This project is a collaboration with our partner organization Sauvons la Vie-Togo (SV-TOGO), which is based in the Maritime region.
The prefecture (district) of Vo is located 52 km from the city of Lomé, the capital of Togo. It is a vast prefecture, the focal point of which is the town of Vogan. Our nationwide village assessment program took us to 170 villages in the Vo prefecture, over 40 of which have no access to clean water.
The main livelihood of the general population is agriculture; there are no large economic centers within a 2-hour drive from here, the nearest one being the capital, Lomé. More than 90% of the inhabitants are farmers and their working tools are the hoe and machete. Some women also prepare palm oil and oils from coconuts, a very traditional practice. Some people in Vo also breed chickens, pork, goats, and sheep. The farms are small, and limited to private household production.
The sites selected for this well project are in the Akoumapécanton (sub-district) of the Vo prefecture. Akoumapéis is composed of 7 villages with the average distance between these villages being about 2km. There is no secondary school in this canton; the pupils walk 15km round trip every day to attend school.
In the canton of Akoumapé, there is no potable source of drinking water. Water is one of the scarce commodities in this region. The wells that are currently available to the population are open wells and the water from these wells is typically very brackish, often mixed with mud; most are no deeper than 7 or 8m. There are no sanitation facilities in the villages; the populations relieve themselves in the fields and in the bushes. As a result, the shallow wells are often further contaminated due to the community practice of open defecation.
Water Charity is funding 5 new hand-dug wells—fully mechanized with pulley systems, to assist the communities in Akoumapé. The five villages are Todome, Gbedjekope, Ameyognokope, Djokope, and Todookope. These wells are professionally constructed, reaching depths of 20 to 25m, which provides a potable water source that yields fresh water year-round. Based on the yield of these wells, residents of all 7 villages in Akoumapé will have access to this water supply for their daily needs. These 5 wells will be constructed with the supervision of our partner organization Sauvons la Vie-Togo (SV-TOGO) which has extensive WASH experience and has assisted us with numerous well repair projects, as well as other clean water access projects in the past.
