Water

CARE supports villages in the construction of communal ground wells.

Sierra Leone suffers not only from many endemic waterborne diseases and a traditional lack of water supply for six months of the year during a rainy season, but also from the destruction of village water wells during the ten-year civil war that concluded just over four years ago.

Development organizations throughout the nation have prioritized the rebuilding of wells as they reconstruct houses in order to provide a clean and reliable water supply. Wells are crucial even in villages close to rivers, as the majority of fresh running water is actually contaminated at points upstream by runoff of agricultural or human waste. This is particularly a problem in Sierra Leone as many areas do not have latrines which typically help to prevent the spread of human waste through the environment. Wells, when constructed in central community areas, also decrease transportation distances. Long distances from the water source to the village lead to increased injuries, such as vertebral damage, to those who physically transport the water.

The participation of NGOs like CARE in the well-building process is important as it ensures greater accountability from the contractor and provides the necessary capital costs to cover digging, materials, and pumps. One of the most important aspects of NGO intervention, however, is ensuring that such well-building projects are sustainable. In every community where CARE constructs a well in Sierra Leone, for example CARE staff members meet with the Village Development Commission to encourage them to take as much control as possible over the well construction. This ensures that the process of finding a contractor, purchasing local materials, and actually constructing the well occurs under a community-based organization so that as villages expand in the future, new wells can be built under complete community supervision.

Even when clean water is available from rivers or other surface water sources, it is frequently at great distance from the villages where it is needed. The closer the surface water supplies are to communities, the greater risk they have of being contaminated by agricultural or domestic runoff. For this reason, many individuals- almost all women- spend a large amount of time and energy transporting the water. Carrying buckets of water over long distances is very difficult, painful, and strenuous. Even a strong person can generally transport no more than 5 gallons in one trip. Water transport can also lead to vertebral damage and has been connected to an increase in malnutrition and anemia. For this reason, water pumps within a community are crucial, and yet the technological knowledge and capital needed create large barriers to this development.

This little boy demonstrates how to use the pump that CARE helped to build in the center of his village.

Water treatment is another critical part of the overall development of a community. There are many options for water treatment, the least expensive of which can be basic filtration through a piece of fabric. Besides removing large particulates, a finely meshed fabric can actually remove many of the larger eggs and cysts of parasitic organisms. Still, in any situation where clean water is obtained, it cannot remain a safe supply of water unless community members are educated about how to keep water and receptacles clean. In Sierra Leone, CARE has worked to form Community Health Clubs (or CHCs), which meet regularly to discuss many health issues. Due to the prevalence of water-borne diseases, many focus on the protection of water resources. While in Sierra Leone, we were able to visit these sites and discuss with communities how their water protection has changed with CARE’s help.

We were shown that over a very short time span, many practices had changed. Families now cover their water supply when not in use rather than leaving it open to flies and other bacteria vectors. They now keep water receptacles high up on a table or shelf in order to prevent animals or children from contaminating the water supply. Rather than drinking directly from the water container or sharing a cup for water, families now use one cup for pouring the water and another for drinking. Improved sanitary practices also serve to protect the water source.

Equally important, CHCs are increasing the access to education about treatment of water-borne disease, particularly through re-hydration. While in Dogoloya, a large community in northern Sierra Leone, the CHC provided a demonstration to the community about how to prepare Oral Re-hydration Solutions from materials easily found within the home (clean water, salt, and sugar). With the combination of education about disease prevention and treatment, Dogoloya community members have noticed distinct decreases in their diarrhea rates.

The United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals set a target of halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to water and basic solution by the year 2015. In order to meet this target, 260,000 people will need to gain access to improved and safe water sources every day. Though this bold goal poses a challenge to all countries, there are organizations that are already making this closer to reality. CARE's work in Sierra Leone has increased community education on water quality with visible results. These approaches must be more widespread and provided with greater funding from the developed world. The issue of water access and quality is urgent, and work must be done to reduce the health impacts of waterborne disease. As Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General, once said, "We shall not finally defeat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, or any of the other infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking water, sanitation and basic health care."