October, 2018: A Year Later: New London, 9 Jalloh Street

A year ago, your generous donation enabled us to drill a well for New London Community in Sierra Leone. The contributions of incredible monthly donors and others giving directly to The Water Promise allow our local teams to visit project sites throughout the year, strengthening relationships with communities and evaluating the water project over time. These consistent visits allow us to learn vital lessons and hear amazing stories. Read more...

November, 2017: New London Community Project Complete

New London Community, Sierra Leone now has a well that provides clean water throughout the year, thanks to your donation! Hundreds of people are no longer stranded without clean water during the dry months. Hygiene and sanitation training was also conducted, which focused on healthy practices such as washing hands and using latrines. This water and new knowledge give the community a great foothold in eliminating water and sanitation-related illness. Please enjoy this update detailing all of the work that was done in New London Community, and be sure to check out the tons of new pictures!

Thank You for unlocking potential in this community. You made clean water a reality, and now you have a chance to make sure it keeps flowing. Join our team of monthly donors and help us, our caretakers, and our mechanics maintain this well and hundreds of other projects!

Project Result: New Knowledge

The hygiene and sanitation training plan was created using information from the baseline survey. The schedule for this training was agreed upon during our first community engagement meeting, and we worked with local leaders to make sure everyone was notified and encouraged to attend.

We held training on Mr. Koroma's property under a palm tree, and were very encouraged by the number of people there waiting for us. However, attendance on the first and second days decreased because of bad weather.

Some of the topics covered during training were as follows:

– How to wash hands, and how to build a hand-washing station from a jerrycan, string, sticks, and netting

– Good and bad hygiene practices

– Dish racks and how to build them

– Keeping animals under control

– Management and maintenance of the hand pump

On the first day, members of St. Augustine Primary School's child health club came to help us teach about hand-washing. They clearly demonstrated the need for running water and soap for clean hands and healthy lives. They and our own facilitator led everyone through making their own hand-washing stations, called tippy-taps. These are easy to make with all affordable, accessible materials like plastic containers, rope, and sticks.

Kids from a student health club came to help us teach hand-washing in New London.

On the second day, we used helpful illustrations to highlight the differences between good and bad hygiene behaviors. People normally don’t put premium on living in a healthy environment here. By the use of posters of what goes on in a dirty community, we educated them on the disadvantages of living in that unhealthy environment and compared to the advantages of living in a clean environment. For example, there are great risks involved with dwelling together with animals under the same roof. Building dish racks and other types of counters is an important way to safeguard food and belongings. Also, rubbish pits must be dug at the far back of households, where waste will be kept out of the way. People were again encouraged not to shower outside, but instead should build bathing shelters where they can always shower.

Community members helping our trainer by holding up pictures of bad habits practiced on a daily basis!

On the third day, we talked about water point management and maintenance, the importance of having and using a latrine, and water treatment. We were also able to demonstrate on how to properly use mosquito nets - they're not for fencing, they're to be used over a bed while someone's sleeping!

This is the proper way to hang up a bed net!

As we taught, we saw information put directly to practice. People cleaned the stagnant water up around their compounds to prevent mosquito-breeding. They picked up litter as they were taught, and built dish racks.

Mr. Amara Bangura said, "The practice of hygiene is not a custom or habit for every resident in this community. What they view as hygiene practice falls far below standard, even in most other communities. So the spirit behind the three days' hygiene training in this community was highly received and appreciated. Raining season is a very delicate season for us because we are exposed to so many diseases. The training really served as a reminder and brought to our minds things that we had limited knowledge about. We promise that we will not only be hearers but we will put into practice all the hygiene training we have learnt."

Mr. Amara Bangura

Project Result: A Reliable Water Well

We had initially planned to drill a new borehole in New London, but came across this old, shallow, hand-dug well in the community. We opened it up and found out method of drilling a borehole in the bottom would work great at this location.

We spearheaded a new method of converting the bottom of a hand-dug well into a borehole. When we started this process, the well was at 44 feet deep with absolutely no water.

The team set up the tripod and pulley over the well. Depending on the diameter of the well, the team either drills from inside the well or from ground level. The team worked from ground level here in New London.

First, they installed 6″ PVC casing through the hatch cover down to the bottom of the well. This ensured that the drilling began straight and also kept the hole from collapsing. They connected the bucket auger drill bit to the drilling rod and lowered it into the well, continuing to add more drill rods until they hit the bottom. Each drill rod is 18 feet in length and every time the team empties the bucket auger, they must reverse the process by disconnecting the rods until the drill bit can be emptied. This method is more labor intensive, but working from the top was much safer in this circumstance. There are different drill bits for different conditions, a special bit just for clay, one for sand, one for rocks and one combination bit for all three conditions.

Emptying the drill bit of clay and sand.

The team met sand and light clay all the way to 72 feet, where it immediately changed to dark clay. Dark clay contaminants drinking water, so we stopped right above here.

Drilling by hand is really hard work!

They lowered 18 feet of casing slotted for screen down to 70 feet, and then dumped six buckets of filter pack between the two casings. The team could then hoist out the temporary casing.

Iron rods were cemented into the well lining and attached to the casing to support the weight of the PVC and keep it straight from bottom to top. The team welded a collar in the pump base to further support the casing.

The well was developed by bailing; two men bailed by hand for four days to ensure proper development. The well could then be tested by installing a submersible pump at 60 feet and using it for one hour. The team measured the discharge, which was 520 gallons. We are excited that the static water level at 51 feet deep remained the same throughout the entire test. Thus, the yield is 32 liters per minute.

Testing Yield

Before installing a new pump, the team had to construct a new well cover - the old one had cracked badly. They made a new one using iron rod, binding wire, and cement mixed with granite stone. This sat for one week to harden before it could be installed.

Pouring concrete to make the new well cover.

After, we continued by building a new walled well pad and installing the new stainless steel hand-pump.

Pump Installation

Before, this well sat there dry and unused, as if a decoration in the community. The only place the people of New London could find water was the swamp. Now that this well has been rehabilitated, people in this community are deeply satisfied. Mrs. Mabinty Conteh told us, "I am just wondering about what would have been our fate if we would have continued drinking water from the swamp unto this moment. The rehabilitation of this well in our community is really a blessing to us. The previous well was furniture when it wasn’t like this, but now that it has been rehabilitated and painted, I can see its beauty and the water is now safe for drinking. We want to reassure Mariatu’s Hope and The Water Project that we will put all our efforts together to make sure that this blessing will never depart from us and that we will not return to our past state!"

September, 2017: New London to Be Restored with Clean Water

New London Community will soon have a source of safe, clean water that works year round, thanks to your generous donation. A well without a pump that is dry for half of the year is being deepened, and a new pump installed. The community will also receive training in sanitation and hygiene. Imagine the difference these resources will make for this community!

We just posted an initial report from our partner in the field including an introduction to the community, maps, and pictures. We’ll keep you updated as the work progresses.

Thank You for caring for the thirsty!