Bring Clean Water to 15 Villages in Rural Gambia

Jainaba is a young girl who lives in Sare Sambel, a small, remote village in Central Gambia home to about 150 ethnic Fula farmers and cattle herders. Water here was a huge problem for her growing up. The community received its only handpump in 1999 as part of a government flood relief program. But for 13 years it had been serviced only twice, and with secondhand parts. At any moment, it was at risk of breaking down, which would have forced villagers to drink from the same open well that is used for cows.

We first went to Sare Sambel in 2012 to give the village handpump much needed upgrades. Videos of this work can be seen HERE and HERE. This helped increase water output, but we knew this wasn’t enough to keep Sare Sambel’s ageing pump going for much longer.

We recently went back to replace the community’s old, worn-out pump with a new, stronger and more robust Bluepump, that can serve Sare Sambel with clean water for 20+ years. Oxfam calls the Bluepump the best handpump available today. The before and during installation videos are HERE, HERE, and HERE.

You can see a video of a happy Jainaba testing it out the day after we installed the Bluepump HERE.

This is just one example of how Water Charity and the Gambia Lifewater Project are ensuring that in even the poorest village, women, children, and men have improved access to water and are less vulnerable to water shortages during drought. Clean water access in Sare Sambel is much more reliable now, giving community members not only better health outcomes, but also a greater sense of confidence and self-reliance in managing their water supplies than they did previously.

And we're not stopping here. Thanks again for all your support in making this happen.

Best wishes,

Jeremy

Every day, we’re working hard to continue the fight against clean water insecurity in rural Gambia. Here’s an update of our recent activities to increase or restore clean water access in three communities.

With Global Giving support, we just installed a new Bluepump at the District Health Center in Dankunku. I personally lived next to and worked in this clinic during my Peace Corps service years ago. Even though it’s not even 15 years old, the center looks much older. Water does not flow through the broken pipes and faucets, and the torn window screens, abandoned ceiling fans, bare shelves, and peeling paint leave much to be desired. But when a woman is about to give birth or when a child suffers from trauma, malaria or dysentery, this is where they go. There is no other health facility for miles.

The clinic’s solar water system broke long ago, and while the hospital has managed to tap into the village’s larger borehole system, it sometimes shuts down and is turned off at night. This forces medical staff, as well as patients and their family members—especially those who spend the night—to rely on handpumps scattered throughout the village, or to beg households for access to stored water, the latter of which might not always be clean and safe to use in hospital settings.

The well immediately in front of the clinic has two handpumps, one that we previously fixed in 2012, and the other, which has fallen into disrepair. We replaced this broken one with a robust and long-lasting Bluepump to give the clinic and village more reliable access to clean water, directly benefiting more than 2,000 people in Dankunku, and indirectly benefiting the 26 surrounding villages that depend on the health center for primary medical care. You can see videos of this repair BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER. Clean water returns!

With support from Gamrupa Danmark, we also distributed Sawyer household water filters for two remote, rural villages previously drinking directly from open, dirty wells. We taught all female heads of households, those traditionally responsible for collecting water, how to assemble, maintain, and clean the filters. Each filter can provide clean drinking water for a household for DECADES. Modikaya, a community of 8 compounds and 103 people, had a pump which failed on them, forcing them to rely on THIS traditional open well for years. You can see our distribution of filters restoring clean water to the community HERE.

Lastly, before receiving Sawyer filters HERE, Sinchu Al-Haggi, a village of 9 compounds and 121 residents relied exclusively on drinking straight from THESE 2 open and dirty wells. This is the first time EVER that clean water has reached this village.

Thanks again to your stellar support. We couldn’t have done it without you. Let's continue the fight to make waterborne diseases HISTORY.

Best wishes,

Jeremy Mak

Links:

• Description of all Gambia Lifewater Project accomplishments
• Gambia Lifewater Project YouTube Channel