Clean Drinking Water for My Village


For the first time in my village, the girls can fetch water without having to pump or haul it from a well
The Gambia is blessed with a good supply of groundwater. Or at least good enough to generally meet the demand in this undeveloped country. Groundwater is used for drinking and other household uses (cooking, bathing, washing clothes, watering animals, etc.) and gardening. If there is any use of groundwater for industry or irrigation, it is very limited.

The groundwater quality is also quite good. This is predominantly because local land uses aren’t likely to cause groundwater contamination. Much of the land in The Gambia is used for farming but the country does not have the resources for the widespread use of fertilizers and pesticides that can contaminate groundwater aquifers if over applied. It also has very limited heavy industry and no heavily trafficked transportation corridors in the upcountry regions - these can also be sources of groundwater contaminants. This is all very fortunate for the people of The Gambia because its sandy soils make the shallow, unconfined aquifers quite vulnerable to contamination.

So the good news is that good quality groundwater is readily available throughout much of the country. The bad news is that the methods for accessing groundwater in many villages create opportunities for their drinking water to become contaminated. Many villages use hand-dug wells that are either covered or uncovered. Covered wells will have a hand pump; uncovered wells will have a pulley for hauling up water in buckets. Drinking water from covered wells is safer than uncovered wells but – as you can see from the picture – the water is still at risk of contamination from surface sources. 

Typical covered well with a hand pump
When I arrived in my village last December and asked about their highest priorities I could help them with, CLEAN WATER was the loud and clear response. My village has only one covered well. If that pump breaks down they either have to travel to the next village to get drinking water or accept the risk of drinking the water from open wells. There are numerous uncovered wells from which they fetch water for bathing, washing clothes, watering animals and gardening. This brings up another issue related to water - - fetching water to meet all of their needs is hard work and takes a lot of time. This task is typically the responsibility of the women and girls, although boys are sometimes conscripted into service.

Waiting in line at the pump
Long story short - - I raised funds through a combination of grants (read about "Let Girls Learn" grant program here) and online contributions from Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, family and friends to brings taps into my village. Over the last few weeks a local firm drilled a 35-meter deep bore hole with a solar-powered pump, erected a water tank and installed a network of seven taps throughout the village. This is essentially the state-of-the-art for drinking water in rural Gambia. Many of the surrounding villages already have a bore hole and taps. My village has been waiting and waiting for their day to come.


On August 8th, the water flowed freely and the women danced in celebration! And I joined them! I'm so happy for the difference this will make in their lives and the wellbeing of everyone in the village. And I feel so very fortunate that I am able to take advantage of what Peace Corps has to offer.
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