Solar-Powered Well for a Health Clinic in Niger

At Togoba Healthcare Facility, water is needed for everything: handwashing, cleaning equipment, maintaining treatment rooms, and caring for patients. For a long time, meeting these needs was a daily challenge. The center relied on a well that could run dry, particularly during the hottest times of year. When water ran out, health workers and patients or their support people had to walk to the village school’s water point, about a quarter mile away, to retrieve water for drinking and washing.

Thanks to your support, patients, visitors, and healthcare workers now have improved access to clean water at Togoba Healthcare Facility. The new water system improves the quality of care provided to all patients. Staff can follow infection prevention protocols - regularly washing hands, treatment surfaces, and medical instruments, to prevent the spread of germs. Mothers and their newborn infants can be bathed after childbirth, improving their health outcomes.

In addition, community tap stands have been constructed to provide neighboring households with access to clean water for drinking, cooking, handwashing, and other needs. This reduces the burden on women and girls, who bear primary responsibility for water collection. Access to clean water reduces the spread of waterborne diseases, helps children stay in school, and gives families more free time for domestic responsibilities and income-generating activities.

Through your generous support, a mechanized, solar-powered, piped water system with a 15-cubic-meter storage tank has been installed at Togoba Healthcare Facility. The system includes:

 A four-tap water distribution point installed in the facility’s courtyard to provide drinking water for patients, staff, and visitors

• A two-tap water distribution point providing access to clean water for neighboring households
• One tap installed near the latrines to facilitate handwashing.
• One tap installed in the area set aside for women to bathe after childbirth
• Seven taps installed in the delivery room and other patient care areas

 Due to your generous support, approximately 11,354 people in Togoba, including many expectant mothers and their children, are now from the new water system. Thank you for your continued partnership as we work to bring safe water to more community clinics in West Africa!