At the end of November, this was the subject line of an email we received from Burkina Faso. Big joy at the village of Tierakora. Here is the reason!
A year ago
There is a steady stream of well requests that arrive at Myra’s Wells. They each come with their own stories and are nearly all from places where there is a real need of a drilled well for clean water. We have to assess which ones to drill first. To help us, we ask for photos from the village. In this case, we had photos and a video. Here are the photos.
The video comes with a health warning. Only click this link if you have a strong stomach! Yes, show me the video.
It did not take very long to decide this village badly needed a well.
September 2019
We had selected a number of villages in the same area. These formed one batch of wells which we sent to Christine. There were five places in this batch of wells. She started to make arrangements for a surveyor to visit each of them to find the best places to drill.
October 2019
The surveyor had to wait until the ground dried up after the rainy season, but, in due course, he visited Tierkora. It was difficult to get there. He found a good place to drill. However, he said that there was no way that of getting a drill there. There was just not enough of a track for the lorries to use.
At the same time, the surveyor confirmed our assessment of the need. He said the people were going to the river, 2km away, the fetch water. Sometimes, they were able to use a chemical process to purify it, but that reduced 10 litres of river water to 4 litres of drinkable water. (And remember that they had to walk 2km both ways to fetch the water in the first place.)
November 2019
This was a big disappointment, but the villagers were set on having their well. Many of them turned out to clear a wider track. There were trees to cut down and scrubland to clear. However, the prospect of having clean water in the village was a prize worth working for. And they were successful. It was late in the evening when the drilling team arrived ready to start drilling the next morning.
Big joy at the village of Tierkora
26th November. We had just had our lunch when the email arrived from Christine. The subject was “Big joy at the village of Tierkora”. This was what the body of the message said:
“We have a well at the village of TIERKORA. The village people made the way possible for the rig. So, the drilling team went there this morning. I just received a phone call that the well is positive depth 60 metres with 3600 litres per hour.
You can imagine how people can be happy now.”
The pump is fitted
A couple of weeks later, the mechanic arrived to fit the pump and give some teaching about how to maintain it so that it would continue to produce clean water for many years to come.
Spot the difference
Since then, we have received this video. Spot the difference! No health warning this time! See what the small children are drinking now. See how happy the people are and listen to their “Thank you”.