The goal of this write up is to offer a brief explanation to the general public so as to appreciate the fact that indeed 500 community boreholes (integrated water systems) can cost 30 million Ghana cedis.
First of all, we must appreciate that borehole project costs are unique and not fix. That is, different borehole projects would have different pricing and many a times, the determining factors are the location the project would be carried out, the geologic formation pertaining to that particular area and the project type & outcome which invariably varies from one place and or person to the other.
Location
The average cost of punching a hole in the ground (100 meters depth) by use of drilling machine is about 3500 Cedis in almost all the regions of Ghana. However, this is not a cut-across price. If a contractor is hiring a rig from Accra to drill a borehole in Afram plains for instance, he would probably pay 4000 Cedis or more. Recently, we undertook a project at Bantama (a small fishing community in Elmina) and the drilling alone was about 5000 Cedis.
We moved a rig all the way from Accra and climbed a very steep hill of about 65 meters before we were able to get to the site through much difficulty and frustration though God blessed us with much water at the end. In a place like northern region where the communities are somewhat scattered and far apart from each other, drilling would certainly come at a relatively high cost since a rig must cover several kilometers of distance to get to where it’s supposed to drill; and this scenario is true for many other places in Ghana. The project location and distance covered greatly affects the cost of a borehole project.
Geological formation
Borehole basically has to do with extracting groundwater from rocks. And over here, the nature of the rock formation goes a long way to determine the type of construction that would be suitable. Without being too much technical in my submission, I would say there are two main types of borehole construction; an open-end and a closed-end construction (full lining). The latter is quite expensive as many pipes (blue in color) and gravels are required in this type of construction.
Full lining construction can cost between 2000 to 5000 cedis depending to a large extent on the depth. Opened-end construction are predominantly employed in Greater Accra (not every place though) and some few places in Western Region; which is why the cost for private borehole construction in Accra is relatively low compared to the other regions.
The place of the water-bearing rock (aquifer) is also crucial here. There are places where the aquifer is very close to the ground level and others where it’s far away from the ground level. We have had an experience in Langma (Ga West), where drilling was done up to 120 meters even after the geophysical survey; yet we couldn’t get water. What that means is that the water table is possibly beyond 120 meters or there was no water at all. In this typical situation for instance, we finally resorted to hydro fracturing before we got water and that came at an extra cost of 4,000 cedis.
Project Type and Outcome
Many times the type of borehole project and the expected outcome to an extent influences its’ total cost as well. Having undertaken water infrastructure projects in every region of Ghana apart from Volta Region, it will be unfair to say that borehole cost 7000 cedis across board. The cost of private boreholes can start from 7000 cedis upward. A hand pump can start from 12, 000 Cedis and above. That of a solar-powered borehole starts from 20,000 Cedis onwards. However, a community piped scheme or what the PURC calls “a community integrated water system” is a very special case of a borehole project, which can range between 15, 000 cedis to even 100,000 cedis or more. Yes! 100,000 cedis. In this special borehole project, proper siting or geophysical survey is carried out to trace possible water veins in the ground.
Then there is the special drilling; where we go beyond the standard 100 meters to even 200 meters and this would certainly mean more cost as a submersible pump of at least 2.5 Horse Power or more will be required together with it ancillaries to draw the water out of the deep well and transmit it into the available storage point. Not just any pump is used in a community water project. Quality and expensive pumps like Grundfos, Pedrollo, Lorentz and some high pressure Asian pumps are used. Also, there are times that an 8 inch diameter borehole instead of a 5 inch is drilled so as to affect the yield even before hydro fracturing (a well yield improvement method) is done.
Then there is the water quality test and treatment aspect of this special borehole project which can probably cost up to half the total project cost of 60,000 Cedis (PURC’s project). Whether its cartridge filtration, bio sand filtration, katalox light filtration or even reverse osmosis, treatment of groundwater an essential part of the community water system can range from a minimum of 100 cedis to even 100,000 cedis.
Then there is the safe storage and distribution phase, which also involves a lot of cash. If the borehole water is to be transmitted into an overhead galvanized tank and then distributed by gravity to the various access points, it is relatively cheaper compared to mounting the tank (not less than 10,000 liters) on a platform which would require an additional booster pump(s) to send the water to where the community folks would collect and consume. Also apart from creating a cubicle for the whole system, it’s always good to automate it to run by itself so as to reduce human interference and thereby improving its span. Not less than 20,000 cedis would be required for this phase of the project alone. Yes. That’s what it is.
The thing is, if it must be done, it must be done well; and doing it well can’t be possible without money. There are NGO’s in this country that wouldn’t undertake an integrated community water project with not less than 100,000 cedis. So 60,000 cedis in my candid professional opinion, is no big deal. I am not an NDC nor affiliated to PURC in anyway, but 30 million Ghana Cedis for 500 community water (integrated system) projects is no corruption. Long live Ghana. Kudos to PURC!
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