The Beginning of the Tanks

Yesterday, we spent the morning planning tank prototype construction and calculating the quantities of each material that we would need for prototyping. After a lot of discussion, the group decided to construct the ring beam on the ferrocement tank prototype because the juncture of belowground ferrocement and ringbeam seems to be one of the most likely places for fault to occur.

In the afternoon, Daphne and I (Katelyn) went into Masaka town to purchase all the materials for construction while Steven, Leticia, Irene, Lynette, and Scott stayed in Ddegeya to prep the construction sites (otherwise known as digging a big hole). They worked hard all afternoon. Masaka was busy. We visited the same store that Daphne, Helen, and Michael visited in June-- the guy working there even remembered Daphne. We purchased four bags of cement, 10 meters of chicken wire, half a truck bed of sand, and about 2 wheel barrows of stone aggregate and then hired some transportation to take all of it to Ddegeya. Daphne and I arrived with the materials at the site behind the clinic to find the hole for the compacted clay tank dug completely, the space for the ferrocement tank cleared and dug below the A-level of soil, and a few spots cleared for sand and aggregate. The materials were offloaded from the pick up truck.

This morning, we compacted the soil in the clay tank and mixed concrete for the ring beam for the ferrocement tank. It was a hard and dirty morning, but we got everything done. This afternoon, we´ll walk around the village and see the cluster locations.