The Gombaga Tour
Thursday morning we headed out to Gombaga in the NE area of Ghana. The three hour journey was dotted with various WATSAN and ME project visits, and we were even lucky enough to encounter a borehole project in the drilling phase, a very rare occurance.
Our journey started out on a relatively smooth highway headed north from Tamale, but just as the road to Damongo, things turned rocky. The drive north was beautiful, because Northern Ghana is sprinkled with natural rock formations and escarpments that create a very unique landscape of rocky cliffs with tropical plants and palm trees.
We stopped at many OIC borehole projects, built primarily near schools, and watched as the students pumped for water and slowly filled large metal bowls to carry back to the school. There is a runoff path from each platform that leads to a small pond. Here the water is allowed to stagnate for animals,
and keeps them away from the pumping platform, to allow for cleanliness at the water source. The animal pond runs off into a gravel pit where the water is filtered before being returned to the ground source. It is a very innovative process that works without a hitch for the most part, but in some cases, the water was allowed to stagnate too long, and there was severe microbial and algae growth. The cows didn't seem to mind however, and a group being herded past us stopped for a quick drink just long enough for me to snap a quick picture.
In some instances, communities had pooled together the ยข2 000 000 investement required to begin construction of a borehole. Although it is just a fraction of the cost to dig, it is a sizeable investment for which OIC guarantees a return should the initial analysis prove unsuccessful.
After passing through Gombaga, we encountered a rare sight. A drilling maching was in position surrounded by a slew of contractors busily pulling levers and pushing buttons as the drill let out a deafening roar to the hundreds of villagers who had come to see the spectacle. This was probably the most fascinating thing that they would see that day, that is until Marka and myself pulled up in the NGOSUV. The children were not sure whether to stare at the drilling operation, or at us, and were constantly looking back and forth the whole time we were there. We talked to the local drilling coordinator who informed us that this dig was not providing the yields they had hoped for, but they had dug two very successful holes in the days prior.
Contractors drill a new borehole in a community in Northeastern Ghana.
The drilling truck can be seen with the NGOSUV in the background.
Contractors test the flowrate of the new borehole using some pretty basic techniques. They dig a trench from the drill site and into a tube, where they use a bucket and a timer to determine the pressure of the hole that was dug. In this case, the drilling operation was not a huge success, and did not create the flowrate required. They will test it for a few days, and if it does not improve, the location will be abandoned.
The drilling operation was the biggest show in town, and attracted hundreds of people from the village, primarily children. The drilling operation was the biggest spectacle, until we showed up.
We stayed at the Rabito guesthouse that night, and headed back to Gombaga the next morning.
The next day we payed a visit to some millet farms that dotted the countryside, and looked at some OIC-constructed post harvest storage facilities. These were built to prevent immediate spoilage of farmers goods immediately after harvest. Farmers could store food longer to sustain themselves and their families, or store food to sell to market at later dates when it was not flooded with similar product causing drastic price decreases.
Some Interesting Pictures:
A millet farm in rural Ghana. The setting sun provided a spectacular backdrop to our first tour of a rural farm. This is the typical sight in the agricultural parts of Northern Ghana. The soil is very shallow, and below it is clay and bedrock, creating ideal soil erosion situations which are hard to cope with.
A post-harvest lost storage house at the same millet farm pictured above. This shed allows farmers to store their harvest for longer periods of time to sustain their family or sell to market with their product is not readily avaiable. This allows them to make a maximum profit for their product. Not too shabby.
Our journey started out on a relatively smooth highway headed north from Tamale, but just as the road to Damongo, things turned rocky. The drive north was beautiful, because Northern Ghana is sprinkled with natural rock formations and escarpments that create a very unique landscape of rocky cliffs with tropical plants and palm trees.
We stopped at many OIC borehole projects, built primarily near schools, and watched as the students pumped for water and slowly filled large metal bowls to carry back to the school. There is a runoff path from each platform that leads to a small pond. Here the water is allowed to stagnate for animals,
and keeps them away from the pumping platform, to allow for cleanliness at the water source. The animal pond runs off into a gravel pit where the water is filtered before being returned to the ground source. It is a very innovative process that works without a hitch for the most part, but in some cases, the water was allowed to stagnate too long, and there was severe microbial and algae growth. The cows didn't seem to mind however, and a group being herded past us stopped for a quick drink just long enough for me to snap a quick picture.In some instances, communities had pooled together the ยข2 000 000 investement required to begin construction of a borehole. Although it is just a fraction of the cost to dig, it is a sizeable investment for which OIC guarantees a return should the initial analysis prove unsuccessful.
After passing through Gombaga, we encountered a rare sight. A drilling maching was in position surrounded by a slew of contractors busily pulling levers and pushing buttons as the drill let out a deafening roar to the hundreds of villagers who had come to see the spectacle. This was probably the most fascinating thing that they would see that day, that is until Marka and myself pulled up in the NGOSUV. The children were not sure whether to stare at the drilling operation, or at us, and were constantly looking back and forth the whole time we were there. We talked to the local drilling coordinator who informed us that this dig was not providing the yields they had hoped for, but they had dug two very successful holes in the days prior.
Contractors drill a new borehole in a community in Northeastern Ghana.
The drilling truck can be seen with the NGOSUV in the background.
Contractors test the flowrate of the new borehole using some pretty basic techniques. They dig a trench from the drill site and into a tube, where they use a bucket and a timer to determine the pressure of the hole that was dug. In this case, the drilling operation was not a huge success, and did not create the flowrate required. They will test it for a few days, and if it does not improve, the location will be abandoned.
The drilling operation was the biggest show in town, and attracted hundreds of people from the village, primarily children. The drilling operation was the biggest spectacle, until we showed up.We stayed at the Rabito guesthouse that night, and headed back to Gombaga the next morning.
The next day we payed a visit to some millet farms that dotted the countryside, and looked at some OIC-constructed post harvest storage facilities. These were built to prevent immediate spoilage of farmers goods immediately after harvest. Farmers could store food longer to sustain themselves and their families, or store food to sell to market at later dates when it was not flooded with similar product causing drastic price decreases.
Some Interesting Pictures:
A millet farm in rural Ghana. The setting sun provided a spectacular backdrop to our first tour of a rural farm. This is the typical sight in the agricultural parts of Northern Ghana. The soil is very shallow, and below it is clay and bedrock, creating ideal soil erosion situations which are hard to cope with.
A post-harvest lost storage house at the same millet farm pictured above. This shed allows farmers to store their harvest for longer periods of time to sustain their family or sell to market with their product is not readily avaiable. This allows them to make a maximum profit for their product. Not too shabby.
posted by Kyle at 07:38
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