Report on Official Travel to Solomon Islands and Vanautu Benchmark Sites for Baseline Survey
Mission travel report on Identification of ground water tableto establish hand-dug well for the EU-ARD project in Madang, Derin (25-28 February 2013).
- Name:
- Itinerary
- Purpose
- People met/ visits
- Godfried Sovi,-DAL-Advisor
- Godfried Agabara-Provincial rice coordinator
- Mary Lilih (72975716)-Provincal Food Crop Coordinator
- Dolores Kamang-Project Officer,
- Delma Kingimali and Cathrine- District Food Crop coordinators
- Mr. Peter Kunou (Councilor)
- Joe Pomas (Primary School Headmaster)
- Mr Lauben (Villager)
- Mr. Thomas (an old man)
- Major events
- Field walk to identify water sources and related problems in the Derin community.
- Drilling at the selected sites using hand auger to find ground water level and manually and visual assess the typical characteristics of the soil and soil layers.
- Debriefing meeting and finalize and compile report for the mission travel
- Other Comments
- The councillor was reserved and hesitant to share the facts about water related issues (e.g. origination, surviving water source & potential sites to drill). Detailed information was later given by an old man.
Soil and Water Issues / Derin:
Date: 25/02/2013
Field walk to identify water source used for domestic purposes and water related problems at Derin.
The team comprising of Professor Loiskandl, Dr Dominik, two DAL staff and Mr. Tai Kui) met and informed the councilor about our visit. The field walk led us to several hamlets and crossing Majabudu creek three times until we arrived at Tadup Primary School, with Lutheran Church, Aid Post and a nearby village named Gaunder (road linked to that area) (see hand draw map).
According to the councilor there are three water sources which don’t dry out during dry season. Namely; Coromala creek, School Dam and Adam creek (Mogun village) a village outside of Derin. Most villagers get water from these sources during dry season and also wet season (people who don’t have access to rain water harvesting facilities). The Bud river located close to the community area dries partly out during dry season; however villagers dig 20-30 centimeters deep shallow holes at the river bed to collect the water. Which is an indication that groundwater can be found in reasonable depth during dry season.
Date 26-27/02/2013
Drilling of soils using hand auger to explore the subsoil and depth of ground water table.
One drilling exercise each was performed at the community area close to Bud River and the school dam.
Site A (community Area)
Every procedure was done According to Professor Loiskandl and Dr. Dominik instructions. The difference in elevation (measured using tape measure) from the riverbed of Bud River up to the ground surface was 2.9 meters. Augering was done app. 15 meters away from the river bank, and the soil samples were put respectively to their layers on top of the banana leaves. According to the results, the top soils humus content was high and according to visual and manual testing of the soil can be classified as silty loam. Starting from 1.5 meter depth the soil showed signs of alternately occurring changes between saturated and unsaturated conditions. Content of fine materials was still high. At 3 meters depth the soil was significantly wetter and changes of colour to grey and bluish (gley soil)beyond 3 meters became visible, which is an indication that the soil at this depth is under influence of water most time of the year. At 4 meters stagnant water was present. We drilled another meter to a depth of 5 meter and found the same colour clay soil, without any sign of gravel and sand. Almost 75% of the drilled soil was silty clay –to clay with presumably very low permeability, which would mean that the capacity of a well installed at this location would be very low. Four soil samples for further textural analysis were taken.
Date 27/02/2013
Site A (community area) river bank
At site A the borehole was checked and water was found at the depth of 3.6 meters.
In order to drill deeper and to get a better understanding of the composition of the subsoil at the community area, another drilling exercise was performed at the river bank of Bud river. A borehole was drilled to a depth 1.5 meters. Similar blue coloured soil was found but also course gravel material was present. A soil sample from that area was taken. However gravel could not be found upstream of this location. An explanation was given by a old man, which is described in the following.
The old man explained that the Majabuducreek once used to flow right across the community area to join Bud River. The course might have been diverted to the other direction, due to the accumulation of sediments. A slight depression in that area and were the creak join Bud River is still visible. At a location of river bank of Bud River water is flowing out of the river bank. According to the councilor the flow of water stops during dry season. One explanation can be that this spring type water source is a ground water outflow, which stops when the level of the ground water table drops during dry season. Another drilling exercise will be performed in this location at a later stage.
Site B (Tadup Primary School/School Dam)
The drilling procedures were the same as what done in community area. At the depth of 80centimeters grayish soil particles some very brown to reddish mottles were present.In greater depth grey coloured soil which is obviously under influence of water, was found at the depth of 1.6 meter.At 2 meters the soil was very wet, with mostly sandy texture. At 2.8 meters the soil colour became more grayish and bluish (gley). At the depth of 3.4 course sand and gravel materials were present fully saturated with water.Drilling was stopped at the depth of 3.5-3.6 meters. Four samples were taken for further textural analysis. The presents of courser material and gravel can be interpreted as an indication that groundwater and a reasonable aquifer with sufficient capacity for a hand-dug well could be found at acceptable depth.
28/02/2013
Debriefing meeting and preparation of report
Next actions / Derin:
- New drilling to be performed at location at the community area at the earliest suitable date.
- Development of training material on hygiene and water management in collaboration with World Vision.
- Training on hygiene and water management at Derin