By Katie Fotofili | Project Leader
“In my village, I have never seen clean drinking water. The water that we drink here comes from a small, one-meter-deep stream that has dirty, contaminated water. Many of the babies do not survive because of diarrhea they get from the water,” explains a woman who lives in the Kalalé District of Benin.
In most cases in Kalalé, women and girls have to travel long distances by foot every day to collect water. For some, the distances are impossible. From this woman’s village, she would need to make a 20-mile trek to one of two potable water systems that serve 2,213 people. Fortunately for her family, her husband has a motorbike—a luxury most people in Kalalé do not have. “To drink clean water pumped from a well,” she explains, “my husband would need to take a 25-liter can (6.5 gallons) to get filled up in Bessassi, where the closest well is located.” Twenty miles for a can of water. Imagine that!
A can of water costs two cents at the Bessassi well. That is because ADESCA manages the watering stations and charges a nominal fee to villagers for their water. That money is saved to pay for maintenance and repairs so that the system can operate indefinitely—an assurance to you, the donor, that that your investment dollars are well-spent and that the villagers will never have to worry about going thirsty. Thanks to your help, we are making progress on funding another water station so that more people have easier access to clean water. In addition to holiday season gifts that were donated through Global Giving, we also received a $1,000 gift directly that was specifically earmarked for clean water. It does not appear on our Global Giving page, but you can be sure that it is dedicated to this project. So, we are more than half way there. Thank you for helping us get this far. It will be a joyous day when we reach our goal and tell another village that clean water is on the way.
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