Many years ago, the psalmist David spoke of “a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.” This sounds very like some parts of Burkina Faso, especially those in the Sahel region. We are able to praise God for His provision of water in a dry land. This story is about a village where many people were having to use an open well which did not have enough water in it to go round.
Windpagouri
Windpagouri is a village which is home to about 650 people whose sources of water were those shown in these photographs. For the privilege of using the either the pond or the hole in the ground, there might be a queue. And the hole in the ground only has dirty water anyway.
Although two pumps have been provided in nearby villages by other organisations in the past, they do not provide enough drinkable water with queueing times reported to be up to 2 hours.
Then there are the livestock – as is usual in villages in Burkina Faso – approximately 2000 heads of cattle. They need water too.
Although the people come from two different ethnic backgrounds, Gourmatchema and Pheul, they live very amicably together. This is not always the case in some villages!
The pictures quickly showed us that a well was badly needed.
There is water in a dry land!
It was in November 2018 that Myra’s Wells arranged for a drilling company to go to Windpagouri. Drilling usually progresses at a rate of about 10 metres per hour. So, it was after about 8 hours that water emerged. The depth of the borehole was 82 metres – that is quite a deep well.
Then there was the vital measurement of the flow rate. This is vital because it answers the question “Will the well be sustainable?” The magic figure in this process is 700 litres per hour. The wonderful news here was that the flow rate was 6000 litres per hour. What a real blessing! Our average flow rate is around 2500 litres per hour. To find such a good supply in such a difficult area is wonderful. We give God the glory for this.
Pictures just received
Sometimes, it is difficult to get pictures. Geography and the security situation can mean we have to wait. This was the case here. But we are pleased that we now have these pictures which show just how dry and arid the landscape is, especially during the dry season. They confirm, if confirmation were needed, that the decision to place a well here was a good decision. There is abundant water in a dry land.
This is well number 120
This well has a plaque on it “Harry’s Well”. Thank you to the family who made this well possible in memory of a much loved father.
At the time of writing, there are 149 wells altogether on our list which you can see using this link. We are expecting to start drilling more shortly and ask for prayer for successful drilling so that more people are able to benefit from the water in a dry land.
