Pump Power!

After a night and morning of rain, our tanks under the tarp were still in good shape. We mixed concrete for the base of the clay tank and poured it. We will finish it tomorrow by covering the rough concrete with a cement sand mix to smooth it and seal the junction between clay walls and concrete base. We dug the hole for the ferrocement tank from the center of the ring beam as well. Unfortuneately, we hit a solid rock layer closer to the surface than we expected so the ferrocement prototype tank will only be .5 meters deep, but it should still be sufficient for our testing purposes. Once the rain set in again (the rainy season is beginning here) we shifted our focus to building the pump. We constructed an enhanced inertia pump from a couple of lengths of PVC, a PVC tee, and two wooden foot valves. The power drill at the clinic was missing the cord, so we ended up drilling all the holes on the inner PVC with a leatherman. Other than this inconvenience, the construction was incredibly easy. At the end of the afternoon, we put the completed pump in a plastic rain water catchment tank at the clinic and began pumping. Our first trial was a little overenthusiastic and I (Katelyn) ended up receiving a pump shower. But it works! The pump action is smooth and each stroke produces a surprising amount of water, considering the simple design. We were very excited with the results of the afternoon´s work and we may look into trying the Harold pump design because of the similarities to the enhanced inertia pump that proved effective. This evening, we created a list of the rest of our tasks and reviewed our rough schedule for the rest of our stay here. We´re right on track and will continue to work hard to stay that way!