Katongha Maternal Child Health Post

Project Status

Project Type: Borehole Well and Hand Pump

Regional Program: Port Loko, Sierra Leone WaSH Program

Impact: 214 Served

Project Phase: In Service - Oct 2024

Functionality Status: Functional

Project Features

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There are 216 people who live near the Katongha Maternal Child Health Post. However, the health center also provides services for 16 different villages that have a population of over 3000 people. Yet, the staff nurses face the uncertainty of whether they will have enough water to meet their patients' needs daily. Understandably, the nature of their work means they need water to treat patients and provide adequate, safe medical care. Still, the nurses also live on the premises, requiring water for their drinking, cooking, bathing, and laundry.

"The health facility is unique because it caters [to] all categories of people: children, pregnant women, lactating mothers, and older people. Looking at the number of nurses (2) at the clinic, I was impressed with the number of cases the nurses deal with [in] a day. The nurses see over twenty patients for a day," said field officer Julius Sesay.

The nurses and their patients are not the only ones suffering without sufficient water. The surrounding community members living near the health center and a local primary school also rely on the health center well for the water they need, but it is impossible for it to serve everyone in its current condition.

"The people in this community are faced with a lot of challenges when it comes to the fetching of water. Their main water source, which is at the health facility, is overcrowded with people. Community members will spend a lot of time at the water point trying to fetch water," said Julius.

The clinic's dug well with a hand pump (shown above) needs rehabilitation because it can not keep up with demand. The constant overuse means it experiences frequent breakdowns, and during the dry season, the water diminishes quickly, leaving everyone scrambling to find water elsewhere.

The only alternative is an open well at the extreme other end of the community, but when left without options, people have no choice but to use the water, wasting valuable time and risking their health.

"There [is a] series of health consequences facing the water users in the community. Some of them have suffered from typhoid, diarrhea, dysentery, and even gastroenteritis and skin rashes simply because [of] the water they [used to] drink and bathe," Julius said.

"Running a health facility without water [is] difficult. Water is needed to cook, launder, drink, and use the toilet. [Patients] use a lot of water to take their drugs, wash their hands, and use the latrines," said 34-year-old nurse Isatu Bangura, shown below carrying water from the alternative well.

"The underlying cause for the suffering for water is the frequent pump breakdown of our main water source. During such [a] situation, even fetching drinking water would be difficult. I spend most of my time fetching water from our alternate source. It's time-consuming to fetch and transport water to the clinic. This makes me have divided attention since I would be fetching water and, at the same time, trying to attend to patients," continued Isatu.

"I will be very happy if our main water source becomes functional again. Rehabilitating our main water source will prevent us from all [the] unnecessary constraints we are now facing," concluded Isatu.

"Ever since the well [went] dry, I have been faced with a lot of challenges when it comes to the fetching of water. I must go down to the open well to fetch water. The distance and the waiting time at the water point delay me, especially in the morning hours when a lot of people will be at the water point to fetch water. The other challenge I face is that one is expected to bend down and draw water from the well using a rope. This is difficult, especially when I [have] a lot of containers to fill. By the time I fetch and transport the water home, I will not be able to go to school on time. Even to complete some of the work at home will be hard," shared 15-year-old student Isatu Kamara, shown below, collecting water from the alternative well.

The rehabilitation of the clinic well will enable staff and patients to have water to meet their daily needs and relieve some of the surrounding community's water crisis. With sufficient water, hopefully, everyone will be able to focus on completing their essential daily tasks. Ideally, this will improve the community's overall health and allow people to make progress.

Note: Our proposed water point can only serve 300 people per day. We have identified another project at Katongha Primary School that should help ensure all of the people in this community have access to safe and reliable drinking 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

October, 2024: Katongha Maternal Child Health Post Well Complete!

We are excited to share that your donation provided a safe, reliable well at Katongha Maternal Child Health Post. As a result, staff members and the surrounding community no longer rely on unsafe water to meet their daily needs.

"Before, I found it difficult to access adequate water at the health facility, and this would limit me to complete my tasks. With the help of this waterpoint, [it] will solve my problems. To do safe delivery, handwashing, get safe drinking water, get adequate water to clean up the labor room, clean the latrines and the health facility," shared 35-year-old nurse Isatu Bangura, who we spoke to when we first visited the health center.

Nurse Isatu Bangura.

The surrounding community is just as excited! 13-year-old Isatu, a young girl from the community, shared the impact of the newly rehabilitated waterpoint in her life.

"Accessing reliable water improves things for me. For example, drinking contaminated water contributes to poor health, and you will get sick. With this water point and when I drink this water, I will not get sick with any water-related illnesses. I will go to school on time and get enough time to launder my school uniform and clothes. I will no longer fetch water from an open well using a five-gallon rubber [bucket], which caused me pain. I will not be walking long distances to access water," Isatu said.

Isatu pours clean water from the well.

After construction was complete, we held a dedication ceremony to officially give responsibility for the well to the health center staff.

Field Officer Alie Kamara shared the details of the dedication ceremony, "Today is a joyful day for the healthcare workers and the community members. They have access to safe drinking water. This water point was handed over to the healthcare workers and the community members. They were inside the fence of the water point playing with water, and they held a cup of water, smiling, also demonstrated drinking water. You can see beautiful smiles on their faces which shows that they were happy to have access to safe water in their health facility [and] community. For several years, we had been helping them with repairs until we were finally able to secure funding to make their dream of a borehole conversion and new hand pump a reality! It was such a joyful day for everyone."

Staff and community members celebrating their new well together!

Rehabilitated Health Center Well

The health center provided space for the drill team to store their belongings and meals for the duration of their stay. Then, we were ready to begin drilling!

Drilling begins.

We drilled until we reached a final depth of 13.9 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 4.8 meters. Finally, we tested the water flow to ensure the well would provide clean water with minimal effort at the pump.

Testing the well's yield.

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 that the water was fit for drinking!

This well was a success!

Health Center Education

Before conducting any hygiene training, we collaborated with the health center staff to understand their challenges. Training was tailored to the health center's specific needs and included key topics such as proper water handling, improved hygiene and sanitation practices, disease transmission prevention, and care of the new water point. The health center staff assumes responsibility for maintaining the water point, promoting safe hygiene and sanitation practices, and keeping handwashing stations well-stocked. After training, the local nurses and community health officers, encouraged and supported by our team's guidance, will provide community training.

Dental hygiene session.

One session that made a big impact on the community was family planning. Field Officer Alie Kamara shared, "Family planning was the most discussed topic prompted [by] the participants. Both men and women were really interested in this lesson." This was a successful training. The community was very open to the new knowledge and made plans to implement what they learned.

Nurse Isatu Bangura teaches the benefits of a mosquito net.

Nurse Isatu Bangura was instrumental in the training and an active learner. She said, "I noticed a lot of things from some of the lessons on the things we used to do that were not appropriate. Especially the sharing of food and shaking of hands. Sharing of food is not bad, but doing it with dirty hands will be the problem. All these can affect our health. Mostly when we do not wash our hands with soap and clean water. I will ensure I put into practice what I have learned from the training. I will also take handwashing as a priority during and after delivery to avoid transmission of disease."

Handwashing training.

Trainer Alie Kamara shared his high hopes for the health center. "These nurses and community members were very active in participating and were so happy with the intervention of this project. They have struggled for many years with a hand pump that continually broke down and a well that would go dry on them. Hopefully, their problems will be in the past forever, and they will have a successful Water User Committee managing this waterpoint.

Thank you for making all of this possible!

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!