Intake dam is complete

The intake dam is complete and the lake is full.  We have flushed out a lot of debris
so the water is clean.

This is the back side of the dam with water flowing through the spillway

The pipe welders are at work joining the 6 M pipes together.  The 12 M lengths 
will be moved into the penstock trench and welded together.  

We are preparing 1 M sections of conduit that will be installed in a trench that 
allows us to move water from the diversion dam into the front water shed
where it will flow into into the intake dam lake.  

200 

We are making very good progress with the hydroelectric project.  We have now completed the intake dam and the generator house.  This week we will begin installing the penstock pipe and constructing the turbine house.  We will begin work on the diversion dam soon.  We will soon finish the funds that we have on hand for the project.  The total cost of the project is about $1.7 million.  We need to raise the last 10% of the budget.  If you are interested in supporting the project you may contribute at this link:  https://nabconference.org/give/special-projects/   Scroll down to the Hydroelectric Project in the Cameroon section.  We will appreciate your support.  

The intake dam is completed.  It was built in four months.  

The guys are cementing in the shutter gate that can be raised to drain the lake.  This was the last step in completing the dam.  The gate weighs about a ton but they were able to manually lift it into place.  The crane that we were planning to use is broken.  We are at the beginning of the dry season so the amount of water in front of the dam is very low.  

This is the site for the turbine house.  It sits just across a ravine that will need to be filled with dirt.  At the edge is 2X5 M stone wall that will anchor the penstock.  There is very high lateral pressure on the penstock so that it must be anchored very firmly to prevent movement.  The penstock goes through the stone wall and directly into the turbine.  

This shows the ravine.  We have placed a 1 M culvert at the bottom to drain the small stream that runs along the bottom.  

In order to move water from the diversion dam into the front watershed, we will place a 1 M culvert through a 100 M wide ridge.  We will need to dig down about 8 meters.  In order to save money, we are going to fabricate 200 of these concrete rings.  These will be placed at the bottom of the trench and buried.  This is a homemade form that our guys made.  

The intake dam is nearing completion.  A top cap 
concrete is most of what remains. 

Back side of the dam.  

This is how we generally get work done here.  

Lifting penstock pipe is much easier with the Bobcat

Turbine house is nearly completed.  Waiting for the 
big diesel generator to be installed.  

                                       

The work on the project is focused on the construction of the intake dam. 
We  are making good progress and hope to have it completed in 3-4 weeks 

Each of the steps on the back of the dam is 1/2 meter wide and high. 
There are 10 steps in total.  

 

 

      We successfully moved all of the crates containing the turbine and
other components of the hydro system up to the hospital.  

  The bobcat has proven to be indispensable for the project.

The diesel generator house is nearing completion.  This building will house the two generators and the electrical switching equipment.  The hospital will have three power sources when the project is completed, the hydroelectric system, diesel generators and the national power grid. 

This is the 11 inch penstock pipe that will carry the water from intake dam up on the hill, 2 km down to the turbine.  It will deliver 100 L of water/sec at full power.  

Work on the dam is progressing well.  The far end of the dam is at the final height.  Each step is 0.5 meter.  The base of the dam will be 7 meters at it's widest.  A steel shutter will be placed in the dam where the steps end that can be opened allowing the dam to be drained. 

This is the dam viewed from the north end. 

 The opening in the dam is for the penstock to pass through.  There will be two penstock attachments and one 4 inch water pipe connected.  A rake and coranda will be installed on the lake side of the dam to collect debris and prevent it from entering the penstock.  

 

Hydro Update

Work is progressing on the hydro project.  Lots of prep work to be done before the actual construction of the components begins.  

We are upgrading the roads to the turbine house and up to the intake dam site. 
The bobcat with the dozer blade works well for this.  

Things are progressing quickly on the generator house.  The pillars for the
roof will be up shortly and we will pour the cement floor.  We hope to
 have it completed in three weeks or so.  

This is the penstock pipe track.  It is two km long running from the intake
 dam to the turbine house.  Digging of the track has been finished.  

The work to build the intake dam began this week.  Pipes were place in the
stream bed to allow the flow from the stream to pass through the dam.  These
pipes will be sealed after the dam is completed.  A large steel shutter
will be built into the dam to allow the lake to be drained for cleaning when needed.  

This is the stone quarry where the stones for the dam are dug and shaped. 
They are moved a few hundred meters to the dam site.   

The unimog is used to carry the stones up to the dam site. 

 We don't have a crane to do the heavy lifting but we do have a lot of strong backs and willing hands.  The guys were moving the high-tension poles up onto the road - one foot at at time.  Took a little while but they got the job done.  There are forty of the poles. 














Another crew moved concrete rings down into a ravine to form a culvert.  This is a ravine next to the turbine house and has a small stream at the bottom.  They lowered the rings with ropes one at a time then rolled them into place.  We will back fill over the rings making a bridge that our equipment can pass over to work on the penstock route. 

Our guys have been busy this clearing the site for the diversion dam at 'Back Valley' on the river that we will be diverting part of the water from to supplement the flow at the intake dam for the penstock.  They also cleared the path from the intake dam down to the site of the turbine house.  That's two km so a lot of work to do with a cutlass.  Fortunately, we had a good number working on the clearing and they finished today.  Attached are some pictures of the sites. 

Clearing the area for the canal from the diversion dam

Penstock trench from the intake dam to the edge of the escarpment

 

Penstock path from the escarpment to the turbine site

Cutting eucalyptus poles for the high-tension power line

This was a busy week digging out the site for the diesel generator building.  We learned to use the Bobcat including both the bucket and the 'front loader'.  One of our staff, Samuel, was assigned to learn to operate the equipment.  He did great.  I ran it for a couple of hours and found out that it isn't easy to coordinate the movement of the machine and the bucket simultaneously.  The front loader has an additional motion that has to be mastered so it really takes a lot of coordination. 
The site was full of large stones, many that weighed over 100 lbs.  Moving them with the Bobcat was much easier than doing it by hand.  By Friday, the excavation of the site was complete.  Work began on laying out the footings.  We hope to see rapid progress on the building this next week. 

The Bobcat has arrived!

One of the big needs that we had in completing the hydroelectric project was some basic equipment to work on the roads, building and dams, etc.  One of the NAB churches stepped up to help us with this need.  Century Baptist Church in Bismark (where Bobcats are built) raised the funds, found the proper machine and attachments and oversaw the shipping out to Cameroon.  The container arrived a several months ago but was not brought up to the hospital because we don't have anyone with experience operating this type of equipment (I ran one for about 15 minutes, 20 years ago but I doubt that that counts).  Given our current situation, we decided that it was important to have the Bobcat available so it arrived today.  We have selected two of our experienced drivers to train on the machine.  So with the help of YouTube and the operators manual, we will begin.  In addition to the basic Bobcat, we received a dozer blade, backhoe, pallet fork,  compactor and drop hammer attachments, so we have a complete set of tools.

We will begin using the Bobcat on the site of the diesel generator building on Monday.  You can imagine the interest that our construction guys took in the new equipment.  The last picture is how they were preparing the site this week.  They work diligently but progress is slow with shovels and wheel barrows.  When this site is cleared and leveled, we will begin work on the roads leasing to the construction sites.

We are working on putting together the final budget for completing the hydro project.  This week we found the penstock pipe that we will use.  We need just under 2 km of pipe the water for the turbine from up in the hills down to the turbine.  The cost comes to $200,000 but pipe is available in Douala and ready to install.  The pipe was left over from the Chad - Kribi pipeline so is less expensive than if it had to be imported for this project.  It also is coated with a layer of polypropylene so it will last for may years without corroding.

Ground breaking for the Hydroelectric Project

This was a big day at Mbingo.  After 10 years of work on design, fundraising and struggling with the situation around the hospital, we broke ground on the first building of the hydroelectric system that will power the hospital for many years in the future, we hope. 

This building is called the diesel generator building so will house the two large generators that power the hospital when the national grid is off line - which happens frequently.  The building will also contain the switching equipment that will allow the hospital to use three different power sources.  The electricity from the hydroelectric turbine will be sent here from about 1.4 km away, down below the airstrip.  We will also maintain a connection to the national power grid for use in an emergency. 

When completed, the hydroelectric plant will solve the chronic issues of inadequate power which goes on and off frequently and also the voltage fluctuation which is damaging to the equipment in the hospital.  It will also save the hospital over $100,000 in energy cost per year.  So we are very anxious to get the system on line. 

Thanks to many of you who supported this project financially and made this possible.