Water Harvesting using Animal Power

Donkey Drawn Tools

Soil loosener – This tool loosens the hard soil to ease subsequent moving. Several shallow passes are made gradually becoming deeper.

Scoop – This loads and transports the soil away from the pan or water hole. The filling, transporting and dumping are controlled by the operator with the handles.

Drawings available

Soil Loosener

This version operates using a single animal in light soil. Note the well fitting harness and high lift hitch. This webbing is discarded aircraft straps used for securing containers and is cheap and strong.

One major advantage of the hitch is that the draw ropes are kept away from the animal’s rear legs thus reducing the real risk of them stepping over the ropes especially when turning.

The tool has a low draught force and shatters the soil to make scooping easy.

Handling the Scoop

The depth of loading is controlled by the handles. The important features are to maintain a shallow depth so the scoop fills over a distance.

The soil should be left is as smooth and level as possible with no holes or bumps. These can cause a sudden increase in draught force which is not pleasant for the animal and should be avoided.

Attachments:
File	Description	File size
D308	Donkey scoop plans	8 Kb
DBar	Donkey scoop plans	12 Kb
Metal layout	Donkey scoop plans	9 Kb
Donkey scoop end plates	This file contains templates for the end plates of the donkey scoop	5 Kb
Scoop handles	Donkey scoop plans	13 Kb
FrameD508	Donkey scoop plans	5 Kb