Workshop on first Prototype. 20 August 2014

So today was the first initial sit down with the farmers to get a rough idea of what it is they would want the pump to do. The main concern is that they use municipal water for their crops that results in a higher water bill for the school. Which means the best way of approaching the problem is to utilize the borehole for water.
I did manage to show some concepts to the farmers of what it is I want to design to pump the water out of the borehole. The reaction was good and was a good motivation for them to see that there is progress happening.

The borehole is quite a distance from the patches of land they farm on. But by laying some pipes this will help the transportation of the water from the borehole to the jojo tank and from there to the farming patches. The initial idea of logistics will be that the pump will be situated next to the borehole where the pumping of water will happen. The water will then be transferred to a jojo tank were the water will be stored. Water will then rush into the pipe which is laid from the tank to the farm patches. The outlet will be situated in the middle of the farmland for efficiency.

I also saw some interesting problem solving from the farmers which I though was pretty awesome. Very much a ''boer maak n plan'' approach to some of the problems. So the farmers merely have a hosepipe with one attachment no sprinkler or anything. But one of the farmers devised a plan how to water parts of the patches without literally standing there and watering the patches of vegetables. He used a brick as a mount for the hosepipe to be wedged into and then the hosepipe doubles up as a sprinkler, I thought that this was clever and here is a picture of it.

Next week will be the role out of the first concept for testing and hopefully will bring about some insight on what further needs to be considered for the best possible design solution.