I agree with Iain. Without having your own expert on site to verify the materials and work, it will be the driller's word and opinion (who can easily claim to be an expert) vs yours. This is unfortunately not a rare occurrence, as many wells in Africa become inoperable after only a year or so. Many contractors are not as invested in the success of the community as the sponsoring organization. Unless you can prove without a doubt the collapse was due to the contractor's negligence, he will not be at fault. He could easily blame unforeseen geologic conditions or a defect in the material caused by manufacturing that was unable to be discerned by his inspection. Having the same contractor drill another well without oversight will likely have a similar result.

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I agree with Iain. Without having your own expert on site to verify the materials and work, it will be the driller's word and opinion (who can easily claim to be an expert) vs yours. This is unfortunately not a rare occurrence, as many wells in Africa become inoperable after only a year or so. Many contractors are not as invested in the success of the community as the sponsoring organization. Unless you can prove without a doubt the collapse was due to the contractor's negligence, he will not be at fault. He could easily blame unforeseen geologic conditions or a defect in the material caused by manufacturing that was unable to be discerned by his inspection. Having the same contractor drill another well without oversight will likely have a similar result.

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Hi Mary. Yes agreed. I think the trick for these guys going forward is for either a consultant or the driller to provide a tech sub to the client team to fully detail the approach strategy for the drilling of the well including the materials ( casings / screens etc ) to be used. Then a consultant / experienced person on the client team can interrogate the tech sub and validate ( or not as the case may be ) before work commences. It is likely that the screens / casings  ( presumably PVC ) will need to have sufficient wall thickness, and therefore collapse resistance to withstand the well characteristics at this particular site. It shouldn't be difficult to get this right so long as the right people are involved. Without this approach, the driller is free to do what he wants with whatever materials he wants to use up that might not be suitable for the job ! 

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