Project Status



Project Type:  Borehole Well and Hand Pump

Regional Program: Port Loko, Sierra Leone WaSH Program

Impact: 226 Served

Project Phase:  In Service - Jul 2021

Functionality Status:  Functional

Last Checkup: 02/14/2024

Project Features


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Community Profile

Just after completing the prayers at around 6:00 AM, all of the 226 people in Kennenday village are awake. Everybody will then start their daily routine—first, the rush to fetch water. The main water source is located in the swamp. From the last house to the swamp is about fifteen minutes walk each way.

The water is full of impurities. One can see little fishes, frogs, and it is open for contamination from nearby farming and people as they go to get water each day.

In particular, young people in this community go through a lot.

"We always wake up around 6:00 in the morning to rush down the swamp to fetch water. Before reaching the site, one will meet a queue waiting to fetch water," said Alhassan, a 14-year-old student we met.

After making more than 4 trips to fetch water in the morning, young people like ALhassan then prepare for school. Many will miss breakfast because they are running late. This cycle and the fact that students miss school due to waterborne illnesses caused by drinking the water contributes to a high dropout rate in this community, say parents.

Alhassan told us that he is late to school most days and punished for it. It is because he has to make so many trips to get water. Because the swamp is open, the water gets dirty fast. That means that people must wait for the water to settle after they dip in a container. This causes the process to take even longer.

"We have suffered too much for us to secure a clean and pure water for our community but to no avail. I have personally lost my son, and the cause of his death was dysentery," said Mohammed Kamara, a farmer who lives in the community.

"I know he died as a result of the present water we drink."

What we can do:

New Well

We will be drilling this well at Kennenday Village. This project will relieve the people here of the their water challenges

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 been pushed to open contaminated well for their water. By drilling this borehole, Kennenday Village will be provided with plenty of accessible clean drinking water.

Training

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

Community members will learn how to make a hands-free handwashing station called the "tippy-tap." We will use these tippy taps for handwashing demonstrations and will also teach about other tools like dish racks and the importance of properly penning in animals. We will highlight the need to keep latrines clean, among many other topics.

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

Project Updates


July, 2021: Lokomasama, Kennenday Village Project Complete!

We are excited to share that there is a safe, reliable borehole well at Kennenday Village. As a result, the students and community members no longer have to rely on unsafe water to meet their daily needs. We also conducted hygiene and sanitation training, which focused on healthy practices such as handwashing and using latrines.

New Well

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

The Councilor of the Ward, a representative for the section chief, joined the community members in attending the dedication that started with prayers.

The section chief's representative welcomed and thanked the team for their relentless efforts to ensure that every community is provided with safe and reliable drinking water.

He addressed his people and told them to celebrate the well. The community members sang songs and danced to show how happy they were to have a well in their community.

"The access to safe and reliable drinking water is every community's dream in which our own community has achieved through the help of you," said Mohamed Kamara.

"This well is indeed a blessing to us, and again I will say we are fortunate because not all communities have this opportunity that we have to be provided with safe and reliable drinking water. Therefore I am pleading with everyone in this community to give our all in caring for this well so it can last longer."

The Process

The drill team arrived the day before beginning work. They set up camp and unpacked all of their tools and supplies to prepare for drilling the next day. The community provided space for the team to store their belongings, along with meals for the duration of their stay. The following day, the work began.

Our team dug two pits next to the drill rig, one for the drill’s water supply and another for what the drill pulls out of the borehole. In some cases, we order a private supplier to deliver the water for drilling since water access is already a challenge.

Day one of drilling began with the team filling the two pits with water mixed with bentonite, an absorbing swelling clay. Next, the team fixed a four-inch carbide-tipped bit to the five-foot-long drill stem. They started the mud pump to supply water to the drill rig so that drilling could begin! The team took material samples after putting each five-foot length of drill stem into the hole. We labeled the bags so we could review them later to determine the aquifer locations.

On the second day of drilling, the team expanded the hole and cleared it of mud. After reaching a total depth of 25.9 meters, the team forcefully pumped clean water into the well to clear any mud and debris from the drilling process. We then protected the screened pipe by adding a filter pack. The team hoisted the temporary drilling casing to fortify the pipes with cement.

Next, we bailed the well by hand for three days before conducting a yield test to verify the water quantity. The yield of this well was 20 liters per minute, with a static water level of 8.3 meters. With these excellent results, we installed a stainless steel India MkII pump. Water quality test results showed that this is clean water fit for drinking!

"I am very happy today because I know that all our sufferings in terms of good drinking water have ended. To me, the presence of this well in this community will impact our lives greatly and will help in the development of this community because for a community to be suitable for living, there must be a very good water source for the community people and that we now have," said 14-year-old Mohamed B.

New Knowledge

Two days before the training, two team members went to the village to inform the community people about the three-day training. The village headman asked the town crier to inform the community people that no one should go to the farm until after the three-day training.

Everyone in the community was present for the training. The training was held in the back yard of the head man's house, under big trees with shaded branches, in an open space where everyone can observe physical distancing with good ventilation.

Before conducting any hygiene training, we made repeated phone calls and visits to the local water user committee to understand better the community’s challenges and lack of sanitation facilities. We shared the findings from our discussions with the committee members to help them make the necessary adjustments before the training began. For example, we identified households without handwashing stations or ones that may need to repair their latrines. With this information, community members worked together to improve hygiene and sanitation at home.

After this preparatory period, we scheduled a time when members from each household using the water point could attend a multi-day hygiene and sanitation training. We then dispatched our teams to the agreed-upon location to hold the meeting.

Training topics covered included handwashing and tippy taps, good and bad hygiene habits, disease transmission and prevention, worms and parasites, dental hygiene, proper care of the well's pump, keeping the water clean, the cost recovery system, dish racks and clotheslines, the importance of toilets, keeping latrines clean, balanced diets, the diarrhea doll, and HIV and AIDS.

Thank you for making all of this possible!




June, 2021: Kennenday Village project underway!

A severe clean water shortage at Kennenday Village drains people’s time, energy, and health. Thanks to your generosity, we’re working to install a clean water point and much more.

Get to know this community through the introduction 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!


A Year Later: "I am very excited to see a dream come true"

July, 2022

A year ago, your generous donation helped Kennenday Community in Sierra Leone access clean water – creating a life-changing moment for Isatu. Thank you!

Keeping The Water Promise

There's an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water in Kennenday Community.

This giving community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help Kennenday Community 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!

Fifteen-year-old Isatu shared how life was for her last year before a well was installed in her community. "It was a challenging moment for me growing up in this community because there has never been a well in this community," said Isatu.

She continued, "I had to go down [to] the swamp every morning and evening to fetch water. Sometimes on my way to the swamp, I see snakes, spiders, and scorpions. Sometimes I broke my mother's rubber buckets when I tried to run from those dangerous animals, and I came home without water and a broken bucket."

But now, things are different for Isatu and her fellow community members. "I am very excited to see a dream come true in my community in terms of having access to clean and safe drinking water that is reliable," she said.

"And above all, I don't have to worry about dangerous snakes, spiders, and other animals on the road. In fact, I have stopped going in the bush either to do laundry or whatever," concluded Isatu.


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 Kennenday Community 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 Kennenday Community – 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

In loving honor of Lawrence Vitt
The Matthew R. and Marie M. Hopkins Foundation
Data Abstract Solutions, Inc.
Kingston, MA -CC Group
Washington State
Shawn Gompa
Bottomline Technologies
Pacific Tide Clothing
Cardinal Health Employee Match
Jessica's Campaign for Water
50 individual donor(s)