Power Up Gambia Blog

Hello everyone!

We have great news to announce: As you are reading this blog entry, people around the world are getting to work and preparing for the upgrade of the Somita water system

Alright, so here are the details. When Carol Cunningham and Lonnie Angstadt first visited Somita, they saw a functioning well behind the clinic, meant to be used by the school nearby. Therefore, the initial plan included the installation of a solar pump on the existing well.

This past summer Sesh visited The Gambia, and stayed in Somita. His main aim was to act as a direct liaison between the Village Development Committee (VDC), a group of elected individuals responsible for the administration of the village, and Power Up Gambia. Further, his tasks also included the assessment of the clinic’s electricity needs and a complete, detailed, analysis of the situation on the ground. (His full report will soon be uploaded on the website. Meanwhile visit our photo albums online to see pictures from his trip.)

Sesh returned with bad news, some expected, some not. The clinic’s water supply was anything but reliable (this we expected). He also discovered that the school's well (intended to be used for the clinic) often ran dry or low enough that the water coming out became brown and murky. Because of this, the village no longer uses it to provide drinking water to the school, and it certainly would not be a safe source of water for the clinic.

Currently, the clinic workers use the central village water pump. However, the pump is old and cannot fill the water tank. The water is not enough for the entire village. The VDC has applied a water rationing system, in which they turn water access on at 2pm everyday. Even though people don’t have to race each other to the water in the morning, the tank, not filled to capacity, runs dry only a couple of hours after access is granted. Water supply is short for everyone. So, every day at 2, women and children bring their large yellow “bidons” to the village water tap. This is what the clinic staff have been doing.

Since they cannot withdraw as much water as they need, though, they simply forgo anything that would require a lot of it (hand washing, for example).

Soon, the situation will be different! The news Sesh brought back pointed to only one solution: the upgrade of the water system for the entire village, with a direct pipeline to the clinic to ensure that the staff never has to run out of water again.

We will soon begin installing a new 6000L tank and solar pump for the village. That’s all pretty exciting if you ask me. I feel especially good about the fact that the health benefits of clean and reliable water will extend towards the entire village and not only the clinic.