Student project: Goats for Water

[senne-vdb]

Hello kind folks,

I'll briefly introduce myself: my name is Senne, and I'm an Industrial Design student from Belgium. I am currently in my graduation year, and one of our courses requires us to create a small business project. What this means is really simple: we need to create a startup company in a team of three students and try to launch our own product.

Our team decided to start from a well-known issue; water scarcity in sub-saharan Africa, more specifically the Sahel region. Said region is very dry with water sources spread out across the land. This requires the inhabitants to walk miles and miles on end just to fetch water to be able to cook. Women and children are mostly the ones tasked with this intensive labour; for them, fetching water dominates the day. It pushes aside all other activities, such as education and free time to play and develop personal interests. The problem statement is shown in detail in the video below, which was made by an organization called "living water africa":

By now, you're probably wondering where you, the Pack Goat Central board visitor, comes in. Let me elaborate on that. What we also know, is that Africa is a continent with a very high amount of goats. In the Sahel region, they are mostly kept for their meat and milk, and families often have herds of goats themselves. We aim to make these herds serve a bigger purpose: to task them with the labour of fetching water, so that children have the time to go to school and women are able to partake in cash-generating business activities.

So how do we aim to do that? We found that goats are excellent packing animals, so we want to develop a backpack for ghoats specifically aimed towards the Sahel region and the task of carrying water. The herds of goats have to be brought to grazing areas, so they are mostly already accustomed to being herded. What we aim for, is to have shepherds bring the herds to the nearby water source, where they load them with water supplies and bring them back to the town: this way, more water can be collected daily while the people themselves are free to do other activities.

We got our hands dirty by immersing ourselves in the world of goat packing with a minor first test, which learned us that a healthy animal doesn't seem to mind some extra weight put on its back (the one we used to test this on wasn't even really accustomed to human beings but didn't care at all).

Right now we're in the designing phase; we've been looking at a variety of benchmarks such as existing products for goat packing, as well as projects of likeminded companies that want to make life easier for African inhabitants when it comes to gathering water. We're going to start prototyping soon, making a variety of test products in different materials and with different design considerations taken into account based on all the information we can find.

The point of this topic, is to gather valuable knowledge from people who are experienced in the field of packing with goats. We've been talking with organisations such as Veterinarians without Borders and people who are working on water installations in the region, and we've received valuable feedback from them: they all confirm that the problem we're trying to tackle is an existing one and they think that our project could work, but it's hard for us to find people who can give us input on the idea itself when it comes to using goats as backpackers.

So by all means, we would appreciate it very much if you could take a look at our project and give us any feedback that comes to mind: thoughts, tips, possible pitfalls and so on. If you have any questions for us, please do ask them and we'll try our best to provide a solid answer as fast as we can. If you follow this link, you'll be lead to a product presentation which kind of sums up the story i've told above.

Thank you very much for your time!

Kind regards from Belgium,
Senne, Jeremi and Robbe

[Nanno]

This is a very interesting project, and I am very glad you found this community! Using goats to haul water is brilliant. However, I know there is going to be a LOT of concern about the design of your pack. It appears to have no rigid saddle to support the weight. Water is very heavy, and such weight should never be put directly on an animal's spine. Saddles without rigid trees are not only hard on an animals back, they are also notorious for slipping sideways and spilling the contents. 

I don't have time to research for you at the moment, but I know I have seen plans and instructions on how to make a proper wooden packsaddle for goats somewhere before, either on the internet or perhaps in a book on goat packing. I know there are also people in this forum who have made their own packsaddles and might have some help for you in that department. One thing that might be really helpful is you could order the do-it-yourself saddle kit from Northwest Packgoats. This will have all the parts you need plus instructions on assembly, which could be an excellent tool to help you start making your own wood saddles from scratch. It is well worth the initial investment of buying a kit if it helps you start off on the right foot. 

I can't wait to hear how this project progresses!

[hihobaron]

        Hello
Your project has merit and the Pack Saddle people (and kit) Recommended by NANO is a good worth while place to start.
Even if you have to order one shipped to you. E-mail the people and explain your object and you will get good experience and help with the problems of Goat Packing.
I am just starting with goat packing but have years of horse,mule ,and donkey work experience to draw on.
Aside from proper fit of equipment, keeping the load balanced side to side weight wise is critical point to get across.
Water being very heavy per volume and has a tendency to slosh (not good).
Max average weight for the typical African Goat I have seen is about 20-25 % body weight that includes the weight of the pack saddle and rigging.. 
You have found one of the best sources online for goat packing right on this site. Keep in touch,ask question and I am sure your will get a range of answers.

Happy Trails
hihobaron

[Sanhestar]

Great project. There have been similar project in the past, in Burundi (if I recall this correctly) and other places in Africa.

I also agree that you need to rethink your saddle design. You need something that will leave the spine protected - your pack panniers put direct pressure on the spine and will cause debilitating sores in no time. Especially keeping in mind that the body condition of animals in Third World countries is often less than desirable - meaning that they have less muscle mass and/or fat under the skin to protect bones.

I would rather go with designing easy to PULL equipment as every animal can pull more than it can carry. Here, too, make sure that you design the harness in a way that the animal doesn't get sore. You might contact SPANA in the UK for more pointers about what is available for people in the Sahel, they are a non-profit organisation, supporting pack and working animals and their owners in Third World countries. Letting goats pull small carts would also allow to use the significantly smaller goat breeds (which would not be of much use in carrying).

Research pack saddle design for horses, this is one of the oldest tools man has used and there are very ingenious designs that are still in use (the Tibetan yak saddle design is something that can be made from local woods and with local tools). Next are the leather pack saddles made in South America or pack saddles made from straw that are used in Marocco for donkeys.

All these designs can be adapted for goats.

Another thing: I live in Germany and would be williing to help you further with your project. Shorter ways of transport, you could also, should you be willing, come over and have a look at goat equipment.

[Sanhestar]

Just did a quick internet search about the pack goats in Burundi. The project was run by Diana de Treville, there's a story about her in one of the back issues of the Goat Track Magazine.