Design and testing of a mechanized tube well installer

Cost-Effective, Sanitary Shallow Water Wells for Agriculture and Small Communities Using Mechanized Tube Well Installation

“…However, the proper finish with an apron and riser pipe can prevent most common contamination issues [10]. Manually-driven wells are not generally able to penetrate more than 5 m below the surface [12], but this level has already been surpassed by the mechanized Well Driver PUP technology [3]. A typical unthreaded piece of potable water safe galvanized 2″ steel pipe [33].…”

“…This machine has been designated the Well-Driver PUP [10]. A PUP is a three wheeled, low-cost utility vehicle designed at Purdue University for use in developing countries [3,34]. These vehicles are typically built in-country with minimal tooling and using only locallysourced materials.…”

“…They have been used for transporting goods to and from market, as school bus alternatives, garbage collection vehicles, and light utility tractors. Tillage attachments, seeders, harvest heads, water pumps, generators, threshers, and maize grinders powered by the PUP have been designed and tested [3,15,16,34,36]. These implements have helped improve small-holder farmer access to markets, and they have improved the livelihoods for many of those in sub-Saharan Africa.…”

“…The Well-Driver PUP is a further example of alternative use for this versatile vehicle, and it is displayed in Figure 16. The Well-Driver PUP could potentially reduce dependency on manual labor for driven well installation in developing countries, improve productivity, and keep laborers safer [3,10,15].…”

“…This chapter will examine the state of the water component of WASH programing in the developing world. Traditional techniques to access groundwater will be reviewed, and recent work using mechanized tube well installation will introduce the Well-Driver PUP technology [3]. Implementation of this technology could provide meaningful progress toward addressing the sixth U.N.…”