Here are two new wells that Myra’s Wells provided in November 2018. They are both in the same area, quite near to Kaya, in Burkina Faso. The stories on the application forms are very similar for both places.
Long waiting times at existing pumps
Both places benefitted from pumps that were installed 30 years ago or more. It is a good advertisement for the pumps – we still use very similar ones on the wells we provide. They are very reliable! So why did they need another pump each?
The short answer is “population growth”. Data from http://worldpopulationreview.com suggests that the population has more than doubled in the time these pumps have been here. This is what is said about Burkina Faso – “Burkina Faso has a total fertility rate of 6 children born to every woman, which is the sixth highest on earth”
Would you queue for several hours for water?
If you want clean water, that is what you have to do. Sometimes the only way of avoiding the queue is to be up before sunrise to be there first. People in the UK do this for Black Friday or the New Year sales. But for an essential commodity like water, this dreadful.
If queueing is too much, people have to look elsewhere for water. The result is that they make do with dirty water. So, although, the fertility rate is high, so is the infant mortality rate.
Two new wells
We are pleased to have been able to help out the people at Fouti and Tanhoko – two villages about 10 km apart. There are about 2000 people altogether between the two villages. These wells have plaques on them – Eileen’s Well and John’s Well. Here are pictures from the day when the well blessings took place. These wells are numbers 124 and 125 on our list of wells.
In both these places, the people had asked the local authorities to provide wells, but this had never happened. Burkina Faso is a very poor country and money is not usually spent on villages.
Fouti – Eileen’s Well
The new well is 67 metres deep. It provides 2000 litres of water an hour. This is more than enough to serve the village.
Tanhoko – John’s Well
This well is 61 metres deep. The flow rate is 8000 litres/hour – which is an amazingly good supply. The pictures here include one of the village chief who looks pleased to now have a new pump.
There are many other villages with the same story
We thank God that we have been able to provide 149 wells to date (June 2019) – the full list is available on this link. As funds are made available, we will continue to help more villages like Fouti and Tanhoko.
