Manual Method Of Digging Well In Nigeria - My Experience At a Site Where a Well Was Dug Manually

In the life of all living things, water is absolutely essential. In actuality, water is necessary for life and is one of the reasons why humans continue to have doubts about being able to live on planets like Mars. Anywhere in the universe, the presence of water is a clear sign that there is life.

The majority of the time in Nigeria, citizens are in charge of providing their own infrastructure and basic services. The residents in most of the rural environments are responsible for providing basic services like roads, security and water. For instance, the members of the community in my neighborhood built the roads, and not only that, but they also take care of its maintenance without the aid of the government.

Talking about the security, each community or neighborhood do employs a local hunters to serve as their security in the night, especially areas or neighborhood that's being terrorized by thieves. For instance, each apartment in my community contributes about $7.3 that's around 32 STEEM monthly to pay the local hunter that serves as our night watcher (security), and other various techniques are used to ensure compliance.

And for the water, the majority of people dig wells or boreholes to meet their demands. For this reason, the horizons of the majority of Nigerian housing always comes or have different water storage tanks of various sizes.

You can opt for a mechanized borehole or a manual or hand-dug well if you are fortunate enough to have built a new home in Nigeria and wanting to address the water supply issue before moving in. Each method of drilling or digging water has it own benefits and drawbacks.

When abundant and pure water are the primary concerns, the mechanical borehole is ideal. The mechanical borer penetrates the aquifer deeply, guaranteeing that water with greater purity and abundance is made available. However, one drawback of mechanical boreholes is that water cannot be manually extracted. It must be with the aid of pumping devices.

Inadequate water is typically a concern for manually dug wells, particularly during the dry season. Apart from that, there isn't much scientific evidence to support the notion that the water is less clean than that from a mechanical borehole. However, using drawing tools, water can be manually extracted from manually excavated wells. As a result, it is useful when pumping machine problems occur.

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My Experience At a Site Where a Well Was Dug Manually

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Just a few days ago, I was at one of my uncle's construction site and I was very fortunate to see a well being manually dug. Only physically fit men can pursue a career as well diggers because the job requires more muscle than brain (although some level of experience and knowledge is required). Wells are dug manually using a specialized tool.

The diggers conducted an initial site survey (a plot of land) without any formal schooling to determine the optimum location for the intended well. They know where to put wells on a site to get the most water supply thanks to years of experience. Following the survey, the optimal position would also be suggested to the site owner, and if all goes according to plan, digging can start right away.

Whether the owner of the well intend to place concrete rings after digging or not influences the choice of the well's radius. Wells with concrete rings typically have larger radii than those without rings. This is because a portion of the well's radius is occupied by the concrete rings.

The well digger or workers chargers per foot, and also how dense the soil is at the proposed location of the well. Compared to solid soils, which are typically rather difficult to dig, soft soils are easier to work with and typically cost less to do so.

The diggers agreed to dig at a rate of roughly $1.4 per ft at my uncle's site. They started working and managed to dig 40ft on their first day.

_{Beginning of The Digging}

The second day, another 30ft were dug, and small amounts of water were seeping out, but the diggers wouldn't continue on until concrete rings were provided. This is because continuing to dig without supporting the well's walls with concrete rings could harm the life of the person doing the digging by causing a mini-landslide that would bury him alive.

_{70ft has been dug, and concrete rings are need to continue}

The diggers also objected to continuing to dig at the same rate as before in addition to the concrete rings. A total of 70 feet have been dug, and another 30 feet were suggested for sufficient, highly pure water. As a result, the contract was renegotiated, and for a total price of $180 that's around 806 STEEM, half of the payment was made immediately and the diggers agreed to install all the necessary concrete rings and dig deeper. They suggested providing the rings as soon as possible to avoid complicating the process of additional digging since the longer the delay, the greater the chance that a mini-landslide may emerge in the well, blocking the water lines in the process.

We went to the neighborhood shops where concrete rings were being sold. The concrete rings are available in a variety of heights, from 2 to 6 feet. 3 feet is the lowest and 6 feet is the highest. For the purest water possible, the well need to be 100ft deep, so we opt-in for the 6 feet concrete ring. Consequently, a total of 17 concrete rings were needed, but we decided to buy 18 (an extra one) incase of any issue (as instructed by the well diggers). Each ring was sold for about $8 around 35.8 STEEM after we were able to negotiate the price, for a total of $130 (581 STEEM). The cost of transporting it to the site added another $10 (44 STEEM), bringing the total to $140 that's around 626.6 STEEM

_{Shop Were Concrete Rings Are Being Sold}

We completed the required payments, and the rings were delivered to the site where the well is being drilled. The diggers committed to starting their work the following day.

The next day when I arrived at the site, work had already started again. More digging has been done and the first 80 rings have been inserted into the well. The installation of the rings down the well is an extremely complex and dangerous task. I witnessed how the rest of the concrete rings were been inserted to well.

_{A sturdy ripe is being tied to the ring}

To begin with, a very sturdy rope is fastened to the ring in a way that makes it simple to lower it inside the well. A pole or peg that can support the weight of the ring is then fastened to the rope's other end.

_{The rope is tied to a pole}

The concrete ring is then meticulously carried to the well's mouth and slowly lowered into it using the rope attached to the pole or peg to control the speed of lowering.

_{The concrete rings being inserted}

Most of the time, the ring may get hooked in the center of the well before it reaches the bottom. In this situation, one of the diggers will enter the well and carefully remove the ring by digging around it. In this manner, the rings are lowered into the well one at a time until all of the rings have been inserted.

One of the rings broke while being lifted into the well, and it took the diggers a lot of work to remove it from the well. Luckily, we bought 18 concrete rings so we ultimately had to replace the shattered ring with the extra one. It was getting late and the diggers had no choice than to pause the project, and proceed with the rest the following day..

I went back to school because I had an assignment due that day. I regret not being able to see the well project's conclusion. However, when I called my uncle the following day to ask about it, he told me that the job had been completed and that he had given the diggers the remaining part of their payment. The next time I have some free time, I'll try to visit the site. Overall, my experience with the beginning of the digging and the purchasing and installation of the concrete rings into the well was excellent, and I'm delighted to have learned some interesting details about manual digging.

This is one of the procedures that Nigerians go through in order to get water for daily use. It was a really interesting experience!