Rehabilitation Project
This project was implemented by another partner, but is now monitored and maintained by The Water Project together with Mariatu's Hope.
When the Sierra Leone team arrived, in the dry season the well dries up and there was no pump. The casing and lining were not in good conditions. Therefore the Sierra Leone team repaired the lining and casing and put in a concrete pump base and installed a new hand pump. There were 200 residents who had been forced to depend on an open well located half of a kilometer away from the community to meet all of their water needs. Because of this and the community’s practice of open defecation, families were suffering from dysentery, malaria, typhoid, diarrhea and severe dehydration among other preventable water related illnesses. During the team’s stay, community members assembled a water committee consisting of five men and five women who assisted the team with the water project whenever possible, provided food and guarded the team’s equipment during the night. Most residents farm, fish or produce salt to earn a living and a few teach at the nearby school. There is a school located two kilometers away from the community whose students, teachers and administrative personnel all now have access to a safe water source.
The Sierra Leone team had an opportunity to meet with forty-eight year old community member and petty trader, Marian Sesay, who stated, "The Old water source is an open well, they use rope and rubber to get water, the source is much better or easy for us, because we are pumping instead of drawing water from the well, and it makes things simple for our children."
It is a very hard working community people are working in producing Palm Oil, Salt and Fishing. Since this is a new WASH committee set up at this well, no money had been collected. The committee has been instructed that they will need to impose a fee for water so when the pump has problems they can repair it themselves.
