Well Drilling
Walk into almost any village in the Central African Republic and you will find men, women, and children with dysentery, typhoid, and other diseases associated with impure drinking water sources. Because of the past four civil wars, even villages who have wells may not have clean water because of the difficulty in finding someone to fix a broken pump. ICDI’s teams not only drill dozens of new wells each year, but also maintain more than 400 wells, providing these villages with a constant supply of pure drinking water.
Drilling wells in the CAR is a very difficult and expensive job. Supplies for the wells must be shipped over a thousand miles overland on mostly unpaved roads. In most of the country the wells must be drilled through hard granite before finding pure drinking water. ICDI's well drilling team can drill up to 60 wells every year, with an average depth of about 180 feet (some wells reach depths of over 450 feet). Fuel costs of over $6.25 per gallon also add to the expenses of providing water for these small villages, driving the cost up to $15,000 per well for the drilling, test pumping, cement work, and pump installation.
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ICDI partners with Living Water International www.living-water.org. This partnership has provided the means for ICDI to drill many wells in and around the capital city. |
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The Blood:Water Mission, started by Jars of Clay, also donated funds towards drilling three wells in some of the most remote parts of the country for some of the nomadic tribes. This band hopes to drill and recondition over 1,000 wells in Africa. You can read more about the Blood:Water Mission on their website: www.bloodwatermission.com/1000wells |
The Process:
ICDI's goal is to not only provide a well, but to improve the overall health of each village where a well is drilled. To do this, ICDI has established goals for each village:
1. A well committee is chosen by the community, who will oversee the well and the water usage in the village.
2. The committee works with the ICDI team to provide various educational classes within the community. These include AIDS/HIV education, sanitation, community health, and nutrition. These seminars are designed to develop more awareness among the people of what the real health issues are in their village.
3. The community (with direction from the ICDI team) builds a latrine. This gives the villagers hands-on experience in viable latrine construction.
4. The committee begins to implement the well maintenance and funding processes.
5. The ICDI team plans for the agricultural development team's arrival. A seminar is given to teach the people about the nutritional value of different trees and garden produce.
This whole process takes nearly six months but results in a much higher awareness of the health and hygiene issues facing villages in this forgotten country. ICDI's goal is to provide whichever of these steps is necessary for a particular village, along with their well, as a more complete solution to long-term community health.
Well Repair
Since 1996 the Central African Republic has suffered through four civil wars, the latest of which caused tremendous destruction to the infrastructure of the country. Cotton gins were destroyed. Tobacco and coffee machines were demolished or carried off. Transportation vehicles were stolen and taken out of the country, and well pumps were damaged or carried off. We now see wells in many villages with non-functioning pumps. Huge investments of literally hundreds of thousands of dollars are now having no impact on the communities. ICDI is working hard at solving this problem through their well repair and well maintenance programs. The well repair program is donation-based, costing $1,500 per well. The well maintenance program is paid for by the local villages, and currently cares for over 400 wells on a regular basis.
When a village enters the well repair program they pay approximately $5 per month to have their well maintained. Due to the poor economy, sometimes a village just does not have the cash (over two-thirds of the population live on less than $1/day*), so the ICDI team also accepts goats or chickens in payment of their monthly allotment.
* World Health Organization - see here
