I was pretty pleased today to be getting into some real work, with the hands y’know. Not like typing with the hands, but like using a saw with the hands, drilling screws with the hands (using tools as well of course), and even connecting plastic pipes with the hands.

After endless months of assessments and patiently getting on with their business, the community at Manaro St, so named after the Volcano that has displaced them from their home on Ambae island, are now the hopefully soon proud inheritors of a solar water pumping system.

Complete with six x 275 W solar panels, a 1000 W submersible pump, the system is capable of a maximum of 4000 L per hour. The system will replace a small petrol generator the community has been using to fill two 6000 L tanks, that were also donated by the Chinese Embassy. The system brings water closer to home for nearly 400 residents that previously faced an 800m walk to a slow trickle at a hand pump down the road.

The systems provided by Savvy Solar in Port Vila are surprisingly easy to install for anyone with a bit of DIY skills, and so far seem to be fitting the purpose pretty well. The set up used here is the JCS Cheers 4” Screw Pump JS4-100 with a maximum head of 100 m, priced at around $4700 NZD, for anyone in the market.

Next work for us is to work with the community to install the bases for the storage tanks, place the tanks themselves and the pipework and taps, followed by facilitating the Drinking Water Safety and Security Plan workshops, which forms part of Vanuatu’s strategy to achieve 100% access to clean water by 2030. Needless to say a long way to go, but these kinds of systems show a lot of merit on and island rich in groundwater, the salubrious Espiritu Santo.