2014 Project

Torwood, Zimbabwe

Very welcoming and encouraging Emirates crew

Photo with the Emirates crew and pilots.

Friday 23rd May

We were treated and welcomed on board by the Emirates Captains Ricardo and Julian, Purser MariaLuisa and the crew on the flight from Dubai to Harare. They were also very happy to meet us and to hear about our project in Zimbabwe. As a parting gesture they took photos with us which they put into nice cards, they each signed and wrote encouraging comments.

Saturday 24th May

We met with a local entrepreneur whom we will be partnering with to help with horticultural resources including leguminous trees, fruit trees and vegetable seedlings for our pilot market garden project in Torwood, Zimbabwe.

Monday 26th May

We visited our 2013 borehole projects. The crèche and Batanai High School are making good use of their new boreholes. The 3rd borehole for the community in L Section is exceeding our expectations. This borehole is being used day and night with lines of people up to 50 metres in length. Families around this borehole are also no longer starving as they are using the water to develop new garden projects. They are also selling some of the vegetables to buy bread and other food.

Tuesday 27th May

We started drilling our first borehole for 2014 in Torwood section S outside of a hostel originally built to house 50 people but now over crowded with 250 plus people. This hostel has no electricity, no water, toilets that can no longer be used, no furniture, no beds and no cooking facilities. The 3 metre by 4 metre rooms house whole families. We have drilled the borehole and installing the bush pump.

On the same day we completed drilling borehole number 2 in Section H.

Wednesday 28th May

We completed borehole number 3 in Torwood Section C. We also drilled borehole number 4 in Torwood Section E-F.

Thursday 29th May

We completed drilling borehole number 5 in Torwood Section G. This area has had no water for more than 4 years. This borehole has a very good supply of water. We hit a water table very early on at only 9 metres. We then broke through another water table at 13 metres and then 20 metres. We only needed to drill to 36 metres instead of 40 plus metres as there is a big supply of water at this site.

We then moved to Section S/D Flats to complete drilling borehole number 6. At this site we hit water very quickly, at only 5 metres. We also broke through 3 water tables here and stopped at 36 metres as this was the best water supply yet. The water flow capabilities for this bore were measured at 45700 litres per hour. This would be a great location to further develop for irrigation and a water reservoir if we can get the resources.

Friday 30th May

Today we drilled in N/O section. This Section has had no water for 10 years. Originally this area wasn’t planned to have a borehole drilled this trip but the people who live in this section impressed us very much as they showed great initiative, motivation and hunger to have a borehole drilled in their section. The area was very dry as you can see by all the dust in the photo and caused some issues with fine dust forming cement in the hole as we reached the water but we blew out the borehole and eventually finished drilling at 50 metres. We will also pilot a gardening project in this area.

We then drilled in M/K section. This area hasn’t had water for about 6 years. We got to about 36 metres when the hammer drill bit jammed up with thick mud, all the 36 metres of drill had to be pulled up to clean out the drill bit so the last 4 metres could be finished. We drilled this hole to 40 metres. This is the 8th and final borehole for this trip. We also have had the pumps installed on the first 6 boreholes and the opening ceremonies will start from tomorrow (Saturday 31st May).

Saturday 31st May

On Saturday we did the opening ceremony for the first 4 boreholes. The opening ceremony was attended by hundreds of locals, the Redcliff Town Clerk, the Mayor of Redcliff Freddy Kapuya, several local Civic Leaders and Pastors, and of course our team from Water For Prosperity. The opening ceremony lasted for around 2.5 hours and was celebrated with singing, dancing and performances by local cultural dancers. These boreholes will make a life and death difference to thousands of people in this impoverished area.

Wednesday 4th June

All 8 boreholes are completely finished and operational. Pumps in, concrete set and handles on. The community is using these straight away.

Thursday 5th June

We purchased some eucalyptus trees (to grow for firewood) and some fruit trees and planted them by the borehole at N/O Section. We met Willard who lived near by and has a natural leadership and garden experience. He is heading up a community garden in the area.

Friday 6th June

We went to KweKwe and purchased a pick and around 50 packets of seeds of common vegetables grown in Torwood. We then met back up with Willard and some other natural leaders in N/O section and gave him the pick and half of the seeds for them to start their community garden .

Afterwards we went to the community bore in L section that we drilled last year. These people impressed us as they took initiative and grew lots of nice vegetable gardens around the bore. Some of the ladies were telling us that 10 months ago when we were here last, they were starving and weak, now they are feeling strong. They have also been selling some of the vegetables so now they have money to also buy bread and other items and they can send their kids to school with lunch. We gathered some of the gardeners in this section and gave out the other half of the seeds.