Rogbere Village Well
Project Snapshot
Country: Sierra Leone
GPS Coordinates:
Latitude 8.562783
Longitude -13.133100
Impact:
Total Served: 350
Status: Completed (?)
Completion Date (or estimate): 01/20/2012
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Upon completion of this project our implementing partner reported...
This community has great unity. They had 18 men and 20 women on their water committee. The water committee is responsible for helping maintain the well and collecting a well maintenance fee of USD/Liter $0.02 per 5 gallons. The LWI Sierra Leone team suggested they make the committee smaller and that some of the people could work on the sanitation aspect with the children from the Child Health Club. When the team arrived, community members were utilizing an open, contaminated well located one kilometer away from the community to meet all of their water needs. Because of this, families were suffering from dysentery, typhoid and malaria. During the team’s stay, the community established water committee assisted the team with the water project whenever possible, brought in sand for the well, provided food for the team and helped provide security over the water project during the night. Most community members sustain their families by fishing, harvesting salt, farming and petty trading. The nearest school is located three kilometers away from the community whose students, teachers and administrative personnel all have access to the new, safe water source. Before leaving the community, the team provided community member, Kebineh Bangura, with a LWI Sierra Leone contact number in case their well were to fall into disrepair, become subject to vandalism or theft.
The LWI Sierra Leone team had an opportunity to meet with thirty-one year old community member and petty trader, Hawa Kamara, who stated, "The first well the water was red and has a taste, but we thank God for this new well. This new one is protected and free from germs and it will help keep us from sickness."
There were 90 adults and 100 children who attended this hygiene training. This is a catchment community for the full WaSH project at the DEC Mamankie Primary School and some of the children from the Child Health Club were on hand to assist with the hygiene training. The training was implemented fine and there was a lot of interest by the people in the community. They were so happy because they never knew most of the things they were taught. They asked questions about the hygiene lessons they were taught. The students talked to the community about the importance of every household having a toilet of some kind and encouraged people to build native toilets who didn't have any.
Project Photos
Sponsors
Country Details
Sierra Leone
- Population: 9.7 Million
- Lacking clean water: 47%
- Below poverty line: 70%
- Climate: Tropical; hot, humid; summer rainy season; winter dry season
- Languages: English, Mende, Temne, Krio
- Ethnic Groups: 20 African ethnic groups 90% (Temne 30%, Mende 30%, other 30%), Creole (Krio) 10%
- Life Expectancy: 48 years
- Infant Mortality Rate: 155 deaths per 1000 live births
Partner Profile
Living Water International
Nearly 20 years ago, we set out to help the church in North America be the hands and feet of Jesus by serving the poorest of the poor. 600 million people in the world live on less than $2 a day. 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water.
For all practical purposes, these statistics refer to the same people; around the world, communities are trapped in debilitating poverty because they constantly suffer from water-related diseases and parasites, and/or because they spend long stretches of their time carrying water over long distances.
In response to this need, we implement participatory, community-based water solutions in developing countries. Since we started, we’ve completed water projects for 7,000 communities in 26 countries.
It all began in 1990, when a group from Houston, Texas traveled to Kenya and saw the desperate need for clean drinking water. They returned to Houston and founded a 501(c)3 non-profit. The fledgling organization equipped and trained a team of Kenyan drillers, and LWI Kenya began operations the next year under the direction of a national board.
That pattern continues today; we train, consult, and equip local people to implement solutions in their own countries.
Remembering the life-changing nature of that first trip in 1990, we also lead hundreds of volunteers on mission trips each year, working with local communities, under the leadership of nationals, to implement water projects. It’s hard to know which lives are changed more—those “serving” or those “being served.”
Our training programs in shallow well drilling, pump repair, and hygiene education have equipped thousands of volunteers and professionals in the basics of integrated water solutions since 1997.
