Maybe you live in Noatenga, Burkina Faso, and fancy a drink of water.
Noatenga is a village in Oubritenga province in Burkina Faso. It is not far from Ouagadougou, the capital – maybe no more than 50km. If you fancy a drink of water there, you have two options!
Here is the open well. Doesn’t look too appetising! Some of the year it may not look quite this bad, but this is the rainy season. Anything and everything will be washed down into it.
Maybe you don’t mind walking a bit further – perhaps 2 km. There is another well that you can use. It is certainly deep – 52 metres. But it is also an open well. So the water will become polluted just as much – you just can’t see it. Who knows what has been dropped down the well shaft! In fact, it makes you feel dizzy just looking in. We have heard of cases where people have fallen into these wells.
Whichever one of the two you choose, it will be a pretty good way of getting diarrhoea or worse. A drink of water might cost you your life.
Still fancy a drink of water in Noatenga?
That was until about a month ago.
Now, the people of Noatenga have this lovely drilled borehole. It is 61 metres deep and provides 1500 litres of water per hour. Myra’s Wells has arranged for this to be drilled. The pump that is installed guarantees that the water will arrive pure and clean. The children are clearly very happy with their new well. And so are the adults
.
Christine, who makes all the arrangements for us in Burkina Faso, has had a talk with the children about washing as well. After all, there probably wasn’t much benefit in washing in the water before now. But with the lovely clean water, they can be encouraged to keep themselves clean. That can only have a positive impact on their health.
Fancy a drink of water in Noatenga now?
And maybe you would like to help other similar villages in Burkina Faso. Click here to see how to help.
As of June 2017, Myra’s Wells has now drilled 87 wells in Burkina Faso – click here for the full list. We continue to guarantee that 100% of donations will be used in more well drilling projects. All other expenses are paid by the trustees personally.
