Short report with recommendations from visit to Hargeisa & Bosasso,

19 – 26 April 2007

Carried out by:

Eric Fewster
Table of Contents:

Assessment Methodology.....................................................................................................................................................24

Time-frame..........................................................................................................................................................................24
Sources of information....................................................................................................................................................24
Geographic locations visited.........................................................................................................................................24

Comments & technical recommendations.................................................................................................................24

Ina Cadami..........................................................................................................................................................................24
Asha’ado..............................................................................................................................................................................25
Oodweyne...........................................................................................................................................................................25
Burco....................................................................................................................................................................................26
Berbera.................................................................................................................................................................................27
Shacabalay.........................................................................................................................................................................28
Bosasso................................................................................................................................................................................28

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Assessment Methodology

Time-frame

The site visit took place between the 19th and 26th April 2007.

Sources of information

The following sources of information were used:

 Mostly by field visits & sight
 Water analysis with DRC staff in Bosasso
 DRC engineers in Hargeisa & Bosasso

Geographic locations visited

The following areas were visited:

Somaliland:
 Hargeisa IDP areas
 Ina Cadami
 Asha’ado
 Oodweyne
 Burco, including IDP areas
 Berbera
 Shacabalay
Somalia Puntland:
 Bosasso town – IDP areas, water supplies

Comments & technical recommendations

Ina Cadami

Technical summary:

DRC has made 2 berkeds in this village, taking the total number to 12. Three out of the non-DRC
berkeds are damaged, apparently due to thin walls when villagers cut costs in construction. Sometimes
local roofs are made from brushwood to minimise evaporation. DRC berkeds were well constructed
(except one with sagging roof that had been constructed on thin poles).

In general, I like the idea of the berked as an effective rainwater harvesting technique – each village that
is not near a riverbed has several berkeds, one for about 10 – 15 families and the water seems to be
enough to last the dry seasons (Wet season = Apr-Jun; Oct-Dec, Dry season = July-Sept, Jan-Mar).
These berkeds are owned, with locked doors, therefore presumably operation & maintenance is not such
an issue (compared with, for example Madagascar, where the “impluviums” are not fenced or cared for
by anyone). Water levels we saw were low, and turbidity was low, but I don’t know what turbidity is like
just after the rains.

One issue seems to be water quality, since run off may come from a wide area that is potentially
contaminated by animals and humans. Even if it hadn’t been contaminated, water in the berket is drawn
up by bucket, which is pretty certain introduces new contamination from unwashed hands. No water
testing has been done though to date. It would be interesting to look at turbidity variation over wet and
dry seasons, as well as diarrhoea incidence (in Madagascar, more diarrhoea occurs after rain when run
off from defecation areas enters the rivers where people fetch water). The fact that people have been
drinking this water for 50 years should not stop DRC from improving the quality.

Recommended action points:

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  Check roof build quality. I think other berkeds we saw were better in this respect though.
 Measure turbidity in berked water at different times of year – gives us an idea for treatment
options. Also measure other parameters (chemicals, microbiological) to have a full idea of water
quality issues. I am buying this stuff at the moment from the UK and will bring on 28th May.
 I am not sure that village-level roughing/sand filters will work (cf. document given to Rashid). This
is because there are too many berkeds per village, meaning a lot of cost and construction to
cover one village, while some berked owners may not appreciate or want it. Rather, I think we
could trial out household biosand filters using the commercial approach that worked in other
countries (e.g. Mozambique, Kenya). The approach is explained here:
http://www.biosandfilter.org/biosandfilter/index.php/item/273. This would entail setting up an
entrepreneur to make concrete household level filters using locally available cement and
materials, selling on the filters for profit which ensures true sustainability of the project. Filters
would be marketed in the same way like other products, but it means that people have a choice
of water treatment if they desire, while taking care of the maintenance properly.
 To start this up, DRC can get some round moulds made up (start with say 2) – one mould makes
one filter per day. We (BushProof) can supply them for a reduced cost of 650 Euro each ex-
Nairobi, but equally if you have good metalworkers, then download the mould making instructions
here and get made up in Hargeisa: http://www.biosandfilter.org/biosandfilter/index.php/item/273.
Note that quality control needs to be tight especially regarding even spacing between outer walls
and inner core.
 In addition to the moulds, if DRC does this you need to have sieves for sand analysis and
electronic scales (both needed for sand analysis). I can get these from the UK to bring by 28th
May.

Asha’ado

Technical summary:

Saw a “balli” (open dam) that was dry. Seems as though DRC only ever made one from scratch in 1998,
other involvement being de-silting or enlargement (as in this case). This balli was desilted in 1997, has
been fenced to prevent animals getting to the water, while troughs have been put in. Water lasts for 3
months before drying up.

Some quality control issues with the balli: cracks in concrete due to improper curing, PVC pipe exposed
to sunlight, fence post not deep enough so falling over, etc. Not sure the fencing is going to work – bit
botch job.

Went to see a berked nearby used by the school which DRC had roofed. Dimensions: 15 x 6 x 4 metres.
Seems like berkeds are not built unless the village is far away from a riverbed – in this case, it was only
for the school, and for domestic water they get it using camels from the Oodweyne riverbed 5km away.

Recommended action points:

 General quality control and attention to detail in construction

Oodweyne

Technical summary:

Saw the wastewater tank at the slaughter house – pretty rough construction.

Went to visit the riverbed. GAA seems to have done some large diameter wells in the riverbed complete
with hinged covers. Water level 3.6m below sand surface. Abstraction system seems to be by buckets,
everyone using their own. No wells were seen in the riverbanks.

Recommended action points:

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  General quality control of DRC structures.
 As far as a technical solution goes, it would be interesting to trial some jetting in the riverbanks
and/or in the riverbed itself, depending on the material making up the riverbanks. We had quite
some success with this in Madagascar, Darfur and Sri Lanka where sometimes you had to dig a
few meters by hand first. Application previously was for anything from handpumps to irrigation to
refugee supply. I guess what pump you would install, whether it would be permanently installed,
whether you drill in the riverbank or riverbed – this all depends on local preference and needs
(domestic, irrigation). A video of jetting can be viewed here:
http://bushproof.biosandfilter.org/index.php?id=151
 Another technical solution is low cost manual drilling when jetting is not possible. We are
trialling/modifying the technique for 34 wells in Madagascar at the moment, so by Sept/Oct we
may have modified it to the point of it being useful for DRC. While the riverbank may be jettable
(where sandy), it may not be as was the case where the drilling contractor showed us the drilling
samples where it was made up of silts, clays, sands and finally rock. All the equipment for it can
be manufactured locally if you have a metalworker that can do good welding, plus access to 2” GI
pipes.
 Some discussion:
o Riverbank vs. riverbed: in other areas during the visit, we found wells in the riverbanks,
also we found a contractor drilling in the riverbank near Sheikh, proving that abstraction
via riverbank is possible (which it isn’t always). The advantage of riverbanks is that any
abstraction mechanism is not going to be affected by floods. Jetting is also possible in the
riverbed, but pipework needs to be buried sufficiently deep (e.g. 1.5m+ depending on
flow) to avoid being washed away (if putting pump on riverbank).
o Water depth and pump choice: where the difference between water level and riverbed is
over 6-7m then suction pump won’t work. E.g. the river where we found the drilling
contractor was 11m to water in the riverbank, and about 9m to water in the riverbed. In
such a case, it would be better to install a narrower handpump in the riverbank for
domestic use (that would fit inside the 63mm pipe we jet with). You could install a
submersible pump driven by generator but not sure people use those in Somalia, and also
we didn’t yet experiment with manual drilling to such a large diameter (about 120mm) so
it’s an unknown.
 If you want to experiment with jetting, we would need the following:
o 2” centrifugal suction pump powered by a Honda motor (apparently available in Hargeisa).
Note: Chinese pumps are not worth it.
o 15 metres of 2” reinforced suction hose with hose clips
o Some geotextile to wrap around screens (I can bring back some geotextile from the UK
for trialling it out)
o 80mm perforated/corrugated land drain pipe, probably from Nairobi. Not available in
Somaliland – Rashid tried to find before.
o 63mm PVC pressure pipe, with PVC solvent cement
 For the manual drilling, I can bring back a welded drill head from Madagascar in September,
which would give the dimensions etc. The rest can be made on site. Would need also the 2”
pump as used for jetting, plus some other bits and bobs made locally.
 I have contacted the British Geological Society about information on hydrogeology in Somaliland.
Apparently there is a map from the 1980’s that I am trying to get hold of that may shed some light
on things.

Burco

Technical summary:

Visited Sheikh Bashir and Sheikh Yusuf schools. Cracks have appeared in the rehabilitated buildings of
Sheikh Bashir since the heavy rains in November 2006, and these cracks are probably largely due to
damaged foundations that had resulted from previous bombing. With heavy rains, foundations may have
moved a bit, opening up the plaster job done on the walls. In new build (e.g. Sheikh Yusuf school floor),
it seems that there are some cracks that are a result of insufficient curing during construction.

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Also visited IDP areas (Ali Hussein and Kosar) to see latrines. They are family-based latrines that seem
to be used by the IDPs and all the ones we saw were clean – no faeces seen around latrine slab, which
is often not the case. I am always definitely in favour of family-based latrines as opposed to communal
for just this reason. There are a few things to tweak regarding the slabs – see Berbera section below.

Recommended action points:

 Ensure better curing during construction. Currently the engineers visit every 2 weeks or so, more
often when critical stages are underway (foundation, lintels), but what you really need is a
supervisor on site from start to finish for the larger jobs (such as schools). How you can get a
supervisor that pays attention to detail is anyone’s guess, but you need someone who is detailed
and on site.
 Possibly re-think the management set-up. A point raised by the engineers was that the planning
of the time spent by engineers in different areas is not necessarily done by the engineers
themselves, but is done by the administration part of Community Development. While this may
seem to make sense in trying to create an integrated programme where engineers don’t just think
technical, after the baseline assessment has been made when the engineering and CD sectors
might come together, the objectives for work should be clear. I think the engineers know what
takes time and is critical, and what does not, what needs more or less supervision, and can then
plan themselves accordingly. There was one case of one of the engineers being kept on a small
well supervision project when in fact this did not require much supervision, while at the same time
there was a large rehab project that needed supervision but CD did not allow the engineer to go,
even though it was in the same area. Also there are complaints that vehicles are managed by the
CD guys and sometimes are not available for engineers. I was not there long but it seems there
are underlying issues between the engineers and CD regarding work planning. This is because 3
of the engineers are under the Community Development management line, whereas 2 of them
are under Engineering. Would it make sense to put them all under Engineering? Anyway,
probably needs more discussion and I wasn’t there long, but I have similar experience from
Dadaab where administration control the watsan work insofar as they control the vehicles etc,
resulting in less work done.

Berbera

Technical summary:

Visited latrine slab workshop. The slabs need some tweaking – footrests are in the wrong place (nobody
seemed to have actually tested them), no slope towards the hole for cleaning, 60mm thick only and yet
10mm rebar used at 11cm spacing (over the top). Reason for using the 10mm rebar I was told was due
to concrete problems specific to Berbera, where structures do not last long. This could be due to
standard workmanship issues like curing and mixing, but equally it could be due to salinity of the water
used for concrete which corrodes the rebar, or could be due to sulphates.

Recommended action points:

 Slab improvement through:
o Correct positioning and shape of footrests – can be done by drawing round peoples feet
on flipchart paper as they pretend to squat. Alternatively use dimensions from Sudan (see
Eric’s document on sanplat construction, left with Hassan in Bosasso, or can send by
email). Make a metal footrest mould which has the footrest positions welded in place (see
same document).
o Increase thickness of slab to 65mm
o Use maximum size of gravel of 20mm – sieve can be made to sort gravel
o Slope slabs towards centre
o Make smooth finish to concrete for easy cleaning, also the hole lining.
o Create a better drophole by using a wooden hole mould, in place of their plastic version
which doesn’t make a clean hole (see Eric’s document for design). Shape of drophole to
be 300mm long x 150mm wide at widest point.

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 oRemove any moulds (frame, footrest, hole) after 10 mins maximum – any longer and you
will either break the mould or concrete. Cement should have less water in it to allow this
to happen.
o Proper curing
 Check conductivity/salt content and sulphates in water used for concrete. If sulphates are high, it
may be best to switch to sulphate-resisting cement which has lower levels of tricalcium aluminate
(C3A). Other cements are susceptible to react to sulphates in certain soils/groundwater and may
cause deterioration of the concrete. Eric is buying equipment to do these tests.

Shacabalay

Technical summary:

Saw a sand dam constructed on a river where there had been no water storage upstream. It is a
successful project and there is now water upstream in the existing well. Not sure how much people are
using that water since they seemed to be pumping water from downstream, but was told there were
“farms” all along the river. Technically the solution had worked well.

Bosasso

Technical summary:

Went to see the latrines in the IDP areas. Supervision is definitely an issue and seems to have been an
issue for some time. The quality of workmanship and attention to detail is bad, more so inside the
latrines than outside. The doors on the latrines are also not well made – I think the word “botch job”
describes it well. Sometimes also the hole was dug too wide – the family digs the first half metre, then
the mason comes to line it but if they dug too wide, the mason also lines it too wide instead of keeping
the inner dimension to 1m2 (and then gets paid for the bad work). The same slab issues are present here
as in Berbera, but I discussed these with Hassan and the mason making slabs. Hassan said that they
would implement the improvements (discussed under Berbera section).

I guess for structural purposes the latrines are fine, and much better than the fly-blown shacks people
are living in, but for the money that is spent (and for donors), a better end product should be expected.
Not saying that they need to be plastered or anything, only that the workmanship should be a good
quality to reflect the money spent.

Did a small calculation on the cost of the DRC slabs made in the office – they come to about 16.40 USD
including a 10% breakage factor, so is a cost I’d expect. The blocks bought from the local factory seem
to be a reasonable cost @ 0.27 USD a piece – in fact I make the cost to be about 0.9 USD each if using
a mix of 1:4, so not sure how they get so cheap. Is the figure of 0.27 USD per block correct?

There are definitely health & safety issues with the latrine construction (depth of unlined pit, falling
pebbles which I tested and are very loose in fact, one or two goats and people reportedly falling in due to
no fence). I know we are in the field and things are never perfect there, but there are some things we
could institute during the digging process to limit risk. Seems as though liability would not be on DRC if
there was an accident since the digging is the responsibility of the family, but it doesn’t make the risks
any less.

Also went to see the new house construction.

Got involved with some water testing. We made the broth in one batch, tried to recalibrate the incubators
and did some water tests on 5 out of the 6 water wells in town (one owner has refused and will “kill me if
I come there again” – as one would naturally say to anyone who wants to test water….). Previous water
tests had been done at 37 degrees (total coliforms), so we did it at 44 degrees (faecal coliforms) but the
recalibration had not been done perfectly and the temperature was too high – some coliforms had
started to lactate (producing yellow) but no colonies were seen because they probably died off before
growing too much. Testing needs to be redone, but it was clear that there was no bacteria in one of the

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wells in Madaxtooy and one of the wells in town – however, this needs to be confirmed at the right
temperature to get numbers.

Chlorination is being done by ladies trained by Unicef. I went with Fartoum a few times to check chlorine
residual in the public berkeds, and also to see how they are dosing the trucks. Chlorine residual at a few
berkeds ranged from 0 – 0.1 mg/l (below the recommended 0.2 – 0.5 mg/l). The cause was assumed to
be the ladies who are chlorinating, but without evidence we didn’t know. Low residual could be due to
someone not doing their job (sloppy), or dosing wrongly (misinformed), or that the berkeds are refilled
only after many days allowing the residual to drop (physical effect - residual drops, especially in open
tanks).

So in order to start clarifying the cause of the issue, we followed 2 of the trucks from 2 of the wells to find
out what residual was remaining after 30 minutes and the result both times was 0.7 – 0.8 mg/l. While this
seems on the high side, it’s OK since by the time the public berkeds are filled and over time, the chlorine
residual would go down – (I would worry if the residual in the truck was 0.1 mg/l). I reckon therefore you
should check all the trucks from all the wells to ensure that the dosage given is resulting after 30 minutes
with an acceptable level of chlorine (i.e. - a raised level) – this is important since we can find out if (a)
dosage rates are wrong as a result of sloppiness or (b) dosage rates are wrong as a result of
miscalculating truck volumes – in one well the lady there adds more or less chlorine dependent on the
truck size, so it’s conceivable that dosage rates could vary.

We tested the water pH which was 6.6, therefore for chlorination it is fine.

Cholera is occurring in the town, and about 75% of the cholera (or water diarrhoea) cases use water
from the wells outside of town (Madaxtooy). However, until we get water test results, we do not know for
sure if there are faecal bacteria in the source water. The wells are shallow (about 7 metres) and one of
the wells (Yusuf’s) is open and anyone with a bucket can come and collect there as well, so it is quite
possible that the wells and shallow aquifer is contaminated, either by hands or by latrines. In addition to
the boreholes, I have seen a handpump (not sure how many there are) which is providing undisinfected
water – it would be good to find out how many there are and locations.

But even if we find faecal bacteria in the wells, we cannot assume that the water is the cause of the
diarrhoea since cause/effect is very hard to prove. More likely causes are open defecation mixed with
lack of hygiene and handwashing, in a very densely packed environment. This is the environment I saw
in the IDP area where the cholera issue started. Handwashing therefore should be an effective and quick
way forward to prevent diarrhoea. Studies show that handwashing alone is the most effective way to
reduce diarrhoea, and several hardware options were given to Santiago to look at. Certainly it’s probably
the most cost effective solution that can also be implemented fairly rapidly.

Recommended action points:

 See Berbera slab improvement. I left a document with Hassan about footrest dimensions. In
addition, the drophole size needs to reduce which I think they are doing already (see Eric’s slab
document).
 Supervision issues are not only due to masons and carpenters, but is mainly the fault of the
supervisor. Better supervision is needed of masons and carpenters, with stricter checks prior to
payment (don’t pay them until the work is done as per contract).
 Health and safety issues – things you can do:
o Limit the depth of an unlined pit to 3 metres (like our hand dug well guidelines)
o Along with tools, issue helmets against falling stones
o Get some plastic construction fence (lightweight, comes in a roll) and issue with tools
about 15 metres, returned with tools later.
o Probably not possible if digging is delegated to families, but when we make hand dug
wells, a rescue method is used where the digger always wears a construction harness
attached to a rope, which allows someone to be pulled out quickly if overcome by fumes
(e.g. if there is engine exhaust entering a hole where someone is working, they can die
within minutes – hence reason for vent pipe and safety harness when digging a well –

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 same principle applies – e.g. if there is a large truck spewing exhaust close to a latrine in
progress).
 Recalibrate the incubators, and repeat every month as a matter of practice. You will need to do
this as per Wagtech instruction book (i.e. fill with petri dishes first), but as regards the timing
needed etc, refer to Delagua video (left with Fartoum). You need to allow 30 minutes after each
temperature adjustment (which we did), and then when stabilised wait 3 hours (which we didn’t
do). After this, switch off and let it cool, then restart the incubator and see if it stabilises again.
 Retest water samples from wells but be careful not to contaminate sample since the lids are
loose and could suck in contamination. Also check Fartoum when she takes the bottles out after
sterilising – if she uses her hand, then contamination is possible – use tweezers instead and
keep upright in a box somewhere.
 Buy proper water sample bottles (glass with plastic lids). Eric is doing this already.
 When making broth, make a whole batch (500ml) all at once rather than in bits. Put the broth into
as many polypropylene bottles as possible (say 10ml in each) because once opened, you should
really discard any broth after a day or two – if you have only a small amount in each bottle then
there is little wastage. This is because:
o Humidity can affect the powder over time if it is opened constantly
o Broth has to be made up with exactly 500 ml distilled water with exactly 38.1 grams of
powder. Any variation in this is said to possibly affect results. Therefore to use a pre-
measured amount of 38.1 grams is preferable than having to weight or measure each
time.
o In addition, it is possible to contaminate the distilled water between use, so to make the
broth each time is also adding a contamination risk.
o Also your plastic poop-scoop measures that you measure broth powder with are not
sterilizable (they melt).
 Test chlorine residual for all trucks from all wells that are chlorinated to see if this is the cause of
the low residuals in the berkeds.
 Find out how many days there are between filling the different berkeds – this could also be a
cause of low residuals.
 Fence off and cover properly the well of Yusuf (near DRC house) to reduce hand contamination
via buckets.
 Find out how many handpumps are in use in the town and locate them. May give us some
information.
 Start a handwashing campaign, targeting IDP families with hardware and specific messages. I
would not complicate it with other hygiene messages since this tends to reduce impact.

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