Rehabilitation Project
The 379 people of the Mayema Community sacrifice their time, education, and religious practices to travel to a faraway well, hoping to collect water, but inevitably they must wait because it is overcrowded.
Field Officer Alimamy Lamin Kanu shared," The main and the alternative water sources do not provide sufficient water for this community because other communities rely on it. Over 500 people rely on these sources. Besides, they are far away from the community. One person can walk over 500 meters (.3 miles) to fetch water, and it may not be enough to serve the entire household. The overcrowding can make the caretaker unable to control the huge number of people that normally go to fetch water [at the well] and hence leads to disease transmission and contamination of the water point."
Community members must travel to their alternative well when the primary well is unusable. However, this well is often crowded in the afternoons, when they are slated to perform their daily prayers and ablutions at the community mosque. The overcrowding often delays their practices, a frustrating result of the water crisis in this community.
30-year-old Hawa Bangura, pictured below, shared her experience. "As a Muslim, it is obligatory to pray the five daily prayers. But these prayers would be hindered when the water is unavailable at the ablution kettle. We, the worshippers, must go the extra mile to fetch water from the community. It takes time and energy to do so. Concerning the long walking distance. This even makes us delay prayers."
Their faith practices are affected, and the chore steals time from other life-improving tasks such as school or work. The most common livelihood is agriculture, which requires extensive time, energy, and water. Sadly, time stolen from their livelihoods equates to resources being taken away from their families.
"The problem of water in this community affects me as a trader. I go the extra mile to fetch water from other areas. Truly, I spend so much time fetching water, and that makes me late to go to my business. This will affect me as I will miss my regular customers. The preparation of food for my household would be delayed when there is a water shortage in the community. I would not be able to have sufficient water to cook. The use of water for other domestic uses will be affected. Such as drinking, bathing, and laundry purposes," continued Hawa.
Basic life tasks must be put on hold, making life in the Mayema Community incredibly frustrating.
Children like 13-year-old Fatmata K, seen below, are familiar with sacrifice.
"As a pupil, I need sufficient water for my daily use. I need a lot of water to bathe and clean the house before going to school. As a pupil, I don't have enough time to study. My academic activities are affected. It leads to poor performance and lack of concentration. In the dry season, between March to April, water becomes scarce because the number of people fetching water from the water sources becomes high. Sometimes, I return home late when the crowd at the water source is high, and this could lead to quarreling and sometimes fighting within ourselves."
The installation of the well will enable people like Hawa to prioritize their livelihoods, thus improving their family situations and creating a brighter future. Children like Fatmata will have the time to focus on school and water resources to practice good hygiene, improve their self-esteem, and give them the tools to dream of a better tomorrow.
"On behalf of my fellow pupils and the entire community. I will be grateful if a new water well is constructed in the community. At least it will help to eradicate the problems of water in the community," concluded Fatmata.
The Proposed Solution, Determined Together...
At The Water Project, everyone has a part in conversations and solutions. We operate in transparency, believing it benefits everyone. We expect reliability from one another as well as our water solutions. Everyone involved makes this possible through hard work and dedication.
In a joint discovery process, community members determine their most advantageous water solution alongside our technical experts. Read more specifics about this solution on the What We're Building tab of this project page. Then, community members lend their support by collecting needed construction materials (sometimes for months ahead of time!), providing labor alongside our artisans, sheltering and feeding the builders, and supplying additional resources.
Water Access for Everyone
This water project is one piece in a large puzzle. In Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, we're working toward complete coverage of reliable, maintained water sources that guarantee public access now and in the future within a 30-minute round trip for each community, household, school, and health center. One day, we hope to report that this has been achieved!
Training on Health, Hygiene & More
With the community's input, we've identified topics where training will increase positive health outcomes at personal, household, and community levels. We'll coordinate with them to find the best training date. Some examples of what we train communities on are:
- Improved hygiene, health, and sanitation habits
- Safe water handling, storage & treatment
- Disease prevention and proper handwashing
- Income-generation
- Community leadership, governance, & election of a water committee
- Operation and maintenance of the water point
