Bring Clean Water to 15 Villages in Rural Gambia

Omar has arguably one of the most mischievous smiles out of any boy that you ever saw. I’ve gotten to know him very well, after living with him and his Uncle's family for more than a year and visiting him in Gambia every year since 2011. In late 2014, he moved to Sare Bakary, a small community of around 200 people to be with his father after his mother unxpectedly passed away.

He start primary school last year and has made many friends. But one challenge his village has faced is accessing clean water. The village handpump started malfunctioning 2 years ago and started producing very little water. The community has 3 small piston pumps, but they don’t provide the volume of water needed to meet the village’s demands.

A nearby village has a solar borehole and a tap stand distribution system for water, as well as a functioning handpump, but due to poor inter-village relations, the sharing of these resources with Sare Bakary is not possible. As a last resort, villagers in Sare Bakary have been forced to rely on a dirty open well for their water, exposing themselves to the risk of serious waterborne diseases.

To do well in school and in life, Omar needs clean water. And we set out to provide that. With your help, we just replaced the village’s old pump with a robust and durable Bluepump, capable of delivering high-output, clean water, for 20 years. You can see videos of our work and a tour of the village here at these links: Bluepump Installation 1, 2, 3, 4. Open Well 1 and 2.

We continue to provide durable clean water solutions to needy communities in Gambia, so children like Omar can worry more about math problems than diarrhea.

Thanks again for your support,

Best wishes,

Jeremy Mak

Founder and Director, Gambia Lifewater Project

Links:

• Water Charity and The Gambia Lifewater Pump Repair Projects