Clean Water for 1,500 People in Rural Senegal

“For a long time the doctor advises to drink sweet water for my health and I used to buy it but since CREATE! arrival, I am able to have well water freely” says Fatou Ndiaye from the community of Walo, reinforcing the need for clean water for better health. She is just one of many women in the rural communities of Senegal who have benefitted from the clean and affordable water they can now collect from rehabilitated village wells, thanks to your generous support.

In a country where unpredictable rainfall brought about by climate change has led to drought like situations, access to abundant clean water year round not only means better health, but also the ability to cultivate food year round. In the community of Mboss for example, the availability of water from the rehabilitated well has resulted in previously barren land becoming a thriving vegetable garden in only one year. Women like Nogaye Faye of Mboss now have vegetables to eat daily from the garden. Many women in this community have now become vegetable sellers where previously they would buy from the nearby market. Women who had no work before have become entrepreneurs due to the community gardens made possible by clean water.

Nogaye, who previously was treated for hypertension due to the salty, brackish water she drank from the commercial source, believes that the clean water from the rehabilitated well has helped her health become better. And this water, according to her, has also helped the surrounding villages with all of them now able to grow vegetables without paying water bills.

The importance of rehabilitated wells for the provision of clean, abundant and affordable water is thus obvious. With your support, CREATE! is expanding our partnerships to new communities in Senegal for that purpose. In the last couple of months, CREATE! field technicians worked with community volunteers to rehabilitate an existing well and expects to rehabilitate another well in the coming months. By providing access to abundant, affordable water and training from CREATE! field technicians, we can work together to help these villages achieve agricultural and economic self-sufficiency.

CREATE! also helped communities in their reforestation efforts during the rainy months of July and August by planting trees for shade, firewood and food, something that would have been impossible without ongoing access to abundant water from rehabilitated wells to nourish growing tree seedlings. Want to know more about our tree planting campaign? Check out our blog.

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Links:

• Blog post on Tree Planting
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