Nakar Village, Burkina Faso
Borehole Well and Hand Pump
A specialized drilling team drills into the earth in search of an underground aquifer.
Girls and women walk long distances for water when sometimes, safe water is right under their feet! Underground rivers, called aquifers, often contain a constant supply of safe water – but you have to get to it. Enter, the drilled well. There are many forms of drilling, depending on what you are drilling through. No matter what machine or piece of equipment is used, all drilling is aiming for a borehole that reaches into an aquifer. If the aquifer has water - and after the well is developed, sanitary seal and concrete apron installed - we’re able to pull water to the surface utilizing a hand-pump. If all goes as planned, the community is left with a safe, closed water source providing around 5 gallons of water a minute through a hand-pump.
(Note: Dry wells are a reality – you really don’t know the quality and quantity of water until you finish drilling and start test pumping the well. Hand-Pumps associated with drilled and dug wells currently require substantial ongoing support from The Water Project.)
Rehabilitation Project
Rehabilitation is not just fixing a pump - it’s total community re-engagement.
There’s only one thing we can think of that might be worse than not having safe water: having safe water, and then losing if because a project fell into disrepair.
It’s estimated 50% of projects in Sub-Saharan Africa are no longer functional. A majority of these projects are dug wells and boreholes with hand pumps. Though a hand pump is low-tech, cost-effective and a great solution for providing safe water - it’s also among the most susceptible to failure.
When working in a region, The Water Project seeks to provide adequate water coverage for communities across the region. Inevitably, we find dug well and boreholes projects installed, and then abandoned by other organizations and government contracts. We believe there is great value in building on what already exists - what is already present in a community - even if what’s exists is not working. After all, this broken well represents a significant investment from the past and repairing it shows a community our investment in them.
Rehabilitation often proves to be a big challenge, as many wells have sit idle for years and there is typically little information about the specifics of the well. A borehole and dug well rehabilitation involves quite a bit of discovery. First, our teams work to discover as much as they can about the initial project. What materials were used? Was the borehole/hand-dug well properly constructed? What is the static water level and well yield? Are there any known sources of contamination? Many of these questions can only be answered by diving in, and doing “the work” which makes up a rehabilitation.
Once our teams have found the problem, they find the solution. Then, they reconstruct a concrete apron around the well, and install a hand pump.
Program engagement and training with communities takes into account rehabilitation was needed and alters the program to suit the needs of the community. After all - engaging with this community in the same way which led to the initial, failed project will not bring new results. Our teams work to understand the social and support reasons leading to initial failure, and make those areas a focus of our ongoing engagement with communities.
WaSH Components
| Community Engagement
Community engagement is at every step of a water project.
There is often a lot of focus on what can be brought into, added to, etc. a community to supply safe water. It comes from a great place of wanting to help, and we get it.
But - how this is done matters. The fact is - there is no shortage of need. It’s everywhere. We believe the popular statistics actually underestimate how many people need safe water. Views of poverty can often skew our view of communities into seeing only recipients.
Our experience is much different. Some of the greatest entrepreneurs and leaders, strongest women, smartest kids, and hardest-working men we’ve ever met just happen to be in communities who need safe water. Every community has examples of this strength, determination, and contribution.
Most communities we work with did the work of self-organizing, determined their plan for water point stewardship and leadership and then approached us for partnership. Our engagement with communities involves formally/informally establishing roles for implementation and ongoing support, expectations for water point management and ongoing costs, etc. All of this happens before a water project is installed.
In the international development world, we use a term called ABCD: “Asset Based Community Development”. For us, this means the community gets a lead seat at the table. Before we seek to bring anything into the community, we understand the assets that already exist in the community.
Hygiene and Sanitation Training
Community education and self-discovery about hygiene and sanitation concepts lead to improved health.
Because things like wells, springs and dams are so tangible and so easily photographed – we often think those things are the whole point. Truth be told, there are plenty of contractors who can simply install water and sanitation hardware and nothing else.
Improved health is the point. That’s why hygiene and sanitation training is so critical. The Water Project utilizes many different methods for this training, depending on the community/institution, program and country. The point is education… leading to self-discovery within the community…leading to new health habits. Training topics always include things like disease transmission, personal hygiene and cleanliness, proper disposal of waste and proper water storage methods.
While we know this training provides thoughtful engagement, the community is the lead partner here. Our role is to make clear to them the power they have within themselves to bring about improved health.
Monitoring and Resolution
Water isn’t a pump. Water is a service. And, it must be reliable.
Picture your family – your home or apartment. Now think about water. The fact is, you and I don’t think about our pipes or our faucets on a daily basis. What we do think about is our water service. Our lives really depend on water being available when we open the faucet, and that it will also be available tomorrow, and the next day. So, let’s imagine the same for the community who will receive safe water from our water project.
We love celebrating new work. As we celebrate, let’s also declare this together: The known benefits of water are ONLY true if water can be counted on, over time. So, the finishing of a project will be amazing. Lives will be changed and communities will have clean, safe water. But, the ongoing service of water, making water reliable, is how we can know our true impact.
The Water Project continues to monitor our water projects, and work with our partners and external support to make sure water service continues for these communities.
This doesn’t mean we’re going to be perfect at this. But, what it does mean is that you and the community being served can know a year from now, two years from now – our past water projects and the communities they serve are just as important to us as anything else we might be doing in the future.
To learn more about how you can help with ongoing monitoring, evaluation and resolution, read about our awesome monthly members.
Impact:
500 Served
Project Status:
Installed
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Stories and Community Profile
Upon completion of the project, our partner in the field reports…
The LWI Burkina Faso team stated, “Water is the limiting factor in their lives affecting their health, agriculture, and development. There are a few deep borehole wells in the area, but they are not sufficient as the majority of people have to draw water from hand dug wells which are 70 feet deep or collect water from the creeks where livestock animals drink and defecate.” When the LWI Burkina Faso team arrived, community members were utilizing a protected hand dug well located half of a kilometer away from the community to meet all of their water needs. Because of this and the community’s practice of open defecation left families suffering from dysentery, malaria, diarrhea and other preventable water related illnesses. During the teams’ stay a water committee consisting of six men and two women who assisted the team, made food for the team and provided any available materials. A crowd gathered around the well site singing songs and rejoicing that clean available water was on its way. Most of the community members earn a living by farming to help provide for their families. The nearest school is located half of a kilometer away from the community and now students, teachers and administrative personnel all have access to safe, clean water. Before leaving the community the LWI Burkina Faso team provided community member, Oliver Kamoule, with a LWI contact number in case the well were to fall into disrepair, become subject to vandalism or theft.
The LWI Burkina Faso team had the opportunity to meet with forty-two year old School Director/Teacher, Milata Sanou, who stated, “We are very happy with this new well because we have a hand dug well at the school but it oftens goes dry throughout the school year. Also, the hand dug well is very deep, 22 meters. The students have difficulty in lifting the water to the surface. The top of the hand dug well is high off of the ground and so small children must climb onto the top and lean over the open well to lower their buckets. Thus, it is very dangerous. With a bad move, the child could fall into the well. We have all the problems in the world. We want to thank The Water Project and Models 4 Water who brought this water well to the village of Nakar. The well is not far from the school, 500 meters. We are very excited to have this well!”
During the hygiene education, the LWI Burkina Faso team addresses: Hand washing, how to properly transport and store water, disease transmission and prevention, how to maintain proper care of the pump, as well as signs and symptoms of dehydration and how to make Oral Rehydration Solution. All of these lessons are taught in a participatory method to help community members discover ways to improve their hygiene and sanitation choices, and implement community driven solutions.
Project Photos
Monitoring Data
Project Type: Borehole Well and Hand Pump
Location: Gueguere, Nakar
ProjectID: 9006
Install Date: 06/28/2012
Monitoring Data
Water Point: Functional
Last Visit: 12/15/2016
Well Depth: 164.00M
Visit History:
04/27/2015 — Functional
12/15/2016 — Functional
Country Details
Burkina Faso
According to the latest UNDP report, Burkina Faso is ranked 161st out of 169 countries with comparable date in the United Nations Human Development Index. Poverty is pervasive throughout the country, and recent challenges such as outbreaks of meningitis, yellow fever, and cholera, as well as civil conflict in neighboring Côte d'Ivoire, have only added to the extreme vulnerability of the Burkinabe people.
Only about 72% of Burkina's primary school-age children are enrolled in primary school due to the costs of school supplies, insufficient infrastructure and teachers, and opportunity costs of sending a child to school when he or she could earn money for the family. The landlocked nation has few natural resources and a weak industrial base. About 90% of the population is engaged in subsistence agriculture, and therefore vulnerable to periodic drought.
The country has an abundance of valuable water sources, but most pumps are either in some state of disrepair or altogether non-functioning. As a result of the lack of access to clean water and basic sanitation throughout the country, there is a persistence of waterborne illnesses like diarrhea and cholera. The most cost-effective and efficient way for TWP and our partners to affect change for Burkina Faso's thirsty is to rehabilitate these water sources: replacing hand pumps, repairing broken parts, sealing open wells—doing whatever is necessary to restore clean water to the people who need it most.
Partner Profile
Nearly 20 years ago, LWI 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.
In response to this need, LWI implements participatory, community-based water solutions in developing countries.
LWI is a former partner of The Water Project.