29. Bir Amin, trusted well

On the third day we measured the depth of the well. Mamutu had already done it the previous day and everyone knew they had already won the 20,000 franc prize.

But that’s not the case, there are still eighty centimetres missing to get to five metres of water. The workers have been digging since yesterday without adding any depth to the well because every time we use the pump to empty the three metres of water that prevent us from working, sand enters the well because of the pressure. We should be working with diving regulators, but there is no such material here.

All the sand that we are taking out could destabilise the well’s support, the large amount of water that enters through all the holes in our cylinders prevents us from working, we evaluate the situation with Ibrahim and we decide to stop here.

There is so much water that we cannot empty it with the pump, the well was badly constructed from the beginning and it is dangerous to continue.

We have achieved a very good result even though it is not what was specified in the contract.

So we fill the bottom with filter gravel to prevent the sand from coming up, and close the bottom with perforation.

In two days of intensive work we demolish and rebuild the upper part of the well, and install a modern super structure to pull the water with much less effort.

Since the well produces a lot of water, Ibrahim installed a concrete slab all around it to prevent the lost water from flowing down the body of the well underground. A lot of lost water could cause the well to collapse over time.

When the Tuaregs tried the system that Ibrahim devised, with pulleys fitted with Mercedes bearings, they were enthusiastic. Ibrahim’s pulleys are expensive to manufacture, we only have three for the three sides of the super structure. We gave one to the ‘King’, one to his grandson who worked hard with us until the end, and one to my old friend Ismail.

Mamutu the Dogon shows to Abu Bakr the Tuareg how they pull water in Dogon country

The mixture of technology and archaic tradition is very photogenic.

We installed the system that allows the Tuaregs to water their animals at 12 metres from the well without having to carry buckets of water by hand, thanks to an underground pipe that connects two tanks. 

I gave the well its name in Arabic: Bir Amin, which means ‘well of trust’, and wrote it in the fresh cement.

…

Now we only have to wait a day for the cement to dry, and when we return the day after tomorrow, I will go down into the well to pour in water from the sacred spring of Mecca: the water of Zam Zam.

Before leaving, I called the workers and told them. You are the five hardest workers, you have endured all hardships for 45 days and have not been discouraged, you really deserve extra for your perseverance, an extra twenty thousand francs.

They called themselves the ‘magnificent five’. The three musketeers were actually four, and our magnificent five are six, because of Abu Bakr, the nephew of the Tuareg chief. Although he worked freely for the well he owned, he also worked from start to finish on the site. So I gave him twenty thousand francs too.

The team of “the five magnificent”. Abu Bakr is at left