In June 2024 AndrewSymons and David Saunders completed a Half Iron Man event planning to raise £7000 to provide a borehole for a community in West Pokot Kenya they successfully completed the event and raised £6500. Through a friendship with a local villageelder called Ngironyang a man in his mid-eighties weheard that his village needed a reliable and clean water supply, the only water supply being a seasonal river when the river is dry, they were digging intot h e riverbed to find water. Les Saunders one of our trustees visited the village in the dryseason in Jan 2024 to findwomen and young children digging for water. David and Andrew agreed that this would be where the money was spent.
The plan was for themt otravel to Kenya in September 2024 to see the borehole drilled, a geological survey was commissioned which indicated favorable conditions and a reasonably goodchance of a sufficient supply of water. Adrilling permit was applied for to enable drilling to start, On Saturday 14* of September the drilling crew mobilised to the site from our base in Konyao they encountered an issue getting to site despite work having been done to improve the access to the village the rig got stuck in a dry riverbed the crew worked to site.
The sitew a s cleared and drilling commenced on the Monday the first aquifer (water) was struck at 33m then a further one at 57m we drilled to a total depth of 100m the survey indicated there would be at least one more aquifer which was not the case. At 60m the compressor developed a problem which thankfully we were able tofix despite delaying the drilling by a week.