The Water Project: Sierra Leone

Just because we made it to Kipolo Village for our first visit doesn’t mean it’s easy! The roads were good up to an old bridge. We struggled to get our motorbikes over it. Then, the roads changed to dirt filled with huge ruts and holes washed out from heavy rains. Though it’s not very far from our office, it sure took hard work and perseverance to get here.

There are few homes in this rural area, but there are tons of people living under each roof. There are up to 20 people in one household! These houses are made of mud bricks and zinc roofs, with animals wandering in and out. There is a small mosque for prayers throughout the day besides the eight homes.

The people here are friendly and generous even though they have very little. They rely on farming to put food on the table. During our visit we found out it was peak time for harvesting rice.

Water

Everyone relies on a river and the overflowing swamp area for their water. It meets all of their needs, from drinking to cleaning. Though the water might be good for laundry, it’s no good for drinking.

Sanitation

There is only one latrine in Kipolo, owned by the chief. Everyone else is going in the privacy of the vegetation surrounding the village. There are no hand-washing stations, no dish racks, no animals pens, no garbage pits.

“We at Kipolo have a fine river… but our problem is the way the people handle water and food at their homes. There is no cleanliness. Even the dishes, plates and spoons are not clean. This causes us to catch lots of sicknesses and causes deaths within our community,” Mr. Bome Turay told us.

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.

The hygiene and sanitation trainer decided it would be best to teach community members the importance of building a latrine, how to build a hand-washing station, and more. They will also teach about other tools like dish racks and the importance of properly penning in animals. Pictures will be used to teach the community how to discern between healthy and unhealthy hygiene and sanitation practices.

These trainings will also result in a water user committee that manages and maintains the new well. They will enforce proper behavior and report to us whenever they need our help solving a serious problem, like a pump breakdown.

Borehole

The community will be meeting together to determine the best location for their new well, and then we’ll confirm the viability of their choice. Wherever the drill site, we know clean water will be extremely close to everyone in such a small village!

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.

These people have been drinking dirty water from the river and swamps and are suffering the consequences. By drilling this borehole, Kipolo Community will be provided with plenty of safe, clean drinking water.

This project is a part of our shared program with Mariatu’s Hope. Our team is pleased to provide the reports for this project (edited for readability) thanks to the hard work of our friends in Sierra Leone.

Project Updates

09/20/2019: Giving Update: Kipolo Village

A year ago, your generous donation helped Kipolo Village in Sierra Leone access clean water.

There’s an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water in Kipolo Village. Month after month, their giving supports ongoing sustainability programs that help this community maintain access to safe, reliable water. Read more…

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05/29/2018: Kipolo Community Project Complete

We are excited to share that there is a new borehole in Kipolo Community, which is already providing clean water to 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

The weather is always bright and sunny in this part of the world. The weather can be harshly bright, like on this particular day, so the community asked to meet in the shade of a big mango tree for our hygiene and sanitation training.

Kipolo is a rural village, and we always notice a drastic difference from the other urban areas we work in – the people living out here will drop everything for guests! The whole village will assemble with just a call. That made for a wonderful turnout at training.

The first day was primarily about handwashing. We used empty jerrycans, string, and other materials to build these, and encouraged participants to return home and build another. Once we finished, we set up one of the handwashing stations to demonstrate how to properly wash your hands. Proper handwashing at all the proper times is the easiest way to prevent sickness.

The second day we discussed daily habits and how they affect health in ways the community never imagined.

There are some topics best presented using pictures. The team holds up different scenes that participants would see on a daily basis. The people were especially interested in this particular topic for one reason: for each scene displayed, there was at least one household guilty of the hygiene mistake portrayed. You could see participants glancing over at the leaders of guilty households. This ended up being quite funny in the end, because everyone was guilty of doing at least something wrong.

It’s important to always use a latrine, pen in animals to keep them out of the kitchen, always cover food and so many other things. The trainer showed how if you don’t go about your daily business the right way, there can be deadly consequences. We also trained on ORS (oral rehydration solution) because we know that even with the greatest effort to prevent diarrhea, it will still be an occasional issue. This ORS will help keep community members, especially children, healthy as they recover from diarrhea.

The final day was all about caring for the water point so that it serves generations to come. After, we took time to review the important takeaways from the three days of training.

“This training has taught us how to make ORS, and also trained us on some hygiene lessons that will help us live long,” Mr. Momodou Kamara said.

New Well

We worked with the community to select a spot central to everyone. 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. Community members helped the drill team by ensuring there was always water in supply.

Joyful helpers for our drill team, suppling them with the water the mud rotary drill needs.

Initially, the team did not experience anything that altered their normal construction process. But at 60 feet, the team hit a rock. The usual reamer bit was replaced with the runner bit, which is specialized for drilling rocks. They tried drilling through this rock for almost an hour without success. They made the call to test the well to see if it had enough water at this depth:

Analyzing the samples to locate the aquifers.

The team had extracted earth samples every five feet of drilling to determine the aquifer locations. Casing pipes were laid out and screens were positioned according to the sample analysis. The 8″ reamer bit was connected and the drilling commenced once again. The casing was tightly glued, lowered, and then surrounded by filter pack. A submersible pump is lowered so we can measure the water yield and any change in level as the well is continuously pumped. This well has a yield of 41 liters per minute – which is way more than an India MkII can pump at its best!

And did we mention at least two days are spent to bail the well, cleaning it out after construction?

With these great results, the artisans could come install the well pad. Once the cement dried, the mechanics could bolt the new India MkII stainless steel pump. The yield test and level measurements informed the mechanics of where they should place the pump cylinder.

Crowds of people gathered around the well to witness the first pumps of clean water. Some of the children were allowed to splash in the water. After them, the women approached to try their first sips of clean water. Expressions of gratefulness were accompanied by singing, dancing, and the beating of drums.

“This well has helped this community a lot. We used to have plenty of water-related problems in this village. We would go days without bathing, and we couldn’t cook the family meal on time. The presence of this well will reduce the changes of these kinds of problems occurring!” Mr. Kewunie Kamara said.

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03/19/2018: Kipolo Community Project Underway

Dirty water from the rivers and swamps is making people in Kipolo 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!