One of the most important national resources for any nation is her flora and fauna. Some are unique to the nation that they appear and cannot be found anywhere else. When the Dodo was hunted to extinction in Mauritius, it didn’t appear then that this was the last stand of the bird. Many thought that it was also resident in other islands in the Indian Ocean but it turned out that it was only found in Mauritius.
The African elephant is classified under threatened species due to its dwindling numbers over the last century. From a high of 10 million strong, they number now close to half a million and that number is falling daily. Elephants were once found in Western Africa but due to poaching and habitat destruction, few roam these lands, if any. In Eastern and Southern Africa, there is still a considerable number and huge conservation efforts have been put in place that has seen a resurgence in the numbers.
However, in the last couple of years, the supply of Ivory has reduced considerably but the demand of the same in the Far East nations has not reduced, thus the price of ivory has shot up astronomically. The price of a kilo of ivory now goes for as much as USD. 2000. This has forced many back to the national parks and game reserves to hunt elephants for their Ivory.
"The Price of a kilo of ivory goes for as much as USD. 2000"
On the 30th of April several heads of state lead by President Uhuru Kenyatta, conservationists and several celebrities such as award winning actors Leonardo Decaprio and Nicole Kidman will gather to watch as 105 tons of elephants tusks are set ablaze at the Nairobi National park. This will be the largest pile of ivory every burnt in history. Elephant tusks are formed from dentine, the same substance that forms our teeth. Though it does not burn, if subjected to high temperatures, it will disintegrate. For this, it has to be subjected to high temperatures close to 10000C for possibly 5 – 7 days. The fuel to be used is jet fuel since it burns very efficiently.
The fuel has to be delivered at a high pressure for proper combustion. This is where Davis & Shirtliff comes in. We’re supplying the pump to be used in the delivery of the fuel at a high pressure and thus contributing in a small way to Elephants conservation for future generations. The pump will be a Davey 5 series high pressure engine pump. The pump is able to supply fluids such as petrol and water at a high pressure for a long period of time without affecting its performance.
We hope this will send a message to the nations of the World that we only have tusks if they’re on an elephant. Elephants are worth more alive. Our engineers Isaac Chege and Maxwel Melachy were on site to ensure that everything went according to plan. See below the #LightAFire moments
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One of the millennium development goals (MDGs) for Kenya is to halve the proportion of people living on less than 1 dollar a day. Kenya has a population of about 44.35 million with a good proportion living in rural areas where the main economic activity is subsistence farming. This also forms a huge proportion of the population living on less than a dollar a day.
The size of arable land in Kenya is about 10.2% of the total land. Most of this land is taken up by cash crops such as tea and coffee living little land for food crops. Though the county is food sufficient, recent cases of drought have seen the government provide relief food for some areas of the country. With subdivision of land for sale and putting up of permanent structures on the same on the increase, more land that could have been used for agriculture is on the decline.
To compound the situation, there is also an increase in the youth population with about 1 million young adults joining the work force each year. However, job creation and opportunities still remain a huge challenge in the country. The government has been on a campaign to try and urge more young people to venture into self-employment by advancing of credit facilities for them to set up businesses. Also, investment in different areas of the economy has seen also been on the increase, a sign of better fortunes in the future.
Kenya has a capacity to have about 45% of its land under agriculture using irrigation. This remains one of the areas, if properly tapped, could reap huge benefits of the country. Agriculture, still forms the backbone of the country employing about 70% of the population directly or indirectly. If more youth can get into agriculture, this would increase the food sufficiency of the country as well as increase the amount of land under agriculture. It would also offer much needed employment opportunities to the youth. This remains one of the areas that has been hugely untapped. The government has started a project to have 1 million acres of land under irrigation in Tana River County. Similar other projects by different counties have been initiated in Mandera, Wajir, Lodwar etc.
In 2013, 2 aquifers were discovered in Turkana that could supply the country with water for up to 70 years. The water can be used for irrigation. For us to increase the land under agriculture, we must employ technology such as irrigation. At Davis & Shirtliff, our solutions are aimed at improving people’s lives. With some of the products that we offers such as engine pumps, one can be able to do irrigation on their land, all year round instead of relying on rain fed agriculture that has become quite erratic. Irrigation allows one to farm all year round and increase the acreage under agriculture. This concept has been taken up and has seen farms mushroom in areas usually considered too dry for farming such as Kajiado, Makueni, Kitui, Mandera and Turkana.
We offer a wide range of solutions that can help you turn your farm into a business that has the potential to employ hundreds. Click here to see some of our solutions. You can also get in touch with us on this here or drop us a line at +254719079000
Access to safe water in Kenya remains one of the most important items in the national government agenda and also in the county governments. This was identified long before the dawn of the new millennium with the item set as one of the millennium development goals for Kenya.
The access to the right quality and quantity of water in most Kenyan households still poses a huge challenge. With almost 17 million people lacking access to safe water, this is a huge part of the population. This in turn has had a huge impact on health and infant mortality. Over 3000 children die each year from diarrheal diseases associated by unsafe water. Others end up enduring long durations out of school due to illness as well as trekking long distances to fetch water.
This impact has been felt almost in all sectors of the economy. Water remains one of the most fundamental factors for all sectors of the economy from agriculture, tourism, the hospitality industry, manufacturing, health etc. There has been a lot of effort especially by the national government and the counties to increase access to safe water through increasing the number of households served by piped water, increasing the number of water companies and increasing the capacity of the existing ones to be able to serve a bigger population.
With the various sources of water available in Kenya, the only thing that maybe required to guarantee the safety of the water is water treatment. Water treatment is the process that makes water acceptable for a specific end use. The end use in this situation being drinking. There are various solutions that can be installed and used for small and medium sized households to handle water treatment. At Davis & Shirtliff, we have specialized in the provision of these solutions. These solutions are low cost and highly effective.
A solution such as the domestic gravity feed 8 stage purifier can provide quality drinking water from the county sources. It can provide up to 30litres per day and has a storage capacity of 9litres.
Other solutions such as an under sink reverse osmosis (RO) can comfortably fit under a sink and has 6 stages of purification including Ultra Violet(UV) sterilization as well as giving an output of more than 200 litres per day.
During the rainy season, rain water can also be collected and pumped into the domestic system and similarly treated to make it safe for drinking and other purposes.
You can contact us so that we can advise you on the best solutions. See also more solutions that we offer under water treatment here.
Once a borehole pumping solution is installed by our highly professional team, it should be able to give you reliable trouble-free service for a long time.
However, keeping the system well maintained is extremely important in order to obtain the best service from the equipment. Remember, a borehole system is a significant investment and thus, proper care and maintenance should be given to it as much as possible.
If you carry out regular service, you can be able to extend its lifetime and also maintain a good efficiency.
We shall highlight 4-top tips to get this right.
It’s generally recommended to test your water at least once a year. The test is carried out for bacteria, nitrates, iron, manganese, water hardness, sulfides and other water contaminants.
It is also advisable to carry out water testing whenever you notice a change in taste, odour or appearance of the borehole water.
It’s imperative that whenever you need to carry out any equipment maintenance that you contact a professional team to handle this. It is tempting for borehole owners to try and do their own maintenance work on the borehole, or seek out ‘cheaper service’ elsewhere, in order to save on costs. However, this can lead to irreversible damage to their borehole equipment and consequently, affect the water supply.
Professional borehole maintenance companies have the expertise and equipment to be able to carry this out properly.
A seemingly simple broken well cap may seem easy to attempt to repair, but it can end up with the borehole pump falling through to the bottom of the well. This would really be unfortunate.
As a rule of thumb, always, leave this to the experts.
Once the pump is properly installed, make arrangements to secure the area where the borehole is located. This can be done by building a pump housing around it, while ensuring access to the equipment for future retrieval for service. This will help prevent damage to the pipework, well cap and the casing. If any damage in caused by animals, humans or machinery such as reversing vehicles, it may adversely affect the borehole pump, and consequently the water supply.
Fouled water from nearby dump sites, pit latrines as well as surface runoffs after storms, must not be allowed to contaminate the borehole water, so these must be directed away from the borehole.
There are many companies that can carry out borehole maintenance. However, for best results that will in the long run prove to be inexpensive (and leave a smile on your face), always choose to work with the professionals. When choosing the company to carry this out, look out for these tell-tale signs.
If you would like more information about borehole maintenance, kindly contact us. We shall be more than happy to serve you.
This is part 2 of the borehole equipping, commissioning and maintenance process. We covered part 1 earlier. You can revisit it by clicking here. Once we receive the Borehole Completion Record (BCR) from you, as issued by the local Water Resource Management Authority (WRMA) office, usually through the driller, we shall then use the information in it to make a proposal for the most suitable equipment for your borehole.
In addition to the BCR, we shall also need to know the following from your particular site:-
There are several sources of power:
In areas that are off-grid, we propose Solar/Wind and/or generator.
Key items included in the proposal will be as listed below:
Borehole pumping has developed and now we have remote monitoring and control available, at the touch of a button. We now offer a solution known as iDayliff, available as an option for those who wish to have this enhanced functionality. The iDayliff option provides users with specific information about the operation of their pumping system and remote control anytime, anywhere.
Installation and commissioning.
During installation, the Borehole Installation Team is mobilized and material transported to the site for installation. Once the pump is installed and connected to the power source, testing is done for an appropriate period and key operation parameters recorded, after which a detailed operation and maintenance manual is issued.
You can quickly contact us if you need a proposal for your borehole by clicking here.
Credits – Peter Munyoki, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
One of East Africa’s greatest challenges today is the lack of clean water and this has and continues to have a devastating effect on the economic growth. For disadvantaged people who need to spend a significant amount of time and energy each day fetching water which may not necessarily be safe to drink, the opportunity cost is substantial.
Time that could have been more profitably spent is instead wasted on an activity that may lead to survival but does not lead to economic empowerment. Kenya based Davis & Shirtliff, as the leading supplier of water and energy solutions in the region, has the aim of improving the quality of life of its partners through taking care of their water and energy needs so that they can achieve more in their daily lives. Together with some of the world’s most renowned players in the water and solar industries they can offer cost efficient, long-lasting and environment-friendly solutions within water pumping, solar solutions and water treatment and power generation.
Having been in the business for nearly 70 years, Davis & Shirtliff is well known as a professional supplier of borehole pumps and other borehole equipment and accessories. It is a common misconception that the company drills boreholes, instead focusing on supply, installation and support of quality equipment. The company offers a wide range of high quality stainless steel borehole pumps from premium suppliers Grundfos and Pedrollo as well as the value option of the company’s own quality brand Dayliff, all of them being available in a huge range from stock to ensure that exactly the right pump is selected. For installation and maintenance of borehole installations, Davis & Shirtliff has invested in a fleet of eight specially converted borehole service trucks and a highly experienced crew who efficiently installs the equipment.
Apart from borehole pumps, Davis & Shirtliff also sells a wide range of other surface and booster pumps. Its own locally produced Dayliff brand is increasingly popular with the market and covers a wide range of applications in water boosting and water transfer in the domestic, industrial and agricultural sectors. The complete range includes high quality pumps from world renowned manufacturers Grundfos, Pedrollo and Davey, all of which are offered from stock and throughout the company’s 50 branches in the region.
Most pumps are designed for mains power drive, though with the ever decreasing cost of solar photovoltaic modules and recent technological advances, solar installations are becoming increasingly popular or remote sites or indeed any site where energy efficiency is the primary consideration. Davis & Shirtliff have been in the forefront of this technology since its introduction over thirty years ago.
Solar systems by their very nature of having virtually no moving parts, are more reliable, require no maintenance and are a more cost effective long term investment due to their zero running costs. Davis & Shirtliff works closely with two of the world’s leading manufacturers of solar water pumps and has the highest levels of expertise in designing, installing and servicing solar water installations of all sizes.
Treatment of contaminated water is another area to which Davis & Shirtliff pays increasing attention. Affordable access to clean water is paramount in East Africa and the company offers a wide range of equipment for treatment of the majority of prevailing water conditions. Technologies offered include filtration, disinfection and Reverse Osmosis solutions as well as Ultra Filtration technology which has recently been introduced in collaboration with partner DOW, world leading water treatment experts. This technology is becoming an efficient and affordable alternative to many traditional water treatment solutions, helping to make water safer and more accessible to all.
In addition to solar pumping, Davis & Shirtliff has many years of experience in solar water heating systems and in addition to products sourced from international manufacturers it produces its own quality Dayliff brand of solar heating collectors with a 5 years warranty. Having obtained certifications for four of its solar engineers according to new requirements from the Energy Regulatory Commission, Davis & Shirtliff is now one of the industry’s first organisations officially qualified to carry out all solar installations.
Davis & Shirtliff is also a major multinational player in the East African market for power products, offering inverter/battery backup solutions and generators from small portable units to large stationary prime power units sourced from world renowned manufacturers and assembled locally. In addition, the company’s own range of Dayliff DG generators offer excellent quality and unbeatable value for money for domestic applications.
With branches and subsidiaries in 8 countries offering the region’s biggest product range, full installation and maintenance support and a team of highly trained application engineers Davis & Shirtliff is confidently leading the way in the expansion of water and energy solutions, which will bring reliable, clean and economical water supply to East Africans, improving their lives accordingly. Through this expertise the company feels it is making a significant contribution to the objectives of World Water Day