Water Supply for St. Anne’s Senior High School
This project was funded in part by the Austrian “DreikönigsAktion” and the township of Kuchl, Austria.
In 2003, the diocese opened the girls’ school “St. Anne’s Senior High School”. Girls and young women receive an education in order to qualify for university admission and professional training as lawyers, teachers, or social workers. At this time, approx. 210 girls attend the school. This number should increase to 450 after building expansion plans have been realised.
A large problem for the school was the water supply. Previously, the water was brought with a tanker truck. This method was very expensive and the water quality suffered from it, as the water was stored for a long period of time in plastic containers. About 1.6 km away from the school is a well with a manual pump. The girls were able to get drinking water from this distant location. On the weekends they went to this well area to wash their clothes; however, there was always the threat of being sexually assaulted by men.
Attempts to find water in the immediate vicinity of the school were unsuccessful. Based on our advice, land in the area of the well was purchased in order to drill a second well (bore hole). Pumping water away from the original well would have caused problems for the nearby villagers who count on their water supply from this site.
The second bore hole was drilled and at a depth of 70m good quality drinking water was found. From this well, water can be pumped at the rate of 50 liters per minute.
Project Details:
Coordination and Management: Missionskreis Kuchl, Hermann Putz
Technical Planning: Ing. Josef Pichler
Installation of Electrical Components and Water Pumps: Ing. Josef Pichler, Ing. Johann Lienbacher, Ing. Joseph Addae
Installation of Water Line: Emanuel Folli (Electrician) and Francis Langa (Water Expert, Diocese of Damongo)
Construction Contractor: Emmanuel Bille
Well Depth : 70m
Distance to School: 1.6km + approx. 40m from pumping depth
Water Pump Type: (2) one-phase Grundfos pumps
Pump Capacity at 70m pumping depth: 30 l/min. = 1800 l/hr.
Preliminary Work June 2009 – February 2010:
Drilling of the new bore hole
Installation of the water pipe line
Installation of the power supply line
Construction of the pump building and fencing
Setup of the water tank
Report of Work Done On-Site:
On Februar 13, 2010: From Salzburg, Austria, we began our trip to Ghana. Arrival in Accra, the capital city.
February 14th: Trip by car from Accra to Damongo, approx. 700km
February 15th: Work begins. Preliminary work already completed to our satisfaction.
Februar 17th: First water is pumped out of the bore hole.
Installation of the switch cabinets, plus two “safety night lights“ with a twilght switch on the pump building.
February 18th: First water pumped into tank. Float switches installed for the regulation of the water level.
February 19th: Water is pumped for the first time to the girls’ school.
A water container is setup at the school. The installation of float switches here will allow the water supply system to run automatically.
Power consumption will be monitored with a separate electric meter reader. The running time of the pump and the frequency of the pump activiation through the float switches will also be monitored.
February 24th: The first phase of this project is completed. The new water supply station is officially presented over to the school.
The St. Anne’s Senior High School now has clean drinking water.
In the second phase of this project, a high-level tank was constructed so that running water is available for the school buildings.
Plastic bottles are being filled with drinking water at the school.