Raising the Tower

I’m sitting here in total darkness with the only light being from my computer screen and a few motorbike headlamps outside.  It’s pouring rain, and the power went out about ten minutes ago. Joy had told us that a rainstorm would probably result in a loss of power and she was right.  Not that it makes a lot of difference, these are not very brightly lit hotel rooms anyway.

Outside there is quite a bit of lightning activity, which is easier to see now that the city has been plunged into darkness.

We were back to our water tower in Kimelok for today.  The forecast called for rain at 3pm, so we had most of the day to work.  In fact, the forecast calls for some amount of rain every day for our entire stay here, so that may affect the work we do.

We made a lot of progress today.  We completed the structure and got the water tank positioned on top.  I’ll let the pictures describe the work.

Repositioning the scaffold to allow working on the top deck of the tower.

Willie and William, starting to lay out the deck supports

Rolling the tank to a position near the tower.  This tank holds 10,000 liters.

But first a bunch of water had to be removed from the tank.  That job fell to Duncan, one of the smallest people in the group.  He has had to do this on several prior projects also.

Deck is on, safety railing being installed prior to lifting the tank into position.

The tank was lifted onto the tower by passing ropes under it and pulling one end of the ropes, rolling it upward and onto the platform.  It’s almost like they’ve done this thing before.

Tank on top of the tower.  Duncan had to drop down inside of the tank to install the outlet fittings.

Meanwhile, others planted tree seedlings around the fence line, dug a trench to lay some pipe for water distribution (tomorrow’s task: install the pipe) and provided food and (of course) chai tea.

Joy made sure the newly-planted tree seedlings got a good start with plenty of water.  This is the water that is being drawn from nearly 800 feet underground using solar power.  Clean water: a precious resource here.

Digging the trench to lay distribution pipe.

Although it was not a particularly hot day, the sun here is intense.  This area is just one degree south of the equator and yesterday was the Spring Equinox, so the sun is directly overhead.  In spite of a wide-brimmed hat, sunscreen, long sleeves, and a neck scarf, I can still feel the effects of sunburn.