Yrybucua Municipal Well

Well No. 22

Yrybucua Municipal Well

Sponsor - City of Yrybucua & Methodist Church of Paraguay

The "residencia", as we call the Mission Center where many of the work teams from the US stay while in Paraguay, is located in the small town of Yrybucua. The mayor of the town and a member of the water commission asked if we could drill them a well if they paid the material and labor costs. After discussion with Pastor Luciano, the local Methodist church pastor, and Pastor Pablo, the head of the Methodist Church of Paraguay, we agreed that this would be a good way to show the love of Christ to the community at large. This is the first well that we have drilled at a municipal facility, but the Lord blessed the work and drilling went without a hitch. After the well was complete we had a well dedication service for the whole community, including the Mayor.

Well was located on city property - at the Municipal Slaughterhouse

We had a lot of rain while drilling - everything was WET!

The mayor decided to install the well on city property - at the Municipal Slaughterhouse! The facility is really quite nice with a concrete floor and overhead hooks and a chain hoist for handling the animal as it is being butchered. Locals can use the facility for a fee of $7.00. We were concerned about contamination of the groundwater and asked if there were any animal remains buried at the site. We were told not to worry - nothing is left behind. As they used to say in the old days here in the US - when they butchered a pig they used everything but the squeal!

287 feet of well casing laid out and ready for installation

Inserting the pipe to clean out the well using compressed air.

Just to be sure to avoid contamination and to allow for a high pumping flow rate we installed the well 287 feet deep - one of our deepest. We also sealed above the well screen with over 6 feet of bentonite pellets (a natural clay sealant) to avoid inflow of shallow groundwater and surface water. We cleaned out the well using compressed air and then dosed it with a strong chlorine solution. The municipality will install the pump - so we do not yet know what the achievable flow rate will be - but we are confident that it will be a welcome addition to the available water supply.

We were pleased to be able to offer our services on the behalf of the Methodist Church of Paraguay to assist the Municipality of Yrybucua in this important project. Once again the give God the glory!

For those who want to read about the technical details of the well, click here.