Manual Well drilling with PVC hand pump

With simple, affordable and locally available tools YWAM Solomon Islands developed a manual well drilling technique to make boreholes up to 21m deep.

The technique behind this method of manual well drilling is called Jetting

It is based on water circulation and water pressure. Water is pumped down the drilling pipes with the help of a petrol pump. The large flow of water has an erosive effect and transports the slurry and cuttings up between the drill pipe and the borehole wall. After separating sand and cuttings from water the water can be reused in the well drilling processes.

After the borehole reaches a good aquifer below the water table, a sleeve pipe is put down the hole to hinder the wall from collapsing.

In a workshop on the Side, we teach the community how to build a self-made PVC hand pump with material that is widely available.

With this technique we already provided water for many communities around Honiara. Together with a filter system they have now access to clean and safe drinking Water.