The construction of a well has been started!

In Sri Lanka, the construction of a well, which is one of the main activities in the current projects, took off in July.

Agrowells are essential for those who are living in areas where only rainfed agriculture is possible, but access is currently limited.

JEN plans to construct 24 wells for 93 households in the next two months.

A 10-meter hole will be dug and blocks will be piled up from the bottom, so that almost all of the work will be done in the ground.

In areas where this project will take place, the quantity of groundwater is large so the construction sites are covered with groundwater once it rains. This makes very difficult to proceed with construction since frequent drains are needed while working on the construction.

For this reason, the plan is to finish by October when the rainy season starts in northern Sri Lanka. 

In the process of construction of a well, there are main steps such as excavation, stonemason, plastering, and measuring the amount of water. As for now, excavation has been completed on almost all wells that our constructor has started working on. Although excavation is done with power shovel, it often happens to be bedrocks on a couple of meters from the ground, which are hard to break with power shovel. In that case, a jumbo breaker is used to break them to proceed with excavation.

[The excavation with a power shovel]

Local people who are looking forward to have agrowells have started preparing small seed beds in order to start farming at the same time of accomplishment of wells. Also there are some people who try to draw water from an excavated hole using a bucket and a rope when the excavation finished because there is plenty of water in the hole which will become a well.

We will continue monitoring the construction of wells for people like this who have high motivation to start farming as soon as possible.

[The preparation of a seed bed in order to start farming at the same time of an accomplishment of a well]

[People are drawing water from an excavated hole]

[Blocks for stonemason are also handmade]

[Hopeful that this land is filled with vegetables a few months later]


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