Project Status



Project Type:  Dug Well and Hand Pump

Regional Program: Port Loko, Sierra Leone WaSH Program

Impact: 431 Served

Project Phase:  In Service - Jul 2017

Functionality Status:  Functional

Last Checkup: 09/09/2024

Project Features


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Community Profile

Welcome to the School

What is child labor in Sierra Leone? Children at an early age who are given responsibilities fit for an adult. This kind of village setting is not easy for children. Early in the morning or late in the evening, schoolchildren are sent to the farm to fetch wood. Some of the teachers here are not paid a salary, so they rely on the children to do their farm work as education compensation. The children are required to do any work a teacher might have for them. When it is time for planting peanuts, the children till the land. They fetch firewood for the teachers, fetch water and you name it, they have to do it. The parents and teachers are all part-time farmers, because it is not possible to just depend on one source of income.

Early in the morning, the children line up for food provided for them at the school by the government. A little bit of food is better than no food at all. Some children go to school hungry everyday, so if it wasn't for the help of the food program, children would go to bed hungry too. Children only have to deal with getting food at night.

Water Situation

Headteacher Morlai Conteh says, "The people had been drinking swamp water for years, even though the two wells had been constructed by the NaCsa organization, the monitoring and maintenance was left to the community. An added expense they cannot afford! The community cannot afford to pay for the the minimum amount needed."

We came alongside this school and adopted one of these hand-dug wells, monitoring its functionality and repairing it as needed. We noticed that during particular months of the year, we receive complaints from Headteacher Morlai. It so happens that during the driest months, the hand-dug wells stop providing water. Headteacher Morlai is forced to require students to carry their own containers of water from home every morning, which have to be rationed throughout the day. For up to half of the year, this school is suffering from a severe water shortage.

Sanitation Situation

There are three usable latrines on school grounds. Maintenance is a big problem in Sierra Leone: A huge amount of money is spent on the construction of latrines, but all the cleaning is relegated to the children. How is a child of ten years supposed to do a good job cleaning a latrine that is used by more than one hundred people per day? The latrines are cleaned with a native broom and water. The children throw water on the floor and sweep towards the pit; that is as far as the cleaning will go.

There are no hand-washing stations for either students or staff.

Plans: Sanitation and Hygiene Training

Training will last for three hours a day for three days. The facilitators have already assessed sanitation here and decided that hand-washing will be strongly emphasized. During our hand-washing sessions, students, staff and community members will be taught how to make their own hand-washing station out of a plastic jerrycan, sticks, and rope. These are the best solution for rural areas, since all the materials are all easily replaceable.

Training will also result in the formation of a water user committee that will take responsibility for their new well. The members will manage and maintain the pump to the best of their ability, and will call our office if they need a mechanic to make a repair.

Plans: Well Rehabilitation

The well marked for this overhaul needs major work to supply adequate, clean water to the community once again. The pump will be removed, and a man will be lowered inside with a hand auger. This hand auger will allow the team to drill several meters deeper to hit a new water table, which will ensure the well supplies water throughout the drier seasons. As the team drills, casing will be installed, transforming this hand-dug well into a pseudo-borehole. PVC piping will connect this lower system directly to the pump, a construction that we know will also improve the quality of water.

Once this plan is implemented, everyone within the school and surrounding community will have access to safe drinking water in both quality and quantity.

Project Updates


September, 2018: A Year Later: DEC Primary School

A year ago, generous donors helped restore clean water to a well for DEC Primary School and the surrounding community in Santiguya, Sierra Leone. The contributions of incredible monthly donors and others giving directly to The Water Promise allow 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...




Project Photos


Project Type

Hand-dug wells have been an important source of water throughout human history! Now, we have so many different types of water sources, but hand-dug wells still have their place. Hand dug wells are not as deep as borehole wells, and work best in areas where there is a ready supply of water just under the surface of the ground, such as next to a mature sand dam. Our artisans dig down through the layers of the ground and then line the hole with bricks, stone, or concrete, which prevent contamination and collapse. Then, back up at surface level, we install a well platform and a hand pump so people can draw up the water easily.


A Year Later: DEC Primary School

September, 2018

Now, life has totally changed in this community because we have pure drinking water. We don’t go to the swamp anymore to fetch water because we already have pure drinking water in our school compound.

Keeping The Water Promise

There's an incredible community of monthly donors who have come alongside you in supporting clean water in DEC Primary School.

This giving community supports ongoing sustainability programs that help DEC Primary School 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!

A year ago, generous donors helped restore clean water to a well for DEC Primary School and the surrounding community in Santiguya, Sierra Leone. The contributions of incredible monthly donors and others giving directly to The Water Promise allow 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 – we’re excited to share this one from Edward Amara with you.


The lives of people here have improved tremendously when compared to the years before. Because a good number of students and people attended a hygiene training around a year ago, they now live in a healthy community that not only has an abundance of pure drinking water, but enough to wash their hands after using the toilet.

We spoke with Headteacher Morlai Conteh and one of his students, Alusine Sesay to talk about other changes they have witnessed over the past year with reliable water nearby.

"This project has brought a great development to this community by giving us pure drinking water both for the school and the community as a whole. Even myself as a teacher in this school. I depend directly on this pump because I stay in the school quarters," said Headteacher Conteh.

From left to right: Alusine Sesay, Headteacher Morlai Conteh, and Edward Amara

"Well, as far as I am concerned, the pump rescued us from many constraints because before, we used to go to the swamp to fetch drinking water. Sometimes even when school was going on we had to leave our classes and go to the swamp just to fetch water for our sustenance, which made us miss a lot of lessons," said Alusine.

Alusine Sesay

He continued, "Now, life has totally changed in this community because we have pure drinking water. We don’t go to the swamp anymore to fetch water because we already have pure drinking water in our school compound."

Playtime would normally be sacrificed to fetch the water needed to run the school. Now, students can not only spend more time in class, but spend more time playing, too!

Headteacher Conteh added, "I know that the pupils should wash their hands after using the toilets with soap and water and also wash their hands before eating any food and after eating it. [We had] made a provision of soap and tippy taps for the pupils. However, they had stolen the tippy tap containers but I am trying to replace them."

The well has had no issues since the project last year. All this school needs to focus on is establishing good hygiene and sanitation practices so as to keep a clean environment that is free of germs.

Restoration of the well is only one step along the journey toward sustainable access to clean water. The Water Project is committed to consistent monitoring of each water source. Our monitoring and evaluation program, made possible by donors like you, allows us to maintain our relationships with communities by visiting up to 4 times each year to ensure that the water points are safe and reliable.

This is just one of the many ways that we monitor projects and communicate with you. Additionally, you can always check the functionality status and our project map to see how all of our water points are performing, based on our consistent monitoring data.

One project is just a drop in the bucket towards ending the global water crisis, but the ripple effects of this project are truly astounding. This functional well at DEC Primary School is changing many lives.

This is not possible without the web of support and trust built between The Water Project, our local teams, the community, and you. We are excited to stay in touch with this community and support their journey with safe water.

Read more about The Water Promise and how you can help.


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 DEC Primary School 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 DEC Primary School – 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

Jade Industries, Inc.
Lincoln School
Colton Schultz
Scion Aviation, LLC
12 individual donor(s)