Buzz Durham. Hydraulic ram pumps and biochar.

Heads up: the first part of this post has technical information and a lot of basic details from the trip in May. To start with scroll past the details and enjoy photos and thn check the text for more information as you need to.

All in all, it was an incredible trip. Thanks, Buzz! And thanks to the folks of Grace Covenant for supporting him.

The last two weeks of May, Buzz Durham, from Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Asheville, North Carolina, came and worked with us on the hydraulic ram pump (Clemson design)  and on biochar (What is biochar?) in Haiti.

Our work actually started in Santo Domingo, DR, where Buzz and I spent two half days looking for polyethylene irrigation pipe. Around 11 o'clock during out second half day, we finally found what we were looking for, at an irrigation supply store (and not at the plumbing supplies places where we had been looking). For your edification, what we found that was clearly what we wanted was 4 Atmosphere pipe, 63 mm (the closest in metric to 2") black polyethylene flexible pipe, at about $US 0.75 a foot ($RD 90.00 a meter). This pipe is half as expensive as PVC SCH 40 2" and has much better potential for surviving the ups and downs of Haitian water systems. They also had available the equivalent of 1/2" poly flex pipe for $RD 15.00 a meter. That would be maybe $US 0.12 a foot. We are talking exciting prices here. This is one of at least two places in SD that supply this pipe. Word from our handler at the supply company was that the pipe is now being producing in the Dominican Republic. Details, however, were not forthcoming. Tantalizing.

The trick will be, of course, to purchase in the Dominican capital and get the pipe to the border and into Haiti. A large truck and all sorts of contacts would be helpful here. Put those  issues on your prayer list. We did get a 100 m of 6 Atmosphere pipe as far as Jenny and my house in Barahona. How will I get that to Wilner's house? No ideas yet.

Crossing the border, Sunday, May 19th, was a chore. Buzz can tell you about it some time.

You may remember that during Buzz's first trip to work with us, we set up a pump at Wilner Exil's home (Installing Wilner's pump in Leodiague. On Monday PM, May 20th, we headed up to spend the afternoon with Wilner looking at his system and evaluating how we could improve it, given we did not actually have the flexible pipe that would have resolved most of Wilner's problems. After working with Wilner on figuring out those issues, we headed back down the mountain and home to Bassin Zim.

Tuesday AM, May 21st, Buzz did a workshop for the Road to Life Yard and Moringa project crew on the pump, on making alternative charcoal using a system developed by MIT's D-Lab, and on turning that charcoal into Biochar. We had about 15 participants.

In the afternoon, we headed back up to Wilner's house and worked on his system, going with a decent group of volunteers from the Road to Life Yard crew.

Thursday AM, May 23rd, we headed to Verettes, to work with ODEVPRE, OGAD and MRPST. Papay, Bassin Zim, Leodiague, all these areas are part of the Central Plateau, where MPP (Peasant's Movement of Papaye) is organized. ODEVRPE, OGAD and MRPST are farmer's organization working in Verettes, a municipality in the Artibonite province.These are also the three farmer organizations with which I am working in Verettes, as part of FONDAMA's yard garden program. FONDAMA (Haitian Foundation of Hands Together) is a member of the Presbyterian Hunger's Joining Hands program (Joining Hands). Alphabet soup, I know.

Thursday PM we went to Doublet, a community just outside of Verettes, to take measurements for possible hydraulic ram pumps. Playing with water ranks right up there with working with soil.

Friday AM, May 24th, Buzz did his second workshop, with about thirty participants coming from all three organizations. It was a grand success, due in no small way to the dynamic leaders that kept the group singing and moving and generally alive and alert. It was a lot of fun.

Friday PM, I did administrative work with the local technicians from ODEVRPRE, OGAD and MRPST whom we are training in yard garden techniques..

Saturday AM, May 25th, we headed to Léogâne to do everything all over again, but even more so. We had the great good luck to be able to go with two young men from ODEVPRE, Alex Paul and Givenson Laurent. All of us stayed with two leaders in the Léogâne organization, ODEPOL. Boston Jn Gilles was our main host, but Prezime helped out as well. Both live just outside of Léogâne in the sugarcane community of Darbonne.

Sunday AM, May 26th, we crossed the Grand River of Lèogâne and headed into the mountains with Luccène Sommervil. Luccène is the local technician who works with us as we monitor the progress of the other local technicians. Ask Buzz sometime about the first crossing that day. The mule helped on the second one.

Our stop for the night was at Luccène's house, about four hours up, going from less than 300 feet above sea level to over 2700 feet. Buzz observed that in his annual hikes on the Appalachian trail, 1,000 feet elevation difference was the most he had done so far.

Monday AM, May 27th, we took measurements for a possible pump at a spring 150 feet downhill from Luccène's home. In the PM, we dropped about 1,000 feet to the home of Esterne Joseph, where we spent the night.

Tuesday PM, May 28th, we took measurements for a possible pump at a spring some 750 feet from Esterne's house. In the afternoon, about 1:00 PM, we began the epic climb down the mountains, back to our hosts' homes in Darbonne.

Wednesday, May 29th, we were supposed to head back up a mountain to check out Serge and Enith's homes for pump possibilities, but fatigue had gotten the best of us, and we stayed at Boston's home and did wash and prepared for the workshop on Thursday. We also sent Alex Paul and Givenson Laurent on their way back to Verettes.

Thursday AM, May 30th, Buzz held his third workshop on the hydraulic ram pump, MIT D-lab charcoal, and biochar. We had about fifteen Haitian participants, and a group of 17 or so North Americans visiting as part of an MBF (Medical Benevolence Foundation) vision trip. In addition to Buzz, we had Berrique from Verettes who came down to talk with workshop participants on using the charcoal powder to make briquettes. Briquettes was the original design for the MIT D-lab charcoal. Berrique came into Darbonne Wednesday PM to help us on Thursday.

Thursday PM, we headed to Port au Prince to rest. Buzz traveled with Rhoda Beutler, who had come from north of Port au Prince to attend the workshop and talk with Buzz about rocket stoves (What is a rocket stove? and Power Point demonstration).

Friday AM, May 31st, we went looking for polyethylene irrigation pipes in Port au Prince. We found two sources for plumbing polyethylene pipe and they both said they would send us quotes for getting the kind that we are looking for. But that has not yet panned out. So as of now, we are back to looking to Santo Domingo.

Saturday, June 1st, we back across the border and home to Barahona. Buzz spent Sunday with us and went to Santo Domingo in Carbie Tours and then in taxi to the airport on his own Monday, June 3rd. Late in the evening he sent me an e-mail that said, "Home."

And that is the textual summary of the trip with Buzz. Next, the photos, which should be far more interesting.

Photos by Mark Hare, Herve Delisma and Buzz Durham, all right reserved.

Monday, May 22nd

Buzz Durham checking out Wilner Exil's pump. Using an eye level and a metric tape, Buzz, Fedlens, Wilner and Herve determined that we have a fall of 5' from Wilner's dam to the pump, and 50' of elevation from the pump to Wilner's barrel just inside his yard. So this pump is working at its theoretical maximum. Even more amazing that Wilner has been able to keep it pumping.

Tuesday, May 23rd

Mark Hare and Buzz Durham, presenting the hydraulic ram pump to MPP's Road to Life Yard and Moringa project crew.

Crew members (to the left) stuffing the first barrel for the "Fuel from the Fields" charcoal burn. Buzz priming the second barrel, the first step in the process. We used mostly dried coconut fronds and dried coconut husks for these two burns.

First barrel is going and second is nearly ready to light up.

 Moccène Joachim sealing off the second barrel which had lighter materials and was ready to seal sooner.

The first, heavy smoke is mostly moisture. Eventually the moisture gets burned off and the gases ignite. From our experiences with four or five burns we did over three days, using coconut fronds and coconut husks, you need to let this flame go for a while until there is almost no smoke. Then you seal it as you see Moccène doing in the previous photo.

Pounding the charcoal from the barrel into dust. This step is required when doing briquettes as well, but for briquettes, the charcoal must be completely pulverized to make briquettes that burn well.

Adding vermicompost (worm compost) to the charcoal to inoculate it with a plethora of healthy soil organisms.

Diamène Jean (left) helping to mix in the worm compost (vermicompost) to inoculate the charcoal powder, converting it into biochar. Based on his readings, Buzz recommended that the crew maintain the charcoal and vermicompost mix humid for two weeks before adding it to the mix for the vegetable tires. Check out photos from Marimaude's yard garden to see what we mean by vegetable tires (Marimaude's Vetgetable Tires). Buzz suggested adding about 1/2 a bucket of this mix for every two buckets of soil.

Helping rebuild Wilner's dam that powers his hydraulic ram pump. Buzz and Wilner also replaced connections that Wilner had jerry-rigged to keep the pump going after each flooding of Palma stream. For a list of those problems check out the posting: (Problems with the line)

Thursday, May 25th

All Thursday afternoon we measured the fall of the Grand River of Verettes to see if we could theoretically pump the water up to the nearest yard that is part of FONDAMA's yard garden program in Verettes. Together with a crew of five or six folks from ODEVRPE and MRPST, we measured this site for a fall of more than 3 meters, starting above this set of drops down to a relatively secure place we could mount a pump in the solid rock. Height (rise or elevation) from there to the Nesly Voltaire's home, where we could construct a cistern, was about 27 meters, which makes the pump technically feasible based on those two factors. For each meter of fall, we can elevate the water ten meters, so with three meters of fall, we could get the water up around 30 meters. The devil is in the details. This stream is volatile when it floods, so Buzz was thinking about how we could use rock climbing technology to drill into the rock and clamp everything in place. After about a week of contemplating, and seeing other sites in Lèogâne, Buzz asked me to keep looking in Verettes to see if there might not be another site with fewer complications.

Friday, May 26th

Buzz held his second workshop in Verettes with about thirty participants. Here he is explaining the pressure chamber as the final and most critical piece of the ram pump.

This workshop was fun. We had four dynamic group leaders who led us in singing, and dancing, and generally just kept all of us charged up. It was a huge lesson in how to create an environment where people can absorb information relatively easily, even when the information is fairly complex.

Once Buzz finished with a brief explanation of the theory of biochar (a technique from the Amazons, thousands of years old, developed by farmers), he moved quickly to the practical. Every single workshop participant began preparing the material for the burns.

Scrounging around on Thursday PM, after finishing our measurements in the Grand River of Verettes, we had found corn stalks, some corn husks and the ever available coconut fronds and coconut husks.

We did two burns. After sealing them with soil, our friend Berrique, talked with the group about how to turn the "Fuel from the fields charcoal" into briquettes, which he makes for his own use.

We used charcoal we brought from Papay to demonstrate turning the charcoal into Biochar. We used urine donated by workshop participants as a starter, with Buzz noting that they still need to add fresh cow manure for the transformation. Healthy urine is very limited in terms of micro-organisms.

For wrapping up, we held a game show. The participants divided into five or six teams, and then successively chose Buzz if they wanted a pump question, Mark or Herve for a Biochar question, or  Berrique for a briquette question. The person who gave the question then decided how many points the answer was worth, from 1 to 5. Other teams got the opportunity to complete the answer, so everyone had to listen to everyone else as they gave their answers. Fueled with the energy from the singing and the jokes, the game turned out to be a good ending to a good workshop.

When we asked the teams to work together to provide evaluations, they made excellent suggestions, most of which were related to the next time we should provide hands on practice with the pump, the same way we had with the charcoal and the biochar.

Sunday, May 26th

This trip Luccène Sommervil had a mule to carry our backpacks, sleeping mats and the food up the mountain. We walked over 10 kilometers, climbing over 900 meters to Luccène's house at about 980 meters.

Definitive proof that Buzz was really in the mountains. Alex Paul (far left), from Verettes also has proof that he made it up these mountain. The revolutionary-times cannon near the top of Orange mountain. The cannon is said to have been carried up the mountain by an woman recently freed from slavery and determined to keep her freedom against the intents of the Napoleon army to retake the island and reinstate slaver in the early 1800's. As the story is told, the woman's heart burst just as she reached this site to place the cannon.

Just after I had told Buzz that we were over the most difficult part of the climb, when we got to the cannon, we hit this slope. I'd forgotten the steepness of the final 45 minutes before we reached Luccène's home. We actually hit just over 1000 m at the top of this slope. From there it was mostly downhill.

These small, steep streams are the reason for our climb up into these hills. They seem to me to be exactly the kind of resource for which the hydraulic ram pumps were designed. They are small volume, but fast falling with a lot of energy that can be captured and used to send the water where you need it.

Luccène's yard garden. This is a significant part of the "why" for the pumps. Luccène already does a good job. What if he had water at hand most of the year round?

Monday AM, May 27th

Monday morning, after a good long night of rest, we began making measurements for Luccène's spring. Alex Paul is holding the transparent tube in the spring while Buzz and the rest of us find a good place for the potential pump. Buzz's recommendations include building a small impoundment, or dam to assure a constant flow of water into the delivery line.

Luccène (right) and his associate, Bruno (who arrived early Monday morning from across the mountain) cut a bamboo to measure the height of the fall, so to speak.

Bruno holds the bamboo up with the transparent tube tied to it and Buzz measures to the ground. Only ten meters from where Alex Paul was holding the tube in the water, we had three meters of fall, and this position for the pump was out of the stream bed, providing some extra security, although Luccène says that since this is a spring, it never floods.

Using an eye level, Buzz does a second measure of the elevation from the potential position of a pump to the source.

Luccène, Bruno and Alex Paul learn to use the eye level, calculating the elevation from the potential position of the pump to the house. With only thirteen meters of rise, there is plenty of energy in the stream to get the water up to Luccène's house, a distance of about 50 meters. Luccene had an interesting observation. As we talked about installing the pump, we also mentioned that he needed to really protect the spring. His comment was something like, "Oh yeah. I'm going to plant the head of the spring with a bunch of trees." Maybe adding value to water sources can increase the impulse to replant the slopes.

Luccène has close to 150 trees, "kapab"(Colubrina arborescens), in a tree nursery that is part of his yard garden space.

Monday PM, 27 May

Buzz admiring the beauty of the traditional mountain agriuclture, which includes a great diversity of fruits and staple crops. After lunch at Luccène's, we headed down towards Esterne's neighborhood, at some 600 meters of elevation (a mere 380 meters drop).


Tuesday AM, May 28th

Buzz and Esterne (right) looking at possible positions for a pump. Tuesday morning, we began measuring a potential site near Esterne's home. Esterne has one huge stream that floods violently and he has a smaller stream that flows into the larger one across from one of his fields. To avoid problems related to flooding, Buzz suggested working on the smaller stream. Esterne approved that idea because he is good friends with the owner of the land that the stream flows through.

Alex Paul tracking the time to measure the water flow. The hydraulic ram pump needs at least five gallons a minute. This stream was flowing at at least four times that, at about twenty gallons a minute. Esterne observed that during the dry season, the stream drops at most to half of the current flow, still well above the minimum.

Buzz talking with Esterne about how we might jump the supply line from the pump over the larger stream by passing a cable through the mango and tying it on the other side to a large rock. We would then tie the 3/4" polyethylene to the cable using something like carabiners. It was about 250 meters from the potential pump site to Esterne's house. Fall from up stream, about 50 meters, to the potential pump site, was 14 meters. Elevation to Esterne's house was 52 meters, close to a third of our potential pumping power of 140 meters. Tantalizing!!!

 Tuesday PM, May 28th

After finishing the measurements and eating lunch, we headed down the mountain. We got to the main route before the rain hit, which was a relief. But it kept getting more complicated as we got farther down the mountain. When we got to the Grand Rive of Léogâne, it was in flood, and we had to climb back up part of the mountain and ease our way through some new hills to find our way out without having to cross the big river. How was all that? As my brother Keith says when we ask him how his flight was, "We made it, so, it was good."

A shout out to Herve Delima and Givenson Laurent

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Givenson Laurent (far left) registers Maurice (middle (white shorts and shirt) in FONDAMA's yard garden program. Givenson, together with Alex Paul came with us from Verettes, ostensibly to get redworms from the folks in ODEPOL. But they decided to experience the mountains of Léogâne for themselves. While Alex Paul, Buzz and I (Mark) were doing exciting things with streams, Herve and Givenson were working with Maurice and his family on beginning to establish their official yard garden.

Maurice's daughter, Ilia, mixes up soil, sand and manure for the vegetable tires. Givenson (yellow shorts) helps build the bench to hold the tires.

Thursday AM, May 30th

Mark (front left) translating into English for Berrique as he explains the process for making briquettes to the Léogâne folk. This was Buzz's third and final workshop and he was pleased that Berrique was willing to come from Verettes to add the briquette component. Haitian workshop participants were about fifteen. Visitors from the MBF vision trip were about 17, and represented all major geographical areas of the US, east, west, midwest, south.

Polyethylene pipe for potable water--at least three times the price per foot (or meter) of what we are looking for. This pipe is part of an MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) project in Desarmes, about ten miles east of Verettes. It came from  a supplier called H2O. Address: Delmas 42 Lechaud #2, toupre lycée, 29432020, 34109446. We are still waiting for a quote from them on the type of pipe we are interested in.

What next???

1) Find the funds and, hopefully, people who want to be part of this adventure.
2) Find the pipe, hopefully in Haiti.
3) Figure a way to get the supplies up the mountain to the remote communities where Bruno, Luccène, Esterne, Maurice, etc. live.
4) Build and test the pumps with Bruno, Luccène, Esterne, Maurice, etc.

If you have actually read this whole post, you may be hooked. Get in touch!

"St. Marguerite," a mountain school in Léogâne, in the community of "La Tourmelle"

Here is a school in the mountains of Léogâne that needs rebuilt. The earthquake of January 12th, 2010 destroyed the church (Ste. Marguerite) and school, in the mountain community of "La Tournelle". Funds from the United Nations paid to get rid of the debris. Now they need funds to rebuild. Would love to help make the connections with a consortium of churches interested in funding and sending folks to rebuild.

This school is between six and ten miles up into the mountains and is only accessible by foot and pack animal. It serves preschoolers through the equivalent of 9th or 10th grade ("Troisième, Secondaire"). The Episcopal priest responsible for the school is Père Dejardin Wisnel.

The school has a limited partnership with an Episcopal church in the States named "St. Mark's." Gotta love that. Specifically, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, in Altadena, CA. Here is a picture from the school program that they support at the Latournelle school:St. Mark's Episcopal School--Compassion for the World

Leave me a note on this blog, or write me via the Mission Connections site:  Mission Connections
if you think your church might be interested. It would without doubt be a unique mission experience, including seriously physically challenging.

Pre-school teacher helping a student form her letters.

Area where former church-school stood. This area has been cleared, flattened and slightly enlarged with help from a United Nations program.

One of the older classes in a bit of a building that remained.

The main building that remains, where the administration is located and, I would estimate, three classroom areas.

Photos by Mark Hare, all rights reserved. Denera Lemoine, a school administrator, provided information about the school and the relationship with St. Mark's in Altadena.

Gratitude

I am sitting here looking at a list of donations for the month of May, and I just feel like I need to give a shout out to all the folks that support Jenny and Keila and Annika in this "thing" that we are doing.

A lot of the people who support us aren't on this list, and never will be. They are the people here in the Dominican and those in Haiti who support us continuously, bringing us safely home from the supermarket on motorcycles, making food for us in our kitchen, watching our daughters for us so that we can "get things done," welcome us in the church we attend up the road, welcome me at the border in Haiti when we get across, make space for me to sleep and make sure there is food to keep me going while I work. They are folk in the churches and in our families in the States and in Nicaragua, who worry about us and pray for us and write us notes, and send us cards, with all the kids in the church signing them, or everyone on the mission committee.

And then there are the ones who are on this list. It is easy at times to forget how much money it takes to keep a family of four going. And frankly, I would feel really good about myself if I could do what I am doing and somehow make it pay for itself, and for our family. But I don't know how I would work that, yet. In the meantime, by the Grace of God, there are all these folks out there are willing to take the risk on us, reaching out in faith to make it possible for Jenny and Keila and Annika and me to do this incredible work.

This work we do always feels like it needs to be done, and sometimes, once in a while on one of  the amazing days, it feels like we might actually be doing it the way it should be done--the Holy Spirit present and accounted for. The way it feels to me is something like walking through a very dark forest without knowing at all if I am on anything that even resembles a path, and then, suddenly and always unexpectedly, I come to a place shining with light, and right there is a post with a sign on it that points the way, on down the path that really is there, on through the darkness that will soon close in again, but also on towards the next shining moment.

It is a big risk these folks are taking who support us with their faith. I don't know if I want them to know that, but it is. Each one of us can act with the best of intentions and the purest of hearts, and still screw up.  There are at least half a dozen folks in Papaye I thought would be my success stories, people who would light the world on fire, or at least their communities. And now, we are only just barely speaking to each other. What has happened most often is that the folks who are changing their lives and those around them are the ones that I would never have picked. Those realities are humbling, but they are also the realities that make it clear to me that my work is only as useful as my willingness to let go, to be a conduit for the work of the Holy Spirit. I love what I do (all days except most Tuesday, and sometimes one or two other days), but as hard as I try to do it as well as I can, my work is in vain, unless it is truly the Lord doing it. Seems like I've heard that somewhere before....

Its a risk they're taking, and we are grateful for it. Very. If you are one of those risk takers, supporting us with whatever you use to support us, blessings on you. You rock, every one of you.

Mark, Jenny, Keila and Annika

Heavy Metals as a concern for Vegetable Tires

I have been asked on several occasions if there is a concern about heavy metals leaching out of tires and affecting the vegetables. In short, the risk appears to be minimal.

Here is a somewhat longer answer. Your comments and especially any information you might have would be greatly appreciated.

If the question was about heavy metals leaching, I worked at finding information on that. The studies that have been done have been on shredded tires used as a base for play areas for children. I asked in ECHO, which has been promoting the use of tires and other basins for many years now. The consensus seemed to be that there have been no studies done on using tires for vegetable production, but that the risk is minimal (versus the advantages outweighing the negatives) because the tires are used whole, not shredded. That limits the surface area that is exposed to water/humic acids and also changes the physics of how water and humic acids interact with the surface area it does encounter. Also, at least part of any metals that might leach out would wash out with the daily watering, affecting the soil under the tires, but not the vegetables in the tires. Finally, we are worried specifically about heavy metals and heavy metals are not absorbed by most plants at all easily. The concern would be greater for vegetables that can (beets strike me as one that can absorb some heavy metals?) and particularly if those vegetables are grown consistently in the same tires. The odds would then increase that at least some of those crops are are contaminated.

Again, anyone reading this blog, please let us know if you have any information about studies that have been done. Martin Price at ECHO noted that one of the problems is that chemical studies like this are expensive and the people who use tires to grow vegetables are often poor, which makes it hard to find the funds to do the expensive studies.

Finding Water in the Mountains of the Artibonite

"Every time I think I have found the community that is struggling with the most difficult situation in terms of water, I find people struggling with a problem that is even harder."

The week after MPP's 40th Anniversary Congress, I went with my friend from Oregon, Susan L. Smith to visit some of our work in the mountains of Verettes in Haiti's Artibonite. Susan is a professor of environmental law at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon and a water justice advocate. She has worked with MPP (MPP website)for going on five years now, helping to provide funding and bring awareness of the need for clean water in the rural and disadvantaged communities of the Central Plateau. Susan is the Clean Water Leader for the United Church of Christ (UCC).

The Artibonite valley, with the majestic Artibonite river running through, is considered Haiti's "rice basket." While water is superabundant in the lower elevations of Verettes, it is can be extremely difficult in the mountain communities. Hosted by Nestly Voltair and other leaders of ODEVPRE (Organization for Development and Environmental Protection of Verettes), Susan was invited by ODEVPRE to see first hand the needs of the communities surrounding a spring known as Remonsaint. This site was about two and a half hours of tedious driving on a barely existent road. Walking, the community is about the same distance from Verettes, taking the much (much) steeper foot paths.

Susan Smith (blue shirt, red hat) visiting with the women and children patiently collecting water that slowly seeps into holes dug in the sand in this ravine. When I asked permission of the women to take this photo, they agreed without reservation, noting that the more people who know of their situation, the more hope they have that there can be change. Coordinates: N 18.99427, W 72.54382.

Trying to get some type of estimate for the number of people who depend on this site for their water, we asked the folks collecting water how many communities used this site. They listed for us about ten different mountain communities that come here during the driest months of the year (usually January-March). Then we asked about how many people live in each of those communities. The response that was a range. Folks estimated that the smallest had as few as 200 and the largest had at least 500. We took 300 as a possible average, which would mean that this ravine may be the main water supply for as many as 3,000 mountain inhabitants, for some part of the year.

Capping the Remonsaint water source. A Swiss aid organization, Helvetas (Helvetas) is helping the community of Remonsaint cap the spring and build a large cistern to store the water. It impressed me to find a non-governmental organization able to identify a need in an area as remote as this, and respond.

We spent a good bit of time visiting the folks working on the large cistern that will hold water from the spring and Susan and I were particularly impressed with one of the workers and a member of a local community (Terre-nette), Onondieu Louisius.

Onondieu Louisius from Terre-nette, one of the workers building Remonsaint's cistern. Onondieu helped explain the need for reforestation and the complications the communities face in following through with that need. Onondieu gave me permission to publish his photo on internet and to share his observations.

Onondieu was clear that the mountains of Verettes desperately need tree cover for many reasons, but especially to protect and increase the water supply for the local communities. He was also elegant in explaining some of the complications. Onondieu pointed out that because the area is remote and the road is so bad, trees grown in nurseries at lower elevations suffer too much by the time the reach the area around Remonsaint. That means that local tree nurseries are needed to produce trees that don't need to be transported long distances, and are better adapted to local conditions. But in an environmental catch-22, the lack of water during the dry season makes it impossible to establish a viable tree nursery during the dry months, which is when they have to be produced in order to plant them out during the rainy season. Onondieu noted that of course the area could produce trees during the rainy season, but said, " If we grow them during the rainy season, what will be the use of planting them out during the dry season? They will just die." He also noted that there are organizations that often come in and give away trees to local farmers, but they rarely come back to find out if the trees were planted, or if they survived.

Inside the cap. The bamboo is holding up the form until the cement dries thoroughly. Once the main part of the cap is formed, the workers will remove the bamboo and fill in this space.

At this point, at the end of March, the spring was providing very little water. As it begins to rain in the area, some of our sources noted that fewer people would be coming to get water, which would give the spring time to recharge and  to fill up the cistern. However, when we calculated the size of the cistern that is being built, we found that it would hold about 22.5 m3 of water, or about 22,500 liters. At 25 liters per person per day (the minimum per person used as a standard by the United Nations, according to Susan), the cistern would provide enough water for about 900 people, less than a third of the people who may depend on it.


As we left the spring, Susan observed, "Every time I think I have found the community that is struggling with the most difficult situation in terms of water, I find people struggling with a problem that is even harder."

African red worms doing their thing! Eudrilus eugeniae

Wilner Exil's red worms. From left to right, first hand shows the dried manure that we use as food for African red worms. The middle hand shows the worms at work and the third hand shows the finished product, full of worm castings. African red worms do an excellent job of turning dried, resource-limited cow, horse and donkey manure into a high quality, nutrient-concentrated compost. The worms reduce the carbon and concentrate the nutrients, increasing the microbial life exponentially as well. We also add a variety of green leaves to the manure to increase the nutrient value of the compost. We do not use kitchen waste because we have found that it creates a fatal attraction for fire ants. "Fatal" for the red worms, not the fire ants.The scientific name of African red worm: Eudrilus eugeniae

Hydraulic ram pump: Leodiagüe, Hinche (4th Section)

This past March 23rd, after MPP's 40th Anniversary Congress had ended, I walked up from Bassin Zim with Herve Delisma and Susan Smith to visit the hydraulic ram pump that Buzz and I and a motley assortment of others (see September 9, 2012 blog, Hydraulic Ram Pump) installed last August to serve the home and yard of Wilner Exil. Here are the photos with observations and the analysis provided by Wilner Exil.

Leodiagüe, and Hinche in general, is into its fifth month with just one bit of rain in January. All of the river and stream levels throughout the Central Plateau are low. The fact that the system is still working is a very good sign in terms of the viability of the stream, not to mention the ingenuity of Wilner and his family.
 

Bassin Zim, a couple hundred feet below where the community of Leodiagüe is situated. The waterfall is Bassin Zim, the river is Samana.

Two of Wilner's children, "Madanm" and "Ti Ben." They were my models for most of these photos, to help keep them from being just utterly mundane and uninteresting. They are sitting by the dam made from sandbags. Wilner reports that he had to reconstruct this dam approximately three times from when we first built it the end of August until the end of the rainy season in October. One of those floods was from Sandy.

Wilner reports that one of the most serious problems were the fish, frogs and generally the "kras" that would enter the 2" pipe. So one of Buzz's jobs (smile) is to help create a sieve that keeps the frogs out, but lets the water flow freely.

The 2" line going under a barbed wire fence (to the left). We used SCH 40 PVC, because we could not find a source of HDPE (High Density Polyethilene) flexible pipe in Port au Prince. This was the source of many of Wilner's problems.

Madanm posing for me by one of the makeshift joints that Wilner had to create as put the system back together after one of the floods.

Ti Ben sitting by one of the elbows that Wilner put in to replace the bends that Buzz created by softening the pipe in fire and bending it. Wilner said that the makeshift bends collected too many frogs, fish and other "kras," blocking the free flow of the water. So he sawed through them, cleaned them out and replaced them where he could with elbows, or with "akò," a piece that joins two pipes together. We originally used the makeshift bends instead of elbows because Buzz thought the 90º elbows might be reducing the water velocity and reducing the efficiency of the pump. One solution led to another problem.

Madanm at one of the remaining heat-treated bends.

An unintended bend, caused by flooding which tore the pipes out and lashed them against trees. The pipes were particularly vulnerable where the pipe bends awkwardly around the stream bed's curves.

Wilner showing where water is leaking out of a joint. Buzz left some higher quality PVC cement for Wilner to use, but when that ran out, Wilner bought the run of the mill variety available in Hinche, which did not work well as he tried to glue everything with water running through. This joint is what is called an "akò" in Creol. I always forget the word in English.

Another joint that leaks due to crappy PVC cement. On the right is the stand pipe which acts as a buffer to keep the water pressure in the system even and the pump working more smoothly.

The actual pump. The feedline is galvanized 1 1/2" pipe (to the right), the most expensive component of the system. Wilner Exil is leaning on the pressure chamber, which magnifies the force of the water running through.The other critical pieces are the one-way valve to the immediate right of the pressure chamber (horizontal) and the most magickest of the valves, the vertical one that lets water pour out until the velocity is sufficient to shut the valve and force the water into the pressure chamber, and from there up the delivery line, up, up, up the hill. (To the right of Wilner is Ti Ben, Herve Delisma and Susan Smith).

Wilner told us he has taken the pump apart several times to clean out the frogs and the fish and has got it back working each time. Buzz left the two pipe wrenches he had purchased with Wilner to make sure he could do that.

The pay off. Close to hundred feet above the pump (elevation), the water trickles into this barrel. We measure the flow using a 591 ml bottle which took 2.75 minutes to fill. That makes for about 12.9 liters an hour, approximately 3.3 gallons, or about 79 gallons a day. (If we made any errors in our calculations, please let us know.)

3.3 gallons an hour does not set the world on fire, or, I guess, would not put out a fire that was set. But the pump works continuously (when not blocked by frogs, fish and other "kras") for free. No additional fuel or electricity costs, and 79 gallons a day of relatively clean, and relatively labor free water is nothing to sneeze at. Its to water plants with!

Also worth noting is that Leodiagüe, and Hinche in general, is into its fifth month with just one bit of rain in January. All of the river and stream levels throughout the Central Plateau are low. The fact that the system is still working is a very good sign in terms of the viability of the stream, not to mention the ingenuity of Wilner and his family.

Here is a summary of the problems that Wilner noted that Buzz (and us) will need to work on:

1) Each time the stream floods, the dam has to be rebuilt and the pipes put back together. In terms of the pipe, the particular vulnerability are the joints which always end up crossing catercorner to the flow of the stream. The 2" line bringing the water to the feedline is particularly troublesome, but the 1/2" delivery line, where it crosses the stream, is also a problem.

2) Putting the pipe back together dry is very difficult, and the Hinche-available PVC cement does not work on the wet pipe.

3) Because of constantly putting the system back together, the elbows and the "akò"s are costly. The system as it is also needs a couple of new 2" SCH 40 PVC.

Despite all the problems and the periodic labor, the system is working and providing a valuable product that is used by two or three households. The question is clearly not whether it is worth it, but how to improve it to function more efficiently and with much reduced ongoing costs for materials and labor.

Most of the problems with the system can be eliminated, or at least reduced, by finding a source of High Density Polyethilene flexible water pipe.