We’re ramping up the design work now for Nkiito’s water facility. After many years struggling to raise the funds for the monstrous well needed in the area we’ve decided to change tack. Maybe drilling 280m in lava and bedrock isn’t the best solution here. Maybe we should be simply helping to collect as much water as possible? So we’re hacking a solution right now. If you have any improvements or knowledge you wish to share please let us know via volunteer@avif.org.uk. Here’s what we’ve got so far:

The hope is that we’ll end up with a combined design for rainwater harvesting and solar power, enough to be impactful but not inefficient. Too many PV’s (photovoltaics) will lead to excess electricity which, for a society that doesn’t spend half their life following the Kardashians, but just needs mobile internet access, is plain wasteful. We also have considerations to take into account such as the smell of water. You know how you can smell the rain before it even hits you .. lions can too! Creating a permanent waterhole needs certains security measures in place.

This is a work in progress and thanks to our volunteers and input from all over, we hope to get something in place before Christmas. Harvesting the short rains would be good but they should be blessing the village within less than a month……. (flashy new CAD diagrams to follow from Bryn, ashi oleng!)

Tori, Jackson and Robyn (2013)

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