Water pump
is made for transferring water for watering plants – an essential practice
especially for newly planted grass/plants, or during draught seasons – thus, a life-giving equipment.
Yet,
amidst recent labour draught, such a life-giving equipment was re-assigned as a
killing machine – mechanized herbicide sprayer.
First order
of the ‘re-assignment’ exercise is to connect the pump’s outlet pipe to a cannibalized
knapsack nozzle. This is the most
important step in the whole exercise. Failure to connect the knapsack nozzle means non-available of
spray pattern and desirable water droplets, thus the operation deemed a no-go.
First,
the knapsack nozzle is connected to a 15mm diameter high pressure hose,
tightened by a rubber strip. Rubber strip seems primitive, yet its an effective and cheap
way to secure pipe connections.
Then, the
15mm hose is connected to a 32mm polypipe, and then again connected to a 40mm
high pressure hose. A rigid polypipe is used because when
tightened with rubber strips, it won’t flattened and block the water flow.
Both end of the 32mm polypipe is secure
with open-cut rubber hose to allow better grip between 15mm pipe and 40mm pipes.
The herbicide
is mixed in 200L drums on a lorry. A 3-man
team is required when operating the sprayer : one monitoring the water and pump
on the lorry, another to control the pipe on the ground, and the third one to
handle the nozzle.
For spraying
along road shoulders, the workers should be walking in front of the lorry, to
allow better view of the lorry driver of the pace of spraying.
The pump should not be used for watering, for fear of herbicide contamination.
