Health & Safety I

I can’t tell you what a wonderful day it is today.  The drilling team finally arrive, 10 days late.  Did I say already that East Africa Time (EAT) is both a thing and a concept?  It is an internationally recognised Time Zone: GMT +3.  So, I am two hours ahead of y’all in BST.  And it is the term used to describe punctuality – or the approach to it / lack of – here in Africa.  So the drilling team came 10 days late; EAT we decide, and laugh.

The key thing is that they are here, and they begin their work immediately.  Very not EAT.  They are the first part of the water project that has been building for nearly 2 years now.  To provide fresh, clean water to the Health Centre compound in which we are resident.  And not just that, the supply will be determined only by our storage capacity and ability to run the pump, both of which we control, unlike current arrangements.

Having seen a borehole drilled in Haiti, I had some idea (preconceptions) about should (might) happen.  Of course, I was wrong.  They had a similar rig, maybe 10m tall when elevated into position on the back of their truck, essentially a great big 6” mechanical rotating drill.  Literally a big drill bit, that they kept adding lengths to. 

Now in Haiti they pumped fluid down behind the bit to flush out the spoil and provide lubrication to the drill head.  No, not here.  They just drilled.  So of course, for the many interested spectators it was like a desert storm of dust billowing out of the hole.  Anyway, I guess that made it easier to determine when they hit water!  Which they duly did at around 85m.  And I am pleased to report that was exactly in line with their geological surveys.

Now you don’t have to be a Health and Safety expert to imagine the sort of Personal Protective Equipment, or physical safeguards that they would need for such an operation.  I saw one bloke, the rig operator, wearing a facemask (for the dust) and a hard hat.  And flip flops.