Project Status



Project Type:  Borehole Well and Hand Pump

Regional Program: Port Loko, Sierra Leone WaSH Program

Impact: 170 Served

Project Phase:  In Service - Dec 2018

Functionality Status:  Functional

Last Checkup: 01/22/2024

Project Features


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A hotel in this part of Tulun Community used to occasionally allow people to collect water from its taps, but that's no longer the case after a recent change in ownership. Packaged water is readily available for those who can afford it, but only a handful of families can sustain the expense.

Hope Assembly of God School and Church occasionally has water delivered to fill its tank, but it is expensive to maintain.

However, most people must resort to traveling a decent distance to collect water from a swamp. And water accessibility in the swamp source is largely dependent on the time of the year.

During the rains, water will is in abundance so all groups of people here can collect as much water as they want if they can make it up and down the steep hill. The hill to the water point is so steep that it makes it very tough for anyone to fetch the quantity of water they might want. But accessibility begins to subside as the dry season comes and peaks.

There are no rules to help keep the swamp a safe environment, and the water is completely open to pollution. There is nobody to control it so everyone does as he or she feels at the water point - further contaminating the already open source.

The people use the same source for bathing, laundry, farming and other activities. Chemicals used, especially for laundry and bathing, are very dangerous to humans and some of it makes its way into the swamp. There is also a problem with people throwing trash wherever they want and this has an effect on the water.

That is why we are going to drill a new well at Hope Assembly of God School and Church.

This school is the brainchild of three people, pastor Micheal S. Conteh, Pastor Richard Anderson and the current headmistress, Mrs. Bintu Sarah Conteh. Upon the establishment of the church and learning that the community is deprived in the area of education, these three people came up with the idea of establishing a school and they started formal classes in 2009.

The church and the school have a very good hygiene and sanitation practice for their latrines. The rooms are clean and dry with water and soap available in the wash hand facility.

But this is not the case for the larger community in which the people tend to be a little not careful about the hygiene and sanitation condition of their latrines. However, few homes in this place maintain a very high standard of hygiene and sanitation in their toilets. There are two stalls and then one room for bathing.

Here’s what we plan to do about it:

Training

There will be hygiene and sanitation training sessions offered for three days in a row.

After our visit, the hygiene and sanitation trainer decided it would be best to teach community members how to build a tippy tap (a hand-washing station built with a jerrycan, string, and sticks). They will use these tippy taps for hand-washing demonstrations, and will also teach about other tools like dish racks and the importance of properly penning in animals.

These trainings will also build up and strengthen a water user committee that will manage and maintain this well. They will enforce proper behavior and report to us whenever they need our help solving a serious problem, like a pump breakdown.

New Well

This borehole will be located at Hope Assembly of God School and Church in Tulun Community, which is the best location because there are no latrines nearby.

Our team will drive over the LS200 mud rotary drill rig and set up camp for a couple of nights. Once the well is drilled to a sufficient water column, it will be cased, developed, and then tested. If these tests are positive, our mechanics will install a new India Mark II pump.

This community has struggled to find clean water to drink. By drilling this borehole, people living near and the students attending Hope Assembly of God School and Church will be provided with plenty of safe drinking water.

Project Updates


November, 2019: Giving Update: Tulun Community, Hope Assembly of God School and Church

A year ago, your generous donation helped Tulun Community, Hope Assembly of God School and Church in Sierra Leone access clean water.

There’s an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water at Tulun Community, Hope Assembly of God School and Church. Month after month, their giving supports ongoing sustainability programs that help this school maintain access to safe, reliable water. Read more…




December, 2018: Tulun Community, Hope Assembly Project Complete

We are excited to share that there is a safe, reliable water point at Hope Assembly, Tulun Community that's already providing clean water to students and their families! People here no longer have to rely on dirty water from the swamp. Hygiene and sanitation training was also conducted, which focused on healthy practices such as washing hands and using latrines.

New Knowledge

Having gone through a baseline survey, the team procured the materials needed for Hope Assembly's hygiene and sanitation training. Later, the team sent a representative to inform the school and community about the proposed event. Even though everyone had agreed on a date ahead of time, our team still had to go out into the community with the headmistress to call the people to the venue. All of the students attending Hope Assembly of God School gathered together in the church hall.

The school staff and pupils were so excited about the training since some of the topics are included in the school curriculum. For the more studious students, this was an opportunity for them to showcase how much they had learned. These pupils made the training very interactive. They made their teachers proud!

Some of the training topics were:

- how to build a tippy tap handwashing station
- how to wash hands


- difference between good and bad hygiene
- how diseases spread
- how to build a dish rack and clothesline
- dental hygiene


- dealing with diarrhea and how to make an oral rehydration solution

Diarrhea can kill children under five if not treated promptly with an oral rehydration solution.

Building the tippy taps and talking about handwashing always generates a lot of excitement. To drive home how important it is to wash hands, the trainer demonstrated the spread of germs. She dipped her hand in a cup of glitter and then started shaking hands with the students. She revealed that germs spread just as easily as that glitter.

A lot of families hesitate to embrace handwashing because it forces them to use extra water. The tippy tap system wastes very little water that even the headteacher stood up and voiced her admiration.

Making tippy taps

"Personally I must confess that I learned new things during this training," said Headmistress Bintu Conteh.

"For example, I had no idea about the tippy tap. And aside from the hygiene part of the tippy tap which was the lesson most people learned, I also figured out the economy in water use and I was very thrilled by this. In fact, tippy tap and handwashing was my favorite topic during all the training and I erected mine straight after the training. It will help my home save water and prevent some diseases."

New Well

The drilling of this new borehole was a success, and clean water is flowing!

"This well has brought a huge relief to this community," said Mrs. Rebecca Kamara.

"Our hygiene has always been incomplete because of water shortage. But the presence of this water well will bring sanity to this community. Also, because of contaminated water, some groups of people with low resistance, especially the kids, are often prone to diarrhea," Rebecca continued.

"Now that we have clean drinking water in our community, our health will also improve."

The Process:

Two pits were dug next to the drill rig, one for the drill’s water supply and another for what was pulled back up out of the borehole.

Day one of drilling started with filling the two pits with water mixed with bentonite. A 4-inch carbide tipped bit was fixed to the five-foot-long drill stem. The mud pump was started to supply water to the drill rig and the drilling starts. During drilling, the team, after every five-foot length of drill stem put into the hole, would take material samples. The bags were labeled, 1, 2, 3 etc, and these are to be reviewed later to determine the aquifer locations.

The team found red clay for the first 35 feet, sand until 70 feet. At that point, the team started to worry about the hole collapsing. At 75 feet it was evident that it was indeed collapsing, so the team called it a day and went to rest for the evening.

On the second day, the team immediately started out by pushing water and bentonite into the hole. They connected the reamer bit and made it to 95 feet. But like the day before, the team hit collapsing sand that wouldn't let them get deeper. In fact, they witnessed a collapse back up to 80 feet. At this point, they decided to push back the drill rig to make room for the next step.

An air compressor was brought in to bail water out. This machine releases heavy air into the well and water and other debris are subsequently pumped out of the well. But there was not enough water in the well and the compressor developed issues.

The team decided to drill by hand. They used the installation pipe and the cylinder to drill by hand so that they could get rid of sand.

Drilling by hand

After three more days of drilling, the team negotiated to a depth of ninety feet. Sure that the well finally had enough water, they set up the yield test again.

The well was cased and screened. Since the air compressor broke down earlier, two men bailed the well for three days. Then, a submersible pump can test the yield. The yield here is 37 liters per minute.

With these great results, a stainless steel India MkII pump was installed. Water quality tests show that this is clean water fit for drinking.

Our team met students, teachers, and community members at the new well to celebrate. There was singing, dancing, and prayers of thanks. We watched a particularly excited student dump water on her head and call it a shower of blessing!




November, 2018: Tulun Community Project Underway

Dirty water from the swamp is making people in Tulun Community sick. Thanks to your generosity, we’re working to install a clean water point and much more.

Get to know your community through the narrative and pictures we’ve posted, and read about this water, sanitation and hygiene project. We look forward to reaching out with more good news!




Project Photos


Project Type

Abundant water is often right under our feet! Beneath the Earth’s surface, rivers called aquifers flow through layers of sediment and rock, providing a constant supply of safe water. For borehole wells, we drill deep into the earth, allowing us to access this water which is naturally filtered and protected from sources of contamination at the surface level. First, we decide where to drill by surveying the area and determining where aquifers are likely to sit. To reach the underground water, our drill rigs plunge through meters (sometimes even hundreds of meters!) of soil, silt, rock, and more. Once the drill finds water, we build a well platform and attach a hand pump. If all goes as planned, the community is left with a safe, closed water source providing around five gallons of water per minute! Learn more here!


Giving Update: Hope Assembly of God School and Church

November, 2019

A year ago, your generous donation helped Hope Assembly of God School and Church in Sierra Leone access clean water – creating a life-changing moment for Rosetta Omoh Mambu. Thank you!

Keeping The Water Promise

There's an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water in Hope Assembly of God School and Church.

This giving community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Hope Assembly of God School and Church maintain access to safe, reliable water. Together, they keep The Water Promise.

We’re confident you'll love joining this world-changing group committed to sustainability!

The improvement is very much evident in the lives of the students and community members at Hope Assembly of God School and Church since the inception of their water project a year ago. We observed that people are very happy and are at ease because they no longer wake up early in the morning to fetch water.

"We no longer drink contaminated water. It was a very big challenge to wake up very early in the morning to fetch water. I am no longer late for school and I have enough time now to study," said 10-year-old Rosetta Omoh Mambu to us during a visit to the well.

It was not easy before because the drinking water was contaminated. Little did the community know that it was this contaminated water that brought sickness to the community. After the rehabilitation of the well and the installation of a pump, the well is pure, clean and protected. Sicknesses like diarrhea, typhoid, and dysentery that were posing serious medical threats are no more in this community.

"Water is life and getting clean, pure drinking water at your doorstep is a very big blessing. We have been saved from waking very early to fetch water," added Rebecca Kamara, the caretaker of the well.

This pump has reduced accidents across the street according to interviewees. Our teams were especially impressed at the high levels of sanitation and hygiene maintained by the community and school. Their toilets are clean with water and soap and the community and the well site are well-kept. These changes are effective now because of the provision of safe, clean, and pure drinking water from the well and the lessons learned from the hygiene and sanitation training a year ago.


Navigating through intense dry spells, performing preventative maintenance, conducting quality repairs when needed and continuing to assist community leaders to manage water points are all normal parts of keeping projects sustainable. The Water Promise community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Hope Assembly of God School and Church maintain access to safe, reliable water.

We’d love for you to join this world-changing group committed to sustainability.

The most impactful way to continue your support of Hope Assembly of God School and Church – and hundreds of other places just like this – is by joining our community of monthly givers.

Your monthly giving will help provide clean water, every month... keeping The Water Promise.


Contributors

Project Sponsor - St. Peter's United Church of Christ
Project Sponsor - St. Peter's United Church of Christ