Ever wondered where the water comes from to make your cup of tea or give you that hot shower after caving, then read on…and don’t say the tap!
Over the weekend of May 23rd-25th members of SWCC and Wealdon CC came together to help carry out repairs to the water supply of Penwyllt.
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| Nant Byfre, two of the settling tanks can be seen on the left bank. |
A month or so earlier a call was put out to request support for repairing the water supply and to be an opportunity to learn about how it all works.
On Friday, two 4x4 vehicles were pre-loaded with materials and tools. The main event, requiring as much help as possible, was to be on Saturday. Members gathered at the club for 10am and either walked to where the water supply starts or hopped into the vehicles for a bumpy cross-country ride.
Everyone then set about carrying what they could down to the Nant Byfre stream. This required everyone to do 2 or 3 trips up and down the grassy slippery slopes.
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| Some of the materials and equipment, ready for the repair work. |
Graham led the repairs whilst others were involved with supporting tasks such as re-positioning the water capture pipe, what was nicknamed the “Freem pipe” on an account that Andy Freem had something to do with it.
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| The Freem pipe was used to flush out the main capture tank and was then diverted to the last tank to ensure water supply remained uninterrupted. |
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| Graham prepares the main tank that captures the water. The bulk of the work was done on this tank. |
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| Graham begins the building of the inner tank to capture water. |
Others dug out and cleared the settling tanks of sediment and a bonus job was the construction of a gabion (caged rocks) to provide extra protection for the buried water pipe.
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| The main capture tank feeds into this second tank, its primary purpose is to allow fine sediment to settle out. This had partially filled and required emptying. |
James enjoyed a dip in one of the settling tanks! Don’t worry it had to be flushed for several hours before the stirred up sediment cleared and it was reconnected to the main supply.
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| James relaxing in his impromptu |
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| An end of day group photo of most of the team who worked the Saturday. |
