Mission's Water System

The water that comes to the Chimala Mission and the village of Chimala comes from the mountains to become the Chimala River. The photo below was taken in the middle of the dry season. The river water is clear and fast, but it has almost no fish.

Some of the water goes to this pond on the mission site above the Primary and Secondary Schools. Monkeys, baboons and other wild animals can be found here getting their drink.

This pool is also where all the church baptisms were done before the church building was built on the mission site.

The water is channeled from the river via a hand dug canal to the pump for the mission. The length of the canal is about 3/4 to 1 mile in length; it has to be constantly repaired to eliminate leaks. The ground drops 4o feet on one side in some places making it difficult to repair.

When the canal ends at the pump area, it goes into a cement bypass channel or into the pump channel on the right in the next photo.

This photo shows a filter screen before the pump feed line. The hydraulic pump was originally installed by German farmers around the early 1900s. The pump is powered by a branch of the river that turns a turbine to pump the water to all of the mission. The leaves are the only things that really get filtered out.

This is the hydraulic pump down below the canal which was originally dug by the German farmers.

This photo is of a holding tank that is more than 100 years old. It has been used as an emergency supply for the mission during the dry season.