What is Spring Well?
Springs occur naturally where the groundwater table intersects the ground water surface, the unprotected springs are usually exposed to contamination from runoff and human activities. Our interventions aim at protecting the spring from all forms of contamination and produce high quality portable water that can be directly consumed without treatment, reflected below are the construction technologies we establish at PaCT.
Normal spring protected well
In normal spring protection construction, we clean up the whole site by digging drainage trenches because the site will probably be boggy, a hardcore working layer is placed first. Over this there is an impervious clay layer and to the sides of the gravel layer a further impervious clay layer is used to keep surface seepage water out. Spring water is collected and channeled through a gravel layer to the collection tank that collects this water during off peak hours and is utilized in peak hours, discharge taps are installed at the bottom of the tank for collection of water and the wash-out pipe is installed at the very bottom of the tank for cleaning purposes. However, the tank is also installed with an overflow pipe that is also utilized for water collection in off peak hours
Above a perimeter drain we also dig a channel to keep storm water away from the spring area. Paved access and concrete steps are constructed to enable community members to walk down to fill their containers without the risk of slipping. A drain to channel excess water away is also important.
Community members take great pride in looking after their spring protected well by often planting flowering shrubs to beautify the area and a fence is built to keep livestock out, and the grass surrounding the spring is kept well-trimmed. A WASH-Committee is formed and trained to monitor operation and maintenance.
Large spring protected wells
In places where there is low yield and the population is big, we develop a ground reservoir tank to collect water in off peak hour such as through the night and is utilized at peak hours, in some places we have installed this reservoir with double pumps to avoid the queuing when community members come to collect water.
