A Year Later: Better Business!

Before we rehabilitated the well in Masoila last year, people spent hours each day walking from well to well and waiting in long lines just hoping for a chance to fill their containers. Getting water was an arduous and thankless task.

"Before this time, we and [our] children were having a lot of constraints to fetch water," said 21-year-old trader Aminata Conteh, who also serves as treasurer on the water user committee. "There was a lot of waterborne diseases like cholera, diarrhea, etc. that [were plaguing] us."

But since the well near the mosque has been rehabilitated, fetching water is easier and the water is monitored and treated regularly, so no one has to suffer any longer from preventable diseases.

"Now we have pure and safe drinking water, and it is closer to our homes," Aminata said. "No waterborne diseases [will be] affecting us again."

Having access to water also has ripple effects that translate to success and happiness in other areas of life, too.

"I am [a] businesswoman," Aminata explained. "Before this project came, I normally went out late to the market [to] sell my goods, but with the well closer to my house, I now do my domestic work faster and go to the market [early]."

Aminata outside the well.