Rehabilitation Project
Upon completion of the project, our partner in the field reports...
When the team arrived, 450 families including a Primary School with 395 students including; 208 boys and 187 girls, several churches and Community Center, were dependent on an unprotected dug well located 3 kilometers outside the community, an unprotected spring and various forms of surface water located a kilometer outside the community, tube wells or boreholes located 4 kilometers outside the community and protected hand dug wells located 5 kilometers outside the community to meet all of their water needs. (Editor's Note: While this many people may have access on any given day, realistically a single water source can only support a population of 350-500 people. To learn more, click here.) Because of this and the community’s practice of open defecation, families were suffering from diarrhea and severe dehydration among other preventable water related illnesses. Most residents are of Catholic or Muslim faith and though there is no church located in this community or in surrounding areas, the Living Water Burkina Faso team choose this location specifically because of families who had yet to hear the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. During the implementation of the well rehabilitation, the team used access to safe drinking water as an entry-point to sharing the Gospel with the unreached. During the team’s stay, community members assembled a Water Committee who assisted the team with the water project whenever possible and who is responsible for maintaining the well after the team leaves the area. There is another NGO, PABSO, working this area to help cultivate rice production in lower water runoff areas.
There were 386 people: 88 men, 193 women and 105 children who attended the Hygiene Promotion. A Living Water Burkina Faso team member shared, "This was a new area for our team and the community response was amazing." During the hygiene education and using the Living Water Traditional Method, the team addressed: Germs, Hand Washing-Proper Techniques and Water Saving Methods, Good-Bad Hygiene Behaviors, Proper Care of Pump and Keeping the Water Clean.
The Living Water Nicaragua team had an opportunity to meet with 69-year-old community member and farmer Simon Bafiogo, who stated, "I wish you all welcome, for the second time in our village. Our pump was lying broke-down for three years! The people of the village utilized water from shallow hand dug wells, which were not totally good. These wells give us many sicknesses because it is not clean water. Thank God very much! Thank you!"
