Mayonkolie Community

Project Status

Project Type: Borehole Well and Hand Pump

Regional Program: Port Loko, Sierra Leone WaSH Program

Impact: 118 Served

Project Phase: In Service - May 2025

Functionality Status: Functional

Project Features

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The 118 people of the Mayonkolie Community struggle to access sufficient water. Community members rely on a local swamp that is contaminated, seasonal, and far away, making it challenging to collect the water they need to do their daily tasks.

"The water situation affects me greatly in my community. When I wake up early for prayers, I must use water to perform ablution before going to the Masjid. Every day, I must go out to do my business in the morning. Before going for trade, I must wash all my dirty dishes and sweep the compound, then prepare breakfast for my husband. Sometimes, I wake up early in the morning to fetch water at the swamp, and I am always afraid to go to the swamp because it is far from my community. I usually walk [a] far distance to fetch water, and this situation affects me not to make many trips for a day," said 36-year-old trader Isatu Kargbo, shown below at the swamp.

"During the dry season, the swamp water gets low quantity, and at that moment, I will not get enough water at home. The little water I had fetched was not enough to do my domestic work. Sometimes, the water source becomes dirty because other people [have] already fetched water there, but I must fetch the dirty water and then return home. I must allow it to settle or filter before using it. It is difficult for me to fetch clean water in this community, and the water problem affects my business and prayers in the morning. It would limit me not to trade on a daily basis as well [as] to observe my five daily prayers," concluded Isatu.

"I am a student, and I am facing a lot of constraints in terms of water. The water in my community is not safe for drinking, and it is not easy to fetch water there. I must go to the swamp to fetch water, but this source is far from my house. I am always afraid to cross Port Loko Road because vehicles or motorbikes pass at high speeds. Also, the train passes every day; sometimes, when I come across the train, I have to wait until it passes. Also, I must fetch water at home to prepare food for use, but the water problem causes us to get food late because I had to go the extra mile to get water before my mother starts to prepare food. During the weekend, I must go to the stream to launder my clothes, but during the dry season, it would be difficult for me to launder because the swamp goes dry," said 15-year-old Emma K. (shown below).

The people of Mayonkolie need access to a reliable water source that is available whenever they need it. Installation of a well will enable community members to have safe water close to home so they will have the time and energy for their other responsibilities and not have to spend much of their day searching for and collecting water.

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

Project Updates

May, 2025: Mayonkolie Community Well Complete!

We are excited to share that your donation provided a safe, reliable well at Mayonkolie Community. As a result, community members no longer rely on unsafe water to meet their daily needs. We conducted hygiene and sanitation training, which focused on healthy practices such as handwashing and using latrines.

37-year-old trader Isatu Kargbo shared, "I will now have enough time to cook earlier and then go to Lumar to sell. Before this time, I was unable to do that because of the water situation. I had to go in search of water for me to be able to cook, launder, and do other things at home. By the time I was through, I had limited time left to go to Lumar to sell. All this made me lose sales. Now, it will not be so. The more time I spend on my trade, the more money I will be able to take when I attend to customers. This will help me to take care of my children."

Ms. Kargbo at the new well.

Mariama, a seventeen-year-old student, said, "It will help me to pay attention in my schooling because I will go to school on time. The fetching of water at the other community delayed me. [It] will no longer be an issue since the well is close to my house. It takes me less than five minutes to fetch water from it. This alone will give me more time to be in class and pay attention."

Mariama (white shirt) enjoys clean water.

After construction was complete, we held a dedication ceremony to officially give responsibility for the well to the water users.

Field officer Julius Sesay described the dedication: "The day was full of events since it was the first time for the community to have a water well. No wonder the community members were exceedingly glad to be part of this ceremony. They sang, clapped, and danced to the songs. The invitees who witnessed this ceremony joined the community members and did likewise. Representatives from the Ministry of Water Resources, Mr. Idrissa Mansaray, and the Port Loko District Council, Mr. Musa Alex Lebbie, were part of the ceremony. They were happy that this community is among the privileged communities to have access to safe and reliable water sources. During the dedication ceremony, the invitees and a few community members made statements. They thanked Mariatu’s Hope and The Water Project for helping the community with the provision of the new borehole. The community used to suffer for water, but now, due to our intervention, it is a different story. Everyone in the community will have access to [a] safe, reliable, and sustainable waterpoint."

New Well

The community provided space for the drill team to store their belongings and meals for the duration of their stay. We were ready to begin drilling!

Drilling begins!

We drilled until we reached a final depth of 22 meters. The team did a soil test, bailed the well, and flushed it, clearing any debris generated by the drilling process. This well has a static water level of 16 meters. Finally, we tested the water flow to ensure the well would provide clean water with minimal effort at the pump.

Bailing the well.

As the project neared completion, we built a cement platform, walls, and drainage system around the well to seal it from surface-level contaminants. The drainage system helps to redirect spilled water to help avoid standing water at the well, which is unhygienic and a breeding ground for disease-carrying mosquitoes.

Constructing the well pad.

Finally, we installed the pump and conducted a water quality test. The results showed the water was fit for drinking!

Installing the handpump.

Community Education

Before conducting any hygiene training, we collaborated with the local water user committee to understand the community’s challenges. We identified households without handwashing stations. With this information, community members worked together to improve hygiene and sanitation at home before the training.

We also invited a nurse from the local clinic to help explain some topics and spread awareness about Sierra Leone's free vaccinations for children under five. Nurse Sadiatu Wurie was instrumental in reinforcing each lesson.

Nurse Wurie.

We scheduled a time when members from each household using the waterpoint could attend a three-day hygiene and sanitation training and dispatched our teams to hold the meeting.

We taught the participants about proper handwashing, personal and menstrual hygiene, and healthy habits such as using latrines and maintaining a balanced diet. We discussed how disease transmission and water hygiene are crucial to community health. We emphasized the importance of maintaining and caring for the well pump and the cost recovery system.

Field officer Julius shared, "The participants were more than ready to learn from the training. This was seen from their punctuality and attentiveness towards the training. Some of the women left the farm just to be present for the training. They were proud to be part of the training; that is why they were actively involved."

Ms. Kargbo participates in handwashing training.

Isatu Kargbo, previously quoted, shared her experience in the training session. "The training has helped me to know different reasons why we get sick. Before this time, I had the wrong perception that eating certain foods would help contribute for us to get sick. Now, I came to the training and learned that our lifestyle, or the way we do things, contributes [to] us getting sick. Some of us were not used to washing our hands with soap and clean water before eating. Even if the food is safe and hygienic to eat, eating with dirty or unclean hands will make us sick. I saw that from the posters used in one of the stories."

Thank you for making all of this possible!

April, 2025: Exciting Progress in Mayonkolie Community!

We’re thrilled to share that, thanks to your generous support, significant change is coming for Isatu and the entire Mayonkolie Community. Construction has begun on the well project, bringing them one step closer to having clean, reliable water.

But that's not all—during construction, we’re also providing vital health training. These sessions equip the community with essential hygiene practices, ensuring that the benefits of clean water extend to lasting health improvements.

We’re so grateful for your role in making this possible. Stay tuned for more updates—soon, we’ll be celebrating the arrival of safe water in the Mayonkolie Community!

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!