Well Construction
From Peace Corps Wiki
Info about the Well Construction
The community is home to roughly 1,100 people, eight kilometers from the national highway and about 20 kilometers from the Senegal River, the closest freshwater source. Located in the Sahel desert, Goudoude Diobe considers water a difficult commodity to acquire. There are currently two working wells. The first was built in 1993 and is 55 meters deep, the other built in 1995, is 45 meters deep. Although there are three communal faucets, the water tower that supplies these faucets is located 2 kilometers away in the neighboring village of Goudoude Ndiouetbe, and often breaks down and remains broken for weeks at a time. The water tower alone does not sufficiently meet the demands of the community. So, when it is broken, it substantially increases the workload for women and teenage girls who must go to the well starting before dawn to pull water. The water table is very far beneath the ground surface and the women (sometimes men too) need to manually pull at least 20 bags buckets of water each to suffice the needs of their families alone. The principal of the small primary school has shown interest in planting more trees within the community and starting a school garden, however, this is impossible without an adequate water source further justifying the additional well. With the addition of another well, the community will benefit from a cleaner, newer source of water. The new well will also set up an excellent site for the addition of a much-needed water pump in the future. The community hopes to build a 40 meter-deep bore well, lined with cement to ensure the sanitation of water.