Saturday, April 25, 2015
Kafubu Health Zone Training Documentation:
In preparation for the training of technicians from the Kafubu Health Zone we coordinated our efforts with Dr. Hugues Nsenga, Immaculee Wimana, and Dr. Claude Kitenge. Immaculee is the Director of the Cleansed Village Program for Small Villages, Dr. Hugue is her boss and Dr. Claude is the onsite director of the Kafubu Health Zone which is located on the road to Kasenga about 20 miles outside of Lubumbashi.
In our original budgeting for this $24,000 project, we had Immaculee obtain a proposal for training new techicicans. The concept was to purchase repair tools and parts that could be stored at the Kafubu Health Zone office and to have Dr. Hugue create a single bank account for well maintenance and repair for all of the villages. The villages would collect money from the sale of water and deposit those funds into this maintenance account for future repairs. By training local repair technicians from the villages of the immediate health zone, they would be available at a reasonable cost to repair wells within their own neighborhoods. They would also take ownership because they represented their villages.
We originally obtained a proposal from Hillaire Yahv who has worked with Immaculee in the past. His original proposal was for $4,355 to train 12-15 technicians, provide training parts and supplies, classroom supplies, meals and transportation. Immaculee suggested we could negotiate better pricing if we dealt directly with Hillaire which we did. We negotiated the following:
4-days of training at 8 hours per day at a rate of $20 per hour with a cap of $640 paid in cash to Hillaire upon completion of the training.
Food for all participants, trainer and supervisors from the Ministry of Health- $150 per day for 4 days with a total of $600 paid to Immaculle who made the arrangements for food to be prepared and served at the Kafubu Health Zone offices.
Transportation was paid for 12 participants at a rate of $10 per day or $120 for 4 days for a total of $480. This was paid to Dr. Claude, director of the health zone. He paid transport higher and lower based upon the distance the participants had to travel. Some had come from 150 kilometers away. Many stayed at the health zone which has a hospital and slept in hospital beds that were available.
All parts, supplies, tools, etc. were purchased by us (LDS) and became the property of the health zone upon completion to be used in the repair of wells.
There are 68 wells in the health zone that are not currently operating and in need of repair. The villages can participate by raising 30% of the cost for the first $1,000 of repair cost and 10% for any cost in excess of $1,000. This village contribution would still belong to them and would be managed by the health zone office through a single account requiring 3 signatures for withdrawal. The village is also required to have a water committee trained by Immaculee’s office in sanitation as part of the cleansed village program. They would be committed to charging for water usage for all wells repaired under this program.
Day 1, Tuesday, April 21, 2015
We took Hillaire, Immaculee, Steve (translator) with us to meet the candidates who had been selected by the health zone. There were 12 villages represented with a trainee from each village. Kisangerie sent two representatives and two additional attendees joined us in the second day for a total of 15 technicians. There were also 3-4 supervisors from the Ministry of Health each day. The first day we conducted morning training at a nearby school. Hillaire had prepared a 14-page handout we had reproduced. We provided classroom supplies and a white board and markers. We spent the entire day in the classroom at the school or the health zone office. We purchased parts primarily for the India Mark II pump from Africa Business, a newly approved vendor who extended us credit, a rare exception in DRC.
Much of the day was spent identifying parts of the pump and then reviewing the things that could fail or go wrong with the pump. He also reviewed the preventative maintenance schedule and things that should be done on a reoccurring basis to keep the pump running properly. The group appointed a chief to represent the trainees. Demonstrations of the function of the cylinder were made to show the parts and the function.
Day 2, Wednesday, April 22, 2015- Kumanwa Village
Pump 1
This was a workday and we started with two pumps in the closest village of Kumanwa. Their first pump was operating but had little pressure and slow water flow. We pulled the pump, cleaned all of the parts and made an assessment of what should be done to repair the pump. Three triangle pieces needed to be replaced along with some gaskets for a minimum charge of approximately $200, but the cylinder ($300) could be replaced to extend the life and provide greater volume in supplying water. They asked for my help in what should be done.
I told them our purpose was not to repair all wells but to train them as technicians. In the future they would have to go through this same process in pulling the pump, making an assessment of the minimum and maximum cost of repair and then they would have to explain it to the village leaders. They leaders would then determine if they were willing to participate under the guidelines as explained to them before any repairs would be made. We need to provide these technicians a price listing of the replacement parts. They could identify the parts but had no idea of the cost.
We cleaned everything and replaced the pump which functioned better after our fine tuning the individual parts even though we replaced none. We also met with the second in charge in the village and explained the program to him and gave him an estimate of the repair cost to improve this pump. This pump was an India Mark II with plastic piping and a depth of 30 feet or 10 meters.
Pump 2
The second pump we repaired in the afternoon was also an India Mark II with plastic piping and at a depth of 30 feet or 10 meters. It had not been operating for about two months. When we pulled the pump, we discovered the piston inside the cylinder had become detached and simply needed to be screwed back together. This was a simple repair with no parts costs and is something that could be caught with a preventative maintenance schedule. This is a pump Elder Atkinson and I had repaired back in August of 2014. No one had taken ownership and they were waiting for the next NGO to come along to repair the pump.
Day 3, April 23, 2015-Amato Village
Pump 3
Immaculee and Sister Davis again joined us and we went to two pumps in the village of Amato. One of our trainees, Moise, was from this village. The first pump was extremely difficult because the piping and the triangle pieces were not of the same length. The piping had been a reduced size and once we had pulled the pump, the assessment was made that to put these rusted and mismatched pieces back in the ground would be a mistake. We used 4 lengths of piping and 4 triangle pieces from the parts we had purchased to replace the pieces removed. Immaculee and I spoke with the village chief and asked him if he would commit to charging for water and making deposits for maintenance to the Kafubu Health Zone. I told him that he was fortunate that this was part of our training otherwise he would be required to raise the 30% before we would proceed. He agreed and was grateful that we restored this water source. The cost was $280 in replacement parts. (4 10-foot pipe sections at $40 each and 4 triangle sections at $30 each).
Pump 4
Amato pump number two was across the street and was a depth of 18 meters or about 60 feet. It was also a pump with mismatched parts and had not functioned for over 2 years. All parts were similar to the first Amato pump where the length of triangle and pipe parts did not match and were extremely rusted. We were unable to complete this repair is the afternoon of the second day but identified the replacement parts and delivered them to the site which is about 2 miles from the health zone office. We completed the repair on the 4th day of training. The total cost of the repair was about $450. We replaced 6 sections of pipe and 6 triangle sections as well as a couple of gaskets.
Both of these pumps 3 and 4, were in Amato and Moise was a member of this village. He introduced us to the village chief who committed to charging for water and setting up an account with the Kafubu Health Zone.
Day 4, April 24, 2015-Maksemu Village
Pump 5
The final day of our training was spent working on our first Afridev pump. The trainer, Hillaire, had suggested that we purchase both an Afridev pump and an India Mark II pump. We checked on the number of Afridev pumps and found that India Mark II pumps were the most common and we decided not to purchase an Afridev pump but did purchase an India Mark II pump that we anticipate using in our program.
Maksemu village is about 15-20 miles from the health zone office. The Afridev pump has not been working for over 2 years according to the village. There are two chiefs in the village who are at odds with one another which creates disharmony in the village. While pulling the Afridev pump from the well, it was discovered that this was an older version where the pipe pieces were glued together rather than screwed together. This made it extremely difficult to pull the entire length of the pipe from the well but the trainees were ingenious in crafting sticks to hold the pipe as it was extracted from the borehole. Once extracted, the assessment was made that the cylinder probably needed to be replaced. We had no Afridev replacement parts and it was located inside the pipe. We had no glue or fittings to mend the pipe if we cut it, so we decided to reinstall the pipe and leave it as we found it. We gave the assessment to representatives from the village and told them to start saving money if they wanted to participate in the Kafubu Health Zone project. The length of the pipe was about 15-18 meters and probably should be replaced with an entirely new pump assembly. There may be an option to change it out for an India Mark II pump in the future.
CONCLUSION
We returned to the health zone office for a presentation of certificates and pictures. Each participant received a certificate recognizing their training and a group picture. Concluding remarks were made by Hillaire, the trainer, Dr. Claude of the Health Zone and myself. I told them I was proud of their work ethic and what they had learned. I shared that we all want to solve problems and repair pumps but the purpose was to teach them to process of:
Pull the pump and assess the repair recommended
Prepare an estimate of the minimum and maximum repair recommended
Meet with village leaders (chief, water committee, etc.) and explain the program
Obtain the village buy-in to the program.
Contact the health zone office to coordinate the repair, technician assignment and provision of replacement parts.
We elected to centralize the reporting process and coordination through the Kafubu Health Zone patterned after a similar initiative that has been successful in Kipushi Health Zone. It is difficult for each small village to establish and maintain control over a bank account. This will provide for uniformity in application and centralize the process. The request for participation will come by contacting the health zone office.
As of April 25, 2015, we have consumed approximately $2,500 in training, food, transport and parts used. We have purchased the most common repair parts, purchased India mark II tools that will be stored at the health zone office and an India Mark II pump. Total expenditures to date are approximately $6,000 which means there are parts and tools stored at the Kafubu Health Zone offices under lock and key worth about $3,500.
There are a few villages such as Pita, which have already started saving toward participation in the program. The process of informing other villages will occur as the trainees and the health zone office educate the public. The Ministry of Health has already identified the first five villages most likely to be prepared for participation. We will start with them and hope the word and success of the program spreads.
We feel very pleased with the quality of the training. This program is supported by all levels of government and they plan on making it part of the Cleansed Village program. So far so good.
Kafubu Health Zone Training Documentation
Left: Immaculée Wimana is the Director of the Cleansed Village Program for Small Villages in the 68 health zones in the Katanga Province. Right: Hillaire Yahv is the trainer who was chosen for this project.
Day 1
The first day we conducted the training at a nearby school. Much of the time was spent in identifying parts of the pump and then reviewing the things that can go wrong with it.
Day 2
Day 3
Left: We pulled the third pump and found the piping and triangle pieces to be mismatched and rusted. The assessment was made to replace them (right) with new.
Pipes on pump #4 were placed also, much to the excitement of the village children.
Day 4
We pulled the parts on this Afridev pump and found the pieces to be glued together rather than screwed. We did not repair this pump, as we didn’t have the proper parts.
This group photo was taken on the first day in front of the Kafubu Health Center. Three more trainees joined the program starting on the second day, making a total of 15.
the cassava flour with water over a stove. These balls are then dipped in a sauce containing leaves and veggies. This was lunch everyday this week.
