Plumbing by GPS! (Report from Nepal)

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Early afternoon and Nick, Aidan and I arrive at the 20,000 litre lower tank. While Aidan and Nick start measurements, I am sent up to the headman's house to get the keys for the tank. On our way back, we find a convenient bamboo pole with which to measure the depth of the tank. Nick asks me to balance on the edge of the cupola while Aidan takes a spirit level reading. "Why so long?" I comment, suddenly realising the precariousness of my position.
"Well you're a climber aren't you?" replies Nick unsympathetically. The two engineers are in their element and taking up a yoga like stance on the water tank is the least I can do.
Aidan has worked out where the two metre pipe will be located and earlier in Pokhara, he had the two phlanges welded onto the pipe. Getting this sort of thing right is a major problem as Raipali is a four hour bus ride from anywhere vaguely resembling a B&Q.
The Water pump, Aidan ordered from South Africa, has not yet arrived in Kathmandu and if this is a minor setback, at least we have the compensation of Mark's GPS. Mark, between treks, joined us in Pokhara and his GPS had earlier given us the information to site the pipe work and the upper tank.
The headman and his friend get out their machetes and make a path through the tangled undergrowth and up the steep incline. Once clear of the dense undergrowth, Aidan, with the energy of youth, bounds on ahead to take a reading on our position from where the upper tank will be situated. Nick points out to me that the headman's friend has no toes on either foot. Amazing! how did he get up the steep incline so easily?
Originally we had thought of taking the pipe work up by the steps; a distance of some 350 metres. It is incredible to think that at present, those living in the top houses walk this distance at least twice a day, at the same time carrying their water up a vertical height of 75 metres. By going direct we can shorten the pipe work by some 180 metres, but more importantly the water pump and the upper tank will make all their hard work a thing of the past; although their social intercourse will still be maintained by their having to meet up at the new standpipes. To Nick and Aidan and all the kind donors, my sincere thanks. You will not be forgotten by the people of Raipali

Richard Backwell