the PVC pipes will lie is cocoa farms. There are two objectives I keep in mind when laying out the sections for digging: avoid as many trees as possible (cocoa equals cash) and keep sections as straight as possible to minimize unions and fittings. The trench is 60mm deep and 40mm wide. It is necessary to provide enough cover to protect the pipes, and also allow room for the technicians to enter the trench during installation of pipes. Community work, as it is called, is used to dig the trench. The first day some 20-30 people showed up and dug 6 meter sections. After that, the sections were reduced to 4 meter, as people were complaining the work was too difficult.

At this time, over 300 meters have been dug, and this happened in one weeks time. There are approximately 500 meters remaining, so I am very confident that within two weeks time, the trench will be complete.

The catchment was poured on Friday (more info to follow) and the collection chamber will be completed Monday or Tuesday. Once this is finished, we will begin to dice and lay the galvanized iron pipe. We will meet the trench when the galvanized iron pipes are finished and then follow them home to the village. We want to start the pipeline at the catchment so we can be testing for any problems as we lay the pipe.