Water trucking to borehole rehabilitation
Introduction
MAI AINI — Moving from emergency water delivery to permanent infrastructure in drought-affected districts. What began as a local difficulty is now a structural one, and it shapes daily life for every household here. This report sets out what was measured, what it cost, and what changed.
The problem, before the work started
Trucking water is fast, expensive and endless; a rehabilitated borehole is slow, cheap and permanent. Households absorbed the difference themselves — in time, in money, and in risks they would not otherwise take. Those costs rarely appear in a budget line, but they decide whether a family recovers or slips further.
Trucking buys time. If you are not spending that time drilling, you are just buying it again next month.
Rahel Tesfay, water engineer
How the work was delivered
Every trucked litre is treated as a countdown to the borehole that replaces it. The approach was chosen because it survives the conditions here: staff turnover, seasonal access, and a population that may move at short notice.
- Trucking contracted month to month, never annually, so it can end quickly
- Boreholes surveyed while trucking runs, not after it stops
- Pumps specified for parts available in the nearest market town
- A water committee trained and paid before the handover, not after
What changed beyond the immediate goal
The direct objective was met, but the effects that matter most were the ones we did not set out to produce.
1. Cost that falls to nothing
A rehabilitated borehole costs a fraction of a year of trucking, and the saving compounds every month it runs.
2. Water that survives access loss
When a road closed for six weeks, the settlements on boreholes were unaffected.
3. Committees with a real budget
Tariffs set by the committee cover parts and a caretaker, which is what keeps the pump turning.
What comes next
The next stage retires trucking at four more sites and moves the saved budget into spare-part stockpiles. The measure of success is not how long we stay, but whether the work continues once we have gone.
