Introduction of manual drilling sector in Guinea

In Guinea about 35% of child mortality is due to communicable diseases like diarrhea and respiratory infections that can be prevented through safe water consumption and improved sanitary and hygiene practices. The low coverage of water-points is primarily due to high costs associated with drilling boreholes. There is little or no knowledge on the use of manual drilling techniques that could help reduce these costs drastically from 10,000 to about 1,500 USD per well. Moreover, manual drilling techniques can access the vast remote areas that cannot be reached by heavy drilling-rigs.

Goals

The purpose of professionalizing manual drilling is to dramatically increase the installation of water-points for the hard-to-reach poor communities in Guinea, with a low investment cost. The objectives of this multi-year program are:

Develop the capacity of the manual drilling sector
Develop capacity for quality control, monitoring and certification.
Develop national policies and procedures to recognize manual drilling as an alternative

Activities

Training in well drilling techniques including augering, jetting, rota-sludge and manual percussion where applicable to improve the technical capacity of well drilling enterprises.
Improve the business management of 10 well drilling enterprises through business development training.
Work with the SNAPE to develop the foundation for a certification program for manual drillers.
Set-up quality control and provide continuous coaching for the installation of 500 manually drilled wells and hand pumps.
Training of controllers on use of the VES siting kit.