Professionalization of manual borehole drilling in Ghana

This paper provides an overview of the first steps in the professionalization of manual drilling in Ghana with the initial training of two manual drilling businesses. The training follows the approach outlined in the “Toolkit for the Professionalization of Manual Drilling in Africa” (UNICEF, 2010) and began with the selection of appropriate businesses followed by training in basic hydrogeology and rotary jetting. These business will be used by the USAID funded Ghana WASH Project to drill forty addition boreholes for the project under the supervision of trained well drillers. In addition to the well drilling businesses project staff and staff from a local NGO also received training so that they can act as supervisors and coaches to ensure that that quality of the drilled wells is maintained. Furthermore a local workshop has been trained to make the drilling tools to make sure that replacement tools will be available in Ghana.