Dando contracted engineer Anders Dahlsberg recently returned from a trip to Ghana, West Africa

Dando contracted engineer Anders Dahlsberg recently returned from a trip to Ghana, West Africa where he commissioned and set to work a Watertec 10 (10,000kgf pullback) waterwell drill rig as well as training a drill crew to ensure that the rig is able to work at maximum production from the outset. The machine - donated by a multilateral development organisation – is involved in a programme of constructing 200 new waterwells which will supply clean, safe drinking water to many thousands of people, alleviating severe water and sanitation problems in that area.

Anders with some new friends.

In common with other sub Saharan regions, many parts of rural Ghana do not have a reliable safe water supply. Despite the existing sources of the White Volta River and Lake Volta, there remains a great need in many areas for fresh, clean water for domestic and agricultural use.

One of the critical factors in a waterwell drilling project of this size is the selection and training of a drill crew. In some cases, as here in Ghana, the crew will have had some drilling experience, but often the arrival of a Dando drilling rig is the crew’s first sight of a machine of this type. Typical backgrounds for training candidates include motor mechanics or people with some mechanical engineering experience, which proves invaluable in the long term productivity of the rig. A large portion of the training is set aside to establishing good maintenance routines and emphasising the importance of avoiding unnecessary down-time.

 

Dando contracted engineer Anders Dahlsberg undertaking class room teaching in Yendi, Northeast Ghana.

The Ghanaian trainees proved excellent since they had some prior drilling experience, although gathered on older machines of far lower capacity than the new Watertec 10. Over the two week training course modern drilling techniques were taught that would allow the crew to drill a 100m deep well in only a day or two due to the rig’s powerful on-board air compressor. The drill rig can be expected to continue to drill for water for many years into the future.

The design of the rig itself is a delicate balance between ultimate productivity and suitability for the environment in which it will be used. Unnecessarily sophisticated systems often cause more down-time through failure in the harsh African conditions than they save in increased productivity, while reliable yet simple cable percussion techniques may well be trustworthy but can take many weeks to produce a well. The Watertec 10 chosen for this project has the versatility to drill up to 300m and cope with nearly all geological formations due to the range of drilling techniques it can employ.

 

Anders Dahlsberg (in his characteristic Dando orange shirt) overseeing a drilling practical session in Yendi, Northeast Ghana.

Dando’s long experience with these types of projects has shown that if equipment is selected correctly and training is given effectively – groundwater can be a readily accessible, valuable resource in the some of the most remote rural areas of the world.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 15th, 2006 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Articles, Field Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.