Village Water Supplies

Under Construction

 

Vale water supply system upgrade

Over two weeks in July 2016, the village of Vale worked with Partner Housing to construct and repair their water supply system.

Key facts about Vale:

  • Vale is located on the south-west coastline of Rannonga
  • Population approximately 2,000 people
  • The village is spread out with communities of different families, clans and religions typically living together
  • Has a basic medical centre
  • There is both a Primary and a High School with a boarding school attached
  • Gizo (on Gizo Island) is the closest town and is a 1.5 – 2 hour boat ride away
vale.PNG
Location of Vale, Map data: Google, NOAA, U.S. Navy, GEBCO, Landsat

The team:

The Partner housing team consisted of:

  • Simon Alepio- Project Lead.  Resident of the nearby village of xxx on Ranongga Simon has developed water supply systems at xxx, xxx and xxx on Ranongga.  He has also worked with World Vision on emergency response, housing development and sanitation projects.
  • Graham Vant – Project Manager.  Australian builder and carpenter from Gosford who has previously worked on xxx on Ranonnga.
  • Fin Adamson – Engineer.  Australian Water Engineer.  First trip to the Solomon Islands

 

The Project:

On a visit to Vale in 2015, Graham and Simon had met with key members of the Vale community and scoped up what they required for a water supply system.  Materials were then ordered from Honiara (the capital of Solomon Islands) and shipped to Gizo town.  From there they were taken by Simon in a canoe across to Vale for construction.

Upon the arrival of the rest of the Partner Housing team, Simon and the community decided upon the location of each of the ten water stand pipes and an alignment for the new pipeline from the existing water source across the village.

A water standpipe is a concrete base with both a tap and a shower that multiple members of the community can use for drinking, cooking, washing and cleaning.  Existing standpipes across the village had been constructed by the New Zealand Navy in the 1990s and were at the end of their design life.

Further, the 2007 earthquake had damaged many of the standpipes as well as the supply pipe resulting in leaks.