Usalama Water Pipeline Update

The Usalama Water Pipeline is a gravity flow water system that connects to the main Kibwezi line and is meant to provide potable water for the village of Usalama. Mwikali's Gift contracted AMREF to design and build the project in late 2006/early 2007. As of today the project is incomplete with some water kiosks operational and intermittent water reaching the main tank.

One of EWB-NY's secondary goals during the Classroom Construction project was to perform a third party ex-poste evaluation of the Pipeline system in order to provide recommendations for remediation if necessary. There were some obvious limitations to our ability to perform a thorough evaluation. First, the project is incomplete, which makes "ex-poste" a little unrealistic. Second, we could not dedicate more than one Engineer (Matt Sisul) to the task, though he was teamed with the pipeline supervisor, James. This limited the extent in which the various system components could be evaluated and tested.

A little about the system:
The pipeline is run by the Usalama Water Board (UWB), a committee set up with the help of Mwikali's Gift and AMREF. The UWB is in charge of operation and maintenance of the system from the intake at the Kibwezi Pipeline junction, the mainline to the tank, the tank, and return lines from the tank going in two directions, north to Kiosks 1 & 2, and south to Kiosks 3, 4, & 5. The board also employs attendants to sell the water at the kiosks for 2 ksh per 20L Jerry Can. (Pretty Standard). The UWB pays the government water agency a tax for the use of the water that costs somewhere around 15 ksh per cu. meter. So the UWB makes a profit of 100 - 15 ksh per cu. meter water sold that goes toward paying attendants, maintenance and loses, the remainder of the money goes into a bank account for future capital expenditures.

Source:
The source of the water is the Umani Springs. Umani (or sometimes Umanyi) supplies water to Kibwezi town and many points north and south of Kibwezi (Makindu, Mtito Andei). The water emerges from the spring in a very clean condition, but likely picks up some bacteria in the pools before entering the pipeline. In 2006 the water at the spring tested positive for fecal coliform presence/absence.

Present State of the System:
It was not easy getting a sense of the present state of the system. But after discussions with many individuals and a first hand inspection I was able to get an idea of how the system is currently functioning in its incomplete state. The final system is meant to have a mainline that connects to the tank with two return lines, one going north to kiosk 1/2 and another south to kiosks 3/4/5. However, kiosk 1 is attached to the mainline and the return line is about 20 feet short. Kiosk 2 is attached to both the mainline and the return line, with a bypass system in place so the kiosk operator can switch between the two lines. Kiosks 3/4/5 are all attached to their return line. The tank does not receive adequate flow to fill in the 24 hour cycle, in part because kiosks 1/2 reduce the flow while operational and in part due to an overly optimistic design by the engineers at AMREF. Kiosks 3 & 4 can get adequate water when the tank is full, but this is rarely available due to issues with the flow into the tank. Kiosk 5 may be in a position to receive little to no flow, as it is in line with kiosks 3 & 4, and at a higher elevation, so perhaps when the tank is full and kiosks 3 & 4 are closed there may be potential, but that has not been verified.

Next Steps:
Our next task is to take the data collected during the pipeline inspection: alignment, elevations, pipe diameters/types, locations of intake, airvalves, kiosks, tanks, etc and try to create an "As-Built" profile of the pipeline. The profile can be used to determine the dynamic head losses in the pipe as the water travels from the intake to the tank and from the tank into the kiosks in order to determine:
1) That the profile and components are consistent with allowing water to flow via gravity.
2) What steps or changes to the system can be made increase the flow of water into the tank, thus ensuring adequate flow of water from the tank into the kiosks.
3) Key data is lacking in order to accurately determine expected flow rates, and that is the flow and pressure at the intake. We will have to set up a measuring program to measure the pressure at the airvalves closest to the intake and tank, as well as the flow into the tank (where pressure=0) at various times of the day, days of the week and months of the year to determine variation in flow at the intake and reliability of the system.

Pictures from the inspection are available here. See this older post for detailed maps of the system.

EWB-NY visits the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KeFRI)

On July 8th, 2010, Charles, Avi and I visited the KeFRI station in Kibwezi. We had met the supervisor, Edward, at a bar a few weeks earlier (our preferred method of meeting local high ranking government employees) and he had cordially invited us to visit his station and check out the work they do. Now, I had visited the site years before, during the initial water project assessment with Scott Snelling, because it is also the location of Kibwezi's water treatment system. I'd always wanted to get a tour of the facilities and see what sorts of forestry projects they were up to. It took a couple weeks, but we finally managed to find some time to visit.
We arrived in the morning and were welcomed by Edward. He took us over to the director's office (Mwendwa). There we discussed the many activities of KeFRI, their extension research in the area, focusing particularly on two plants, Jatropha and Mukua (Melia volkensii).
Jatropha is the wonder plant we've all heard of before. Its a bush that produces seeds that while inedible, contain high oil content, and are thus considered high potential for biodiesel. In fact, our friends over at EWB-Columbia have been working on a project utilizing Jatropha to fuel a multi-function engine in Uganda for some years now. But I digress. The advantages are obvious, and KeFRI has been trying to convince farmers to grow Jatropha in the area. One problem, there is no means of extracting the oil from the Jatropha and no where to process the oil into fuel, so no one is buying the Jatropha seeds. Maybe if someone knew of someone else who had experience developing multi-function engines that can process the jatropha seeds and convert the seeds into oil and the engine also runs on that oil, and maybe if they had experience working in East Africa...
Anyway, the second plant they were trying to introduce locally is the Mukau tree or Melia volkensii. It is a fast growing hardwood (10 yr to maturity) that is pretty drought and termite resistant. KeFRI staff train local farmers to grow it, as there is a pretty intensive process for cracking and preparing the seed to turn it into a seedling. The claim is that the Mukau will sell for a lot of money and is a good long term investment. Local reaction when we discussed Mukau later on was mixed, many complaining that you can't build with it (not a softwood) and others saying that it is great for furniture and very common.
In all it was a pretty interesting day. We learned a bit about a government extension program in the area and got some free seeds to take with us. We brought the seeds over to the primary school and Charles put a couple in a pot to see if he could get them to grow. Are Mukau or Jatropha right for the area, and could either be a future source of income generation? I think there are a lot of hurdles for either, the Jatropha needs the equipment and the Mukau is too long of an investment for most local farmers, but I'm glad to know that KeFRI is there doing research, as both offer potential, as long as the right capital investment is made...

You can find more pictures from the day here.

EWB-NY visits Kibera & the New Nairobi Dam Community Based Organization

On Saturday, June 26, Charles and I visit Kibera, Nairobi, the largest urban slum in Nairobi and the second largest urban slum in Africa (after Soweto, South Africa).

We were there visiting a contact, Ibraham, through a friend of the Usalama Project, Joe Mulligan. Ibraham is the managing director of the New Nairobi Dam Community Based Organization, which seeks to unite community groups within Kibera and to create public space within the slum. Already they have been successful in building gabions and bridges, in order to clear land on the outskirts that was previously unused. They are looking to expand operations by opening up a latrine and kitchen center that could be the second phase of projects in the space, and focused on income generating activities.

The previous projects, a mixed use community space and training facility have been pretty successful. in the training facility there is a woman's group that does basket weaving, and there are some vegetable gardens. The community space is basically a stage, with protection from the sun and rainwater catchment.

It was pretty intense in Kibera, most of my experience is in rural areas, and it was pretty amazing to see how people can survive in very very close quarters. Ibraham was a very interesting guy with a good vision for the organization and seems to have what it takes to see it through.

If you are interested in the organization or want to learn more, let me know, or see this link and this one. There might be opportunity for anyone who is interested in urban development and slum issues. Of course, there is no set program in place, so its something that requires taking the initiative.

More pictures of our visit are available here. A report is available here, and email me at matt@ewbny.org if you'd like more info.

Usalama Classroom Project is underway!

On the morning of June 7th, 2010, EWB-NY Usalama Project team members Charles Newman and Matt Sisul arrived at the Usalama Primary School to commence work on the implementation of four new classrooms. Though this post is coming three weeks after the fact, I thought it would be good to walk the reader through the project thus far. PS All photos are available HERE and HERE.

This post is a first look at the classroom construction from June 7th through June 28th, filling the reader in on the what's happened so far, sort of the greatest hits, and I'll be following this post with a second one, one that is a more detailed look at some of the intricacies and issues surrounding our role as resident architects/engineers, project managers and construction managers.

Classroom Construction: This section will cover the following construction activities: Site Selection, Excavations, Foundations, Floorslab prep work, Floor Slabs, and the start of the Masonry Walls.

Site Selection, June 7th, 2010

Charles and I arrive on the site to the warm welcome of Jackson, the school superintendent and village chairman, Mr. Katolo, the school principal, Charles Wambua, the deputy principal, Faustin, a teacher and the head librarian, and Priscilla a teacher.

Though we were itching to get started with excavation, we first had to present to the school our plans and get feedback before commencing. The main response to our plans, besides, “looks great,” and “yes! let’s get started,” was a request to reorient one of the classroom sets, from between the admin block and entrance south to between the 6 pack of classrooms and the library.

Excavation, June 8th and 9th, 2010

Day 1 of excavation consisted of clearing the sites and etching the edges of the floorslab into the soil. Day 2 involved excavation of 12 to 18 inches of organic and inorganic soil. Excavation was undertaken by parents of the students. The parents will again become a major contributor to the work of the project. The other main laborers are those skilled laborers, the “fundi” or masons and their assistants (mwanafunzi).

Foundations, June 10th through June 15th, 2010

Prior to pouring the foundations, we had to set the hardcore, essential large chunks of volcanic stone quarried in the region. It took a day to get the right levels, with masons hammering the stones into oblivion while Charles or I check the elevations with the construction level. We also spent time prepping the reinforcing steel (Y10 twisted), cut them to length and bent appropriately. A major change from the library project is the inclusion of vertical reinforcing in the buttresses. It requires reinforcing steel (chuma) to extend out of the foundation, and thus must be set in place with wood formwork in order to ensure the proper location once the concrete has set.

Friday, June 11th was the first day for setting of the concrete footing and we selected the western most classroom to be our first site. The process had some kinks, but all in all, it went rather smoothly, having the experience of a lot of the practices from the library construction the previous year. Saturday we poured the adjacent classroom, getting better at the process, so that on Monday we were able to pour both classrooms at once.

A note on naming conventions: we have named the site next to the library “Simba” and the site next to the admin “Tembo”. Simba is Kiswahili for Lion and tembo means elephant. It was a natural development, as we were referring to the classes as either the east or west set or north or south set. So E is for elephant, S is for Simba, Tembo is sorta right there in the middle of campus while Simba is sitting off on the side, waiting to pounce. I guess it’s one of those things that just makes more sense when you’re there!

Floor Slab prep work, June 15th through June 19th, 2010

We hit some of our first delays in the time between the foundation concrete and pouring the floorslabs. A lot of work had to go into setting up the floorslabs. First, one or two courses of stone masonry would have to be placed along the center of the foundation, as the stones end up being the forms for the slab. Some of the earthwork had to be cleared and hardcore placed and blinded (covered with a thin layer of cement/mortar/concrete to eliminate the gaps between the rocks). One problem included coming up with the right elevations for top of soil and top of hardcore while ensuring a 4” thick concrete slab, and a top of slab that lined up perfectly with the top of the stone. What made this process difficult was a delay in the delivery of the stones! We were trying to set the right heights of everything, but had no way of knowing just how high the top of slab would end up being. So after a couple days of clearing, setting the hardcore, resetting, smashing hardcore with sledgehammers, etc, we finally got the stone delivered, and the masons were able to lay the stone in 2 days.

However, this did provide an excellent opportunity to introduce the tube-level, a simple device for determining relative heights, that the masons could use themselves and thus eliminate for me the onerous task of using the construction level to determine elevation.

Floor Slabs, June 21st through June 23rd, 2010

Going into the floorslabs, we knew that this would likely be the most difficult part of construction. It requires the mixing of a considerable amount of concrete ( 30 to 35 bags per floorslab, in a 1:3:3 cement:sand:gravel unorthodox, but resulting from a supply deficiency in gravel) approx. 300 cu ft total, all mixed by shovel, and placed by the masons. We also used welded wire mesh in the middle of a slab to limit those pesky cracks that often result in concrete. We were only able to blind the first classroom, Simba low (Simba is on a slope, so there is Simba high and Simba low). We did our best to be as efficient as possible, but it still meant long days and a lot of stress. The parents, split into 4 groups and each assigned a classroom, were gracious enough to volunteer their time and energy collecting the water and mixing the concrete.

Masonry Walls, June 24th through time of writing (June 28th), 2010

Masonry walls started immediately following the floorslab. The only major surprise was some of the vertical reinforcing was of a smaller diameter than what was meant to be purchased! The masons continue, we now have Avi Guter joining Charles and I in the field, and we will keep you posted on future work!

Our scheme of four new classrooms for the Usalama community involve two new structures on either side of the administration building.  These sites impose minimal impact upon the existing site while defining a central courtyard for the school.  In addition to providing classroom space, we have incoroporated small shaded areas between the pairs of classrooms that will create additional social gathering and learning spaces for the students.

Our plans for the Usalama Kitchen are still in the planning phases and details will be determined by dimensions obtained while on the ground.  Our strategy revolves around creating an efficient wood/coal burning "rocket" stove built out of local materials - while constructing a roof structure that uses the prevailing wind condition to ensure proper ventilation of the space.  The materials used will be mostly mud brick, leftover roof panels from the old kitchen, and minimal amounts of concrete.  Use of such materials will permit maximum opportunity for repetition throughout the community.

    On behalf of the Engineers Without Borders NYC Professional Chapter, we would like to thank Mwikali’s Gift for the opportunity to implement it's generous donation to the Usalama Primary School.  We are anticipating a productive summer, and look forward to the next few months of design and construction work to come. 
Below you will find the our proposed scope of work for our coming summer implementation trip.  These rough sketches are intended to get the design process going for our team of designers and to establish an initial budget for the coming construction.  We will be posting images of our progress as our work develops into the Design Development and Construction Document phases.

Back to work....

The Engineers Without Borders team here in New York has returned to work preparing for the next round of construction this summer.  Through a generous donation from Mwikali's Gift, our team is working to establish a scope of work that will include construction of new classrooms, a new administration building, and improvement to the school's kitchen.  We look forward to posting our design progress over the next few weeks.