A gritty problem

Here's a little problem I'm hoping some of you might be able to help me with -

SECMOL pump water for irrigating the land up from the Indus river, which is very fast flowing, with lots of silt and small stones in it. They keep having problems with gravel getting into the mechanical seals.

My idea to reduce this problem is to pass the water through a kind of sump prior to the pump, made from a metal barrel so that the heavier stones will fall out of the water flow. The inlet pipe would go halfway into the barrel to ensure the water flows towards the bottom of the barrel, and obviously the connections would be sealed to make it air tight.

Do you think this will work? Or can you think of anything better, given the very basic and limited resources they have here? The pipes are 70mm external diameter and as welding is a problem we want to avoid too many joints/bends. Answers on an email please, as postcards take too long to arrive!

Also, if any of you have spare time on your hands and fancy browsing the internet for pumps for me I'd very much appreciate it - it's a slow process here. The pump they are using is a centrigual one with a 70mm inlet pipe, connected to a dc motor - 2hp, 48V. They are using a Rotomag 2hp DC Monoblock pump at the moment (see www.rotomag.com). The problem is that this company is based in Bangalore and it takes an age to get any spares / repairs. What we need to find is a company with a dealership in Delhi who makes dc driven pumps of the correct size so they can buy one from there so that future repairs/spares are easier to obtain (they have contacts in Delhi). The pump needs to be able to raise the water up at least 30m in height.

Sorry to put a techincal blog on - but thought it was the quickest way to contact everyone - apologies to those of you who I've also send emails to about this, or for those of you who are not in the least interested in pumping problems.

In answer to a few questions - I leave here on 2nd Oct for Bhutan then arrive home on 27th Oct. There are no malarial mosquitoes here as it's too high and too dry. Other than a quick dose of the runs at the start I haven't had any health problems yet - and I don't seem to have lost my 4,000m reserve either (the food was too good on the trek)!

The horse polo match was cancelled the other day because of the preparations for the Independance day celebrations tday, which we managed to miss! I'm told it was mainly long boring speaches though. I'm hoping to see the Dalai Lama give a presentation tomorrow, so I'm staying in Leh tonight as it's a very early start. Luxury - we're in a hotel with an ensuite and a flush loo!

Enough of my ramblings for now, look forward to your speedy replies...
Cheers
Helen

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