Under pressure

Sometimes the pressure is just too much. In fact the water pressure has caused a lot of damage
since we got mains water last year.

Fortunately Jörg and George procured a pressure regulator and kindly donated it to the site at the end of last year.

This week we finally installed it and look forward to keeping the pressure under control.

Now. ... can we get something like this for the rest of what we do?

One strange thing happened on the day we installed this protective device. .. it is brown, has 4 legs, no tail, weighs around 10kg and was nearly dead in the water tower base... if it survives you will soon hear more!

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink…..

Well, The Kpong Airfield Hilton is normally blessed with running water – yes real pure drinkable running water! Nevertheless, although we are right next to Lake Volta, the largest (in area) human-made lake in the world, and even though we had lots of rainstorms in the past few weeks, our poor water taps did no more than an occasional embarrassed dribble last week.

According to rumour, the main water pipe broke somewhere near the town of Kpong, and it took four days before it got fixed. The wise people (Jonathan + Patricia) who run Kpong Airfield had planned for this eventuality by installing a 3000 litre tank on our own private water tower. Unfortunately, seven AvTech girls, four facilities staff, two management staff, visitors plus your thirsty scribe mean that the tank lasts for three days of normal use. On the fourth day all taps again dribbled in that embarrassing way.

What next? Well, we’re all supposed to maintain a full bucket of water in our bathrooms and there are oodles of old mineral water or soda bottles with drinking water in the freezer. Those water bottles are kept nice and cold as long as there is diesel and the generator is working. When those bottles became dry, we had to go out and buy sachets of water. Sachets are little plastic bags of water that you can get all over Ghana, and if you buy a particular brand of sachet, you are likely to not get sick!

Fortunately, at the end of Day 4, the mains water got fixed. Having mains water running most of the time is actually rather nice and it allows us to have those deliciously cold showers each morning –brrr!!!

At long last !!! WATER !!!!

Submitted by Ben Sholes

So, after 6 years, some hard work digging ditches & laying pipe, a little sweet talking to the water company (thanks, Michaela and Ben), and a whole lot of follow up with said water company, Kpong Airfield now has access to the main water supply. And, it is such a relief!

Prior to this day, all water for drinking, washing, and construction has been transported on-site via Polytank or sachet. You can read more about the dark ages here (Bens Blog). Without a doubt, this advent will save us major time, money, and effort. My favorite part is how it all works:

Instead of being able to use three different water sources that can be split up and sent to different parts of the compound, we now had to figure out how to split up one source of water for drinking, washing, construction, and cooking which take place in very different parts of airfield. The answer was very simple: tank + pipe. At the heart of the system, is a 3,000 liter tank on a water tower that is directly connected to the main water supply. This bad mamma jamma keeps us in water for roughly 3 days depending on "consistency" from the water company and our usage on a day-to-day basis.

From this point, we're basically set up with underground pipe to 3 different places around the airfield: accommodation, visitor washroom, and the office kitchen. These direct connections (once completely finished) will provide water to spigots outside the house for laundry, sinks inside the house for dish and hand washing, and the most important thing...showers! We've also hooked up what we call stand pipes at strategic places around the airfield where we may need water for washing planes & cars, refilling construction water tanks, and extinguishing bush fires.

Mark this day as one step closer to sustainability and standardization for the airfield and for MoM. With this new supply line, we will be able accelerate construction on the mini-clinic, more easily provide adequate water to big groups to host training sessions, and ultimately help MoM staff better utilize their time. Today is a good day.