Why a borehole is not like digging a pit latrine

Girl pumps water from a borehole

As a young engineer in 1996, I worked in Tororo district, fixing and sinking boreholes in several sub-counties at the time such as Mulanda, Butaleja, Mukuju, Nagongera, and Manafwa.

We had no Facebook and no social media. What we had were boots, notebooks, a resistivity machine that tested rocks, and a 1972 Land Rover with no doors that I drove for two years in dust and rain.

These days, everyone is an ‘engineer’ and it pains me to see people, especially politicians from all sorts of backgrounds, attacking engineers and calling them corrupt. My heart pains. A borehole is not politics. A borehole is college.

It is physics. It is money. Let me explain as my grandfather Eng Livingstone Naidoo used to explain to me. But first, let me thank Tororo. I cannot talk about boreholes without talking about food and people. In Eastern Uganda, I ate and enjoyed *Gweno, Mbaata, *and Atapa.

That was real food. Back to the point, water is not everywhere. It sleeps in rocks. Many think that if you drill anywhere, you get water. No. In most of Uganda, water does not live in soil.

It lives in rocks underneath. We call them aquifer rocks. If you drill in pure clay, you get mud. If you drill in hard rock with no crack, you get dust and end up burning Shs 50 million for nothing.

So, it takes a lot of skill and technical ingenuity. Then again, many people still think that constructing a borehole is all about drilling, putting a plastic pipe, and then you are done.

Today, a worrying trend is growing where everyone with some authority, real or assumed, publicly grills engineers when a borehole fails to meet expectations. What many forget is that underground water cannot be found everywhere.

Even where there is water, it varies. You see claims that “you changed position because you were corrupted.” No. We changed position because rocks changed, not because pockets changed. Which brings me to the concern; why are engineering professional bodies quiet?

Fine, there are many crooks within the engineering profession who deserve to be exposed for negligence, poor professional conduct, and corruption. However, that does not justify the public humiliation engineers are facing of late.

I have seen on social media how engineers have become punching bags for politicians to ridicule. Most times the engineers are defenseless because they have no time to explain technical issues to ordinary people.

Where is the Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers? Where is the Engineers Registration Board? Where is the Uganda National Association of Builders, Suppliers and Engineering Contractors?

Where are the geologists and hydrogeologists bodies? I admire the way the legal profession is guarded. You touch one lawyer, the Uganda Law Society (ULS) will be on your neck. But when a politician stands on a borehole apron and shouts that engineers are corrupt and ate money because water failed, because he forced drilling in his compound without a survey, why are these bodies quiet?

You are letting mud stick on your own face. If you, the leaders, do not speak, the public will lose trust in all of you. Attention to Eng Peterson Mwesiga, the UIPE president. The institution wouldn’t have got a better leader in these times; but I want to see UIPE defend science publicly.

When ignorance flies on social media about boreholes, UIPE should come out to clear the air. It doesn’t help when engineers hide in offices in Kampala. If an engineer skipped gravel pack, used cheap casing, or faked a pump test, ERB must punish him quickly and publicly.

That cleans the name of the rest. Silence makes all look guilty. Protect the young engineer in the district. That young water officer in Gomba who says, “This site is bad, we must move,” and the chairman calls him corrupt, who protects him? UIPE should protect him. Give him cover.

Otherwise, tomorrow no one will tell the truth. Everyone will drill where the chairman points, and all boreholes will die. Talk village language. Do not speak only English in hotel workshops.

Go to Radio Buddu and CBS and explain in Luganda: “Amazzi tegali buli wamu, gali mu lwazi.” Water is not everywhere. It is in rocks. If you do not speak, mad people will speak for you. And the public will believe them.

The author is an investor, contractor, and football enthusiast.

The post Why a borehole is not like digging a pit latrine appeared first on The Observer Media Ltd.