Sheer joy! From something as simple as a cup of clean drinking water.
April 10 2010
That is what we saw on the faces of the villagers last week in Njongon and MBullet Ba.
Thanks to all the people who have helped us raise the funds,and especially to all the people from Cyprus who contributed 60,000 euro to the project.in 2009.The total project was delivered on time and in budget working out at a cost of 30 euros per head of population.
The Borehole is 300 ft(90 mts) deep. There are 48 solar panels with a heavy duty invertor providing energy to the submersible pump drawing the water up to the storage tank ,capacity 25,000 litres of water. The village youths had dug 4.5 km of trenches to run the pipe distribution to the standpipes. Incredibly hard work in such high temperatures.
M’Bullet Ba has its standpipes in the centre of the village at the end of the long 3km pipeline and Njongon has its standpipes spread around the village. The two villages worked together and share the responsibility for the central area where the borehole and solar panels and tank are located. This area is securely fenced off but will have a full time security guard at night.
Using our own bricks & trained construction team we will build a proper Production Facility adjacent to this area which will house our 2 brick making machines. We have a tractor & trailer which will bring raw materials to the machines & gives us the ability to deliver finished bricks to future customers. This building activity provides good employment for a number of men & contributes to the Village Development Fund
The population of the two villages is well over 3,000 people who now have clean drinking water for the first time,and they have economic activities to pay the for future maintenance. There is a maintenance contract in place and arrangements in place already for collecting a levy from each family.
The market gardens are looking good with three harvests a year being achieved by some .The tractor is being used to till larger areas of land adjacent to the villages.
The training school is still teaching the local youths about agriculture,bee keeping,animal husbandry and tie and dying. Their education has increased to include plumbing, carpentry and general construction .
The villagers gratitude was immense but we had all worked as a team and their trench digging was substantial , indeed critical in achieving the end result. The women were also essential in the organisation of this work and really appreciate that their kids will have clean drinking water. No more gathering sticks to boil water ,they just turn on the tap !
We are however very aware that all the families still have the back-breaking task of carrying water from the Stand pipes to their homes. This is done in 18/20 litre yellow containers, that’s 18/20 KGs each. Alot of this is done by the kids. We have identified a product which contains 90 lts of water & can be easily “rolled” home, it’s a Hippo Roller (www.hipporoller.org) . They are manufactured in S Africa and to date the company has made in excess of 300,000, distributed mainly in Southern African countries. Our target in 2010 is to bring in a 20ft container of these at a cost of $21,000 (Euro 16,000) On our website we will be offering people the opportunity to buy a single (or more ) Hippo Roller, cost $125 (Euro 90)
We also spent time in Bafaluto our first village where after 3 years the tank is being maintained and water flows around 11 standpipes. Their market garden is doing really well and has brought significant economic development to the village. There is even a Beauty Salon & a Business Centre primarily selling cement & building blocks to the folk who are attracted to come & settle in Bafaluto.
No sooner were the celebrations over but we were taken to an even poorer group of villages a few kms down the road who are desperate for clean water! So please act now and help us because we have proven that we have a successful, “good value for money”, model that really works in providing a long term sustainable source o Sheer Joy
