Assessing the quality of the wells

  • Organizing emergency response teams

    The volunteers' first glimpse of where they will be working.

  • Loading the emergency equipment

  • Coming face to face with the aftermath of the tsunami

  • Getting the volunteers and equipment to where they are needed

  • Checking the equipment

  • The welcome of the local community

  • Assisting NGOs

  • Living conditions

  • Inventory of requirements

  • Assessing the quality of the wells

  • Prioritizing drinking water for the hospital

  • Repairing the water supply system in Meulaboh

  • Treating water

  • Storing drinking water

  • Supplying water

  • Monitoring the quality of the drinking water

  • Children back at school

  • Supplying drinking water to remote villages

  • Concentrating on the task ahead

  • The feeling of having been useful


© Veolia Waterforce

A crucial prerequisite is to assess the quality of the groundwater

The groundwater and the underground hydrological system in Sri Lanka have been adversely affected by the effects of the tsunami.

The tsunami had serious and long lasting effects on the groundwater and more generally on the underground hydrological system.

In fact even before the tsunami occurred the equilibrium between the groundwater, which provides the drinking water to the wells, and the wastewater, which is released back into nature most often without taking any precautionary measures, was already precarious.

Lucy Lytton, a hydrogeologist from Veolia Water, London, is immediately sent to Sri Lanka.

Her task is to assess the quality of the groundwater and to recommend the best conditions for pumping.

The most direct consequence of the tsunami is the now brackish nature of the groundwater.Extensive pumping will not change this.It will probably be necessary to wait for the dry season before there is any hope of acceptable salt content levels being reestablished.

Then there is the fact that wastewater came into contact with the groundwater which considerably affected the latter's bacteriological quality.

Finally, there is a danger that pressure from the groundwater could lead to the walls of the wells collapsing if intensive pumping is undertaken without due consideration.