This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Martin Davis. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.
The project was to improve as many wells as possible, with a target of improving 12 wells and capping 2 unsafe wells.
Martin reports:
For the price of five-hundred dollars we were able to improve ten simple holes and one unimproved well which had collapsed into serviceable wellheads with foundations, top walls, and covers. Following this, we provided sanitization for each by using household bleach available at boutiques anywhere around Senegal.
The price of transport, cement, labor, and doors totaled about forty-five dollars per well. When reduced to the cost of simply improving an existing well, the cost would be around twenty-eight dollars. To close an unserviceable well would cost about twenty dollars.
If we were to expand this project, we could build wellheads at the remaining two bare holes, cover and repair the wells with serviceable foundations, close the two unsafe holes, and/or expand into the small sister village of Ndorna.
While I have not seen the newest statistics for diarrheal disease, in the weeks after the improvement and subsequent sanitization, there are definitely people who are now drinking from wells once known to be unsafe, none of whom have suffered ill effects.
Furthermore, the employment of a mason, his two assistants, and a carpenter with his apprentice has also provided excellent income to four different households within the local economy.
To read Martin’s excellent final report, which contains pictures, details, and even a map, CLICK HERE.
This type of project is tremendously effective in that it provides water to a large number of people for a fraction of the cost of building a new well. We look forward to working with Martin on the expansion of this concept.
We again wish to thank The Soneva SLOW LIFE Trust, with the help of friends and family of Peace Corps Volunteer Martin Davis, for providing the funds for the project.
