Today we will spend visiting Robit, a village of about 7-8,000 that is a 2 hour drive from Gondar.  The community is located on a river that feeds Lake Tana and is prone to flooding in the rainy season. It makes the land in this area very fertile, thus the area surrounding Robit is a large framing community.

In late 2010, W2T agreed to fund (through Glimmer) a major deep borehole project to provide a sustainable water supply for the whole village.  This is the second largest project undertaken by W2T and it consists of a 330 feet deep borehole well with a submersible pump, 50,000 liter water reservoir with 2 ½ miles of distribution pipelines connecting to 8 water points throughout the community. Our implementing partner for the project is ORDA.
 
 
Historically, access to Robit has been a special challenge.  Because it is located in a wide flood plain that often is covered with water, access by vehicle is impossible for 4-5 months out the year.  This dramatically shortens the construction season for the project.  The great news is that the government has started the construction of an all weather road that will cover the last 11 miles to reach Robit.  The road is about ½ finished and stretches across a significant portion of the flood plain. You can see from the picture above that the portion of the road that has been finished is already well used by everyone in the area.
 
 
The new road and the good weather helped shorten our travel time to about 1 ½ hours.  Upon arrival, we head immediately to check on the progress for the reservoir. To create the proper pressure head to distribute the water throughout the community, the reservoir will be installed on top of support base that is 35 feet tall, by far the tallest man made structure in the area. 
 
 
The work on the base is nearing completion and the construction crew is working on the final top level of the base so they can begin preparation for installing the pre-fabricated reservoir. The reservoir will rise another 10 feet in the air.
 
 
Water from the reservoir will be distributed to 8 water points throughout the village. The location of the water points will be 5 for the densely populated parts of the village, 1 for the health clinic, 1 for the primary school, and 1 for the high school.
 
 
Each water point has a base platform of concrete and will have a total of six faucets from which villagers may draw water simultaneously. Each water point is appropriately fenced to keep animals away for the water and keep the contamination of the water point to a minimum. The one above is located near the primary school for the children.
 
 
A major portion of the community’s contribution to the project is the digging all the trenches for the distribution pipelines, over 2 ½ miles of it.  These are manually dug with picks and shovels. The one shown above will serve the health clinic.  About 40% of the trenching is completed and the effort requires a major mobilization of the community to finish this part of the project.
 
 
Sometimes on these trips, it’s easy to lose track of the days, but today as we walk around Robit, we see reminders everywhere that it is market Saturday. The population of Robit swells every Saturday as literally thousands walk into the community carrying their goods for sale and barter. They are bringing grain, teff, handmade items, livestock, chickens, etc. to the market.  It is entrepreneurialism at work at its most basic level!

 Today we will spend visiting Robit, a village of about 7-8,000 that is a 2 hour drive from Gondar.  The community is located on a river that feeds Lake Tana and is prone to flooding in the rainy season. It makes the land in this area very fertile, thus the area surrounding Robit is a large framing community.

In late 2010, W2T agreed to fund (through Glimmer) a major deep borehole project to provide a sustainable water supply for the whole village.  This is the second largest project undertaken by W2T and it consists of a 330 feet deep borehole well with a submersible pump, 50,000 liter water reservoir with 2 ½ miles of distribution pipelines connecting to 8 water points throughout the community. Our implementing partner for the project is ORDA.
 
 
Historically, access to Robit has been a special challenge.  Because it is located in a wide flood plain that often is covered with water, access by vehicle is impossible for 4-5 months out the year.  This dramatically shortens the construction season for the project.  The great news is that the government has started the construction of an all weather road that will cover the last 11 miles to reach Robit.  The road is about ½ finished and stretches across a significant portion of the flood plain. You can see from the picture above that the portion of the road that has been finished is already well used by everyone in the area.
 
 
The new road and the good weather helped shorten our travel time to about 1 ½ hours.  Upon arrival, we head immediately to check on the progress for the reservoir. To create the proper pressure head to distribute the water throughout the community, the reservoir will be installed on top of support base that is 35 feet tall, by far the tallest man made structure in the area. 
 
 
The work on the base is nearing completion and the construction crew is working on the final top level of the base so they can begin preparation for installing the pre-fabricated reservoir. The reservoir will rise another 10 feet in the air.
 
 
Water from the reservoir will be distributed to 8 water points throughout the village. The location of the water points will be 5 for the densely populated parts of the village, 1 for the health clinic, 1 for the primary school, and 1 for the high school.
 
 
Each water point has a base platform of concrete and will have a total of six faucets from which villagers may draw water simultaneously. Each water point is appropriately fenced to keep animals away for the water and keep the contamination of the water point to a minimum. The one above is located near the primary school for the children.
 
 
A major portion of the community’s contribution to the project is the digging all the trenches for the distribution pipelines, over 2 ½ miles of it.  These are manually dug with picks and shovels. The one shown above will serve the health clinic.  About 40% of the trenching is completed and the effort requires a major mobilization of the community to finish this part of the project.
 
 
Sometimes on these trips, it’s easy to lose track of the days, but today as we walk around Robit, we see reminders everywhere that it is market Saturday. The population of Robit swells every Saturday as literally thousands walk into the community carrying their goods for sale and barter. They are bringing grain, teff, handmade items, livestock, chickens, etc. to the market.  It is entrepreneurialism at work at its most basic level!