Bring Clean Water to 15 Villages in Rural Gambia

In our last report, we wrote to you about Mabile, a woman living in the small, remote village of Si Kunda. For 8 years, she has been drinking directly out of dirty, open wells. With no means to fix the community's broken handpumps, no way to disinfect their water, and no alternative sources of clean water nearby, Mabile and her neighbors had no choice but to raise their children on this tainted drinking water. Waterborne illnesses like dysentery and diarrhea--leading killers of children in the country--were common. 

I say "were" because drinking dirty water is now a thing of the past--not just for her family, but her whole village. Si Kunda was one of 3 villages where we distributed Sawyer household water filters last month. These durable and long-lasting filters are extremely powerful and effective in removing germs and making waterborne diseases HISTORY, 

In addition to Si Kunda, we also restored clean water access to Colley Kunda, a community whose handpumps failed 13 years ago. We also brought clean water for the first time EVER to the village of Borehole, which previously drank straight from a hand-dug, open well. As part of Water Charity's Filters for Life Program, we distributed filters to each household in all 3 communities and taught villagers how to assemble, use, clean, and care for the filters. With proper care, they can serve for decades, filtering more than 3 million liters each! That's more than 792,500 gallons.

A short description of each community is below, along with embedded links to videos of open wells and filter/taste test demonstrations and distributions:

Si Kunda—a community of 20 compounds/272 people—had two handpumps installed on a covered well in 2005. However, the pumps experienced problems 8 years ago. An unscrupulous local well mechanic pulled the handpumps out, promising to bring new pipes and parts, but absconded with the old parts instead. The community, relying only on a back-up open well for their household needs and to water cattle, decided to open the closed well 4 years ago and resort to drawing water by using buckets and rope. Before receiving Sawyer water filters through this distribution here, the village drank directly from these two open wells you can see here and here. 

Colley Kunda, a village of 6 compounds and a Koranic school (106 residents) has similarly suffered for years due to their two handpumps falling into disrepair. See a video of our filter distribution and the open well in Colley Kunda here.

Borehole is a very small community of only 3 compounds/46 people. They draw water from a hand-dug, open well and drink the dirty water straight. The well is roughly lined with loose rocks and structurally unsound for a handpump. See what it’s like for Borehole residents to fetch water here and here. The Sawyer filters have brought clean water to Borehole for the first time ever!

Thanks for all your support. We wouldn't have gotten far without YOU. Help us make waterborne diseases HISTORY in even more villages! We will continue to install filters and rehabilitate handpumps to improve health outcomes in underserved communities in Gambia and look forward to sharing our ongoing progress with you. 

All the best,

Jeremy Mak
Gambia Lifewater Project

Founder and Managing Director