permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

[this is really a good thing]

Wellspring Africa
http://www.wellspringafrica.org/default.htm


*A non-profit organization committed to researching and promoting
appropriate technology for water development in rural Africa*
------------------------------

  206 Sir Richard Lane
Chapel Hill, NC  27517
U.S.A. Email: missenc@wellspringafrica.org

------------------------------


Wellspring Africa is a small non-profit organization that was founded to
promote water procurement in rural Africa.

Since 1984 we have been researching simple well drilling technology and
training drillers.  The well drilling technology we promote -- hand-powered
percussion drilling -- dates back to 1100 B.C. and the drilling methods
have been used successfully throughout history in China, Europe, and the
Americas.  Made by local craftspeople from locally-available scrap
materials, the tools have proved to be cheap (about $250 for a set of
tools) and very effective.

*    A Description of our Hand Powered Percussion Drill
<http://www.wellspringafrica.org/drildesc.htm> *

Our goal is to promote these simple technologies so that the villagers
themselves can become self-sufficient in creating their own water sources.
  We have produced a * manual and video
<http://www.wellspringafrica.org/manual.asp>* to teach these water well
drilling practices.  (Click here
<http://www.wellspringafrica.org/manual.asp>.)  These are available in
traditional formats as well as on a CD.
  We have created a kit that contains all the "*tricky bits
<http://www.wellspringafrica.org/TrickyBitsKit.htm>*" for making a
percussion drill, packed to meet airline size and weight requirements. (Click
here. <http://www.wellspringafrica.org/TrickyBitsKit.htm>)
  As well, we have collaborated with the Practica Foundation in the
Netherlands to to write another * percussion drilling handbook
<http://www.practica.org/services/publications/manuals>* as a part of their
series on manual well drilling. (Click here.
<http://www.practica.org/services/publications/manuals>)
We have *consulted *with hundreds of drillers and project managers
worldwide.  Visiting sites in Costa Rica, Ghana, Liberia, and Tanzania.
We occasionally do *demonstration projects* to train more drillers.  Our
goal is to work with those who have a long-term commitment to building a
sustainable small-scale well drilling industry.  In 1985 Wellspring Africa
volunteers spent nine months in Liberia, West Africa, training technicians
in rural villages to drill deep wells.  In 1999-2000 we trained drillers in
central Nigeria.  In 2006 we worked with drillers in Tanzania.  In 2008 we
trained drillers in Niger.
We have given hundreds of *presentations* to civic groups, churches, and
classrooms, promoting small-scale water development and artisanal well
makers.

We believe that the only way we are going to see broad-based and
sustainable potable water development in the rural areas of lesser
developed countries is through small scale technologies like the ones we
are rediscovering, wherein the villagers themselves decide when and where
and how the well is to be made and have the means to carry out their wishes
themselves.

The United Nations Water Decade of the 1980s demonstrated that the fancy
and expensive technology of truck mounted drills are rarely sustainable and
simply cannot scale to meet the needs of the remote areas of the developing
world, where the bulk of its population lives.  We believe that this simple
drilling technology is the best answer to this predicament and our research
has shown that it has been used for ages throughout the world, in almost
every type of soil and stone, with great success.

Lately, though, we've been formulating new ideas for scaling water resource
development to meet the still burgeoning demand.  Please take a few minutes
to read...

*    A Proposal to Reorient Rural Water Development Efforts toward a more
Entrepreneurial <http://www.wellspringafrica.org/EntrepreneurProposal.htm>*
*Model* <http://www.wellspringafrica.org/EntrepreneurProposal.htm>

For further information, read my 1990 paper:

*    Appropriate Technology Strategies for Rural Water Development After
the Decade <http://www.wellspringafrica.org/apptechstrat/default.htm>*

-- Cliff Missen
*   Support Wellspring Africa
<http://www.wellspringafrica.org/support.asp>  *