Rehabilitation Project
The 246 students at King Fahad Secondary School avoid fetching water at all costs, even to the point of skipping school. For some of the students, their daily trek to school spans three miles each way. They are already tired - the chore of fetching water sounds impossible to them.
"It is not easy to select students to fetch water for the school every day," said teacher Eric Conteh. "Some of them become angry because it is not easy to reach any of our water sources considering the distance, the bad road, and the risk to the source."
First, students try to fetch water from the best source, which is a protected borehole well at a nearby primary school. However, the path to the primary school sends students up a steep, rocky hill. And the demand for this well is high, considering that there are no other safe water sources for the community of Ma-King. People come from miles around to try and fetch water there, and students often find access to the well restricted.
"The current water situation is not good for our learning activities," Eric explained. "It is not only the school that is having water constraints but the community as well. This is the reason why the water condition is more challenging."
If they aren't successful getting water from the school, they must go instead to the swamp, where local farmers plant seed rice.
"It is not easy to fetch water from the swamp area," said 15-year old student, Posseh K. (pictured below fetching water). "The road is far and bad. It takes time to reach the source, fetch water, and return to the school ground. I always become tired after fetching water. This also interrupts my time attending class at the school."
Students have been attacked by humans, snakes, and other wild animals walking the isolated path to the swamp. And the water they get from the swamp is open to all contamination, often causing cases of typhoid and diarrhea amongst the students.
Eric said: "Most of the water sources are not safe for drinking, but people drink from those sources every day because the only safe water source is not enough to provide water for everyone at the same time."
The only other alternative for everyone in Ma-King Community is to purchase packet water, which is a luxury the chronically underprivileged people here cannot afford.
"Economically, I am struggling," Eric said. "And the only alternative measure to complement the main water source in providing safe drinking water is packet water. I needed to reduce the budget from other items to fit the cost."
What we can do:
New Well
Where we will be drilling is centrally located and will relieve many people of the long journey to fetch water and the challenge of accessing clean water.
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.
By drilling this borehole, Ma-King King Fahad Secondary School and the surrounding community 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 restrooms 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.
