October, 2018: A Year Later: Baya Community

A year ago, your generous donation enabled us to drill a well for Baya Community in Sierra Leone. The contributions of incredible monthly donors and others giving directly to The Water Promise allow our local teams to visit project sites throughout the year, strengthening relationships with communities and evaluating the water project over time. These consistent visits allow us to learn vital lessons and hear amazing stories. Read more...

December, 2017: Baya Community Project Complete

We are excited to share that there is a new well in Baya Community, and it’s now providing clean water! Hundreds of 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. This water and new knowledge give the community a great foothold in eliminating water and sanitation-related illness. Please enjoy this update detailing all the work that was done Baya Communiyu and make sure to click on the "See Photos & Video" tab above to find new pictures of the finished project.

Thank You for unlocking potential in this community. You made clean water a reality, and now you have a chance to make sure it keeps flowing. Join our team of monthly donors and help us, our caretakers, and our mechanics maintain this well and hundreds of other projects!

Project Result: New Knowledge

We used our first community engagement meeting to vote on members for the water and sanitation committee. These 13 committee members were then responsible for recruiting their neighbors for hygiene and sanitation training. They passed this information to the mosque, and the village chief also joined them in going house to house to call everyone for training.

Our trainers used the results from our baseline survey to know which topics deserved the most attention. Sessions were held in an open space in the center of the village. And since the weather was favorable, all training could be done in the shade of a tree. Over one hundred participants showed up for all three days, and we got an increasingly greater number of children in attendance.

Some of the topics covered during training were as follows:

– How to wash hands, and how to build a hand-washing station from a jerrycan, string, sticks, and netting

– Good and bad hygiene practices

– Dish racks and how to build them

– Keeping animals under control

– Management and maintenance of the hand pump

There was also a demonstration where the trainer went around shaking hands with all in attendance. Each individual noticed a glittery shine on their hands after the handshakes. This introduced a practical lesson: What are you seeing on your hands? They answer by saying "we are seeing shine-shine on our hands," and that’s when the facilitators bring home the idea that these signify germs. We are always vulnerable to them, and need to keep clean by practicing good personal hygiene. This set us up for a strong transition into how to make hand-washing stations.

Making sustainable hand-washing stations with jerrycans, string, and sticks.

Diagrams portraying unhealthy practices such as walking barefoot, open defecation, outdoor urination, and eating with unwashed hands were all shown and discussed in groups. What behaviors make a community healthy, and what others are counterproductive? These questions also helped participants discover the routes of contamination in their community.

Community members helping the trainer by holding illustrations.

The final day, we continued these types of discussions. While on the first day we had led people through hand-washing station construction, this third day was similar in that we elaborated on the need for and the viability of building other sanitation facilities like latrines, dish racks, and animal pens. We taught participants what materials to use, proving that even the poorest family can afford to build at least a traditional pit latrine. We also taught about chlorinating water, and everyone had brought salt and sugar with them to learn how to make an oral rehydration solution.

A massive cleaning campaign was scheduled for the end of the month, and people returned home and installed the hand-washing stations they made. Some even made a second hand-washing station so they could have one outside their latrine and another at the kitchen.

Mrs. Mariatu Kamara told us, "In this area where we live, the topic of hygiene is very strange [new] to us. We have learnt new ideas concerning open defecation and also how and why a woman should practice hygiene because we are vulnerable to infections. Also, we were taught to always wash our food and hands before eating if we don'€™t want to be affected by cholera and other transmitted diseases. I now believe that we are no longer vulnerable to transmitted infections with this kind of hygiene and sanitation knowledge - if only we put into practice what your team has taught us."

Mrs. Mariatu Kamara

Project Result: New Well

Drilling for this borehole began in September 2017.

The community offered the drill team a large room in the house across the street from the drill site. The community did the cooking for the team which is no small task... they eat like lions! Team members were grateful for these things, and that they were able to sit on the veranda and watch over the equipment while staying dry at night.

The water and sanitation committee determined the location for the borehole, while the rest of the community members were happy and even eager to help. Many of them carried water to the construction site to help with drilling. The team ended up using 1,700 gallons of water that were all carried by community members.

Children bringing water to keep the drill rig functioning.

Two pits were dug to be used for the mud rotary drill, carrying water down the hole and then carrying material back out. The borehole is drilled in sections of five feet, with the team taking a ground sample at those points. Drilling went smoothly up to 60 feet, where they met a rock. The team was able to drill slowly through that rock and then continue to 85 feet. Around that point, the ground cuttings became black. They had to stop there, because black clay is not good for drinking water.

The cuttings are also used for determining the best aquifer location so that screen can be cut in the pipes. Once the drill is removed from he borehole, the casing can replace it. The connections must be made tight so that pipe parts do not fall down the hole on their own! Filter pack is poured down between the casing and the hole. Bentonite and clay help seal the filter pack, after which a cement well pad can be built.

The team bails the borehole until water runs clean, which often takes up to four days. The well then undergoes a yield test. After 30 minutes of pumping with a submersible, the static water level is measured. An hour later, it is measured again. There was no change of the static water level, which measures in at 29 feet. The submersible pumped 650 gallons in one hour, or 40 liters per minute.

The community smiles as they see how much clean water is coming from their well.

With these good results, a new stainless steel India MkII pump was installed.

People gathered together to celebrate, singing and dancing to the sound of a beaten drum. After, everyone was so excited to pump the water and start drinking. Mr. Momoh Sillah said, "We have been struggling to get access to clean, pure drinking water. Drinking water from the swamp has been the only source. In view of that, we have been always affected with skin diseases. But for now, we are so happy that you came to our aid. We no longer have to walk long distances to get access to pure drinking water. We thank God for the intervention... for our new, safe water source right in our community. It is pure, clean and tasteless!"