|
Water Well Digging Program
Life for Relief and Development has dug or is in the process of digging over 120 water wells in the Horn of Africa, Somalia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Palestine. In places like Gaza and the Horn of Africa clean water is either not available or considered a luxury that families cannot afford.
This drought in the Horn of Africa has led to an acute shortage of clean drinking water in the region resulting in regular outbreaks of diarrhea, cholera, and often death. Villagers walk an average of 15km to retrieve water that is often contaminated. Some never return home from the essential but difficult journey because of fatigue.
Hand dug water wells are shallow wells 15 - 20 meters deep, after digging the well for the above depth, a concrete like tube shape with open ends on both sides will be inserted in the hole. Then a concrete base of 1.5 meters above the surface is built. A hand pump will be installed at the middle of the concrete base to pull water to the surface which is the point of water
distribution for public use.
Machine dug wells require a boring machine to dig the well which can be extremely expensive. Most wells that Life is digging are hand dug, however sometimes when a machine is needed wells are dug using the bore hole method.
When a donor funds a water well, Life sends the donor’s name to the field. After the water well is dug a sign is placed at the site of the well with the name of the donor. Photos of the well and a brief report are sent to the donor after the well is ready for use. If possible, we encourage donor’s to visit the village where their well is dug and visit with the community that drinks from the well.
|
