When the clean water programme launched we said we would report back with numbers rather than photographs. This is that report.
The numbers
Four new boreholes were drilled and commissioned. Two existing ones were rehabilitated — cheaper per household than drilling new, and something we underestimated at the start. Each site has a maintenance committee with at least three trained members, and each holds a small parts float.
What went wrong
One site took eleven months rather than the four we projected, because the first drilling attempt hit rock and had to be abandoned and re-sited. We had not budgeted for a failed hole. We do now.
A borehole that nobody can repair is a two-year project, not a twenty-year one.
What happens next
Phase two prioritises rehabilitation over new drilling, and puts a larger share of the budget into the maintenance training that made the difference at the sites that are still running well.
