A drop in the bucket, Feb 2015

Splash.  Drip.  Swish.  Gurgle.  Slosh.  Plop.  Splatter. 

Water.  It surrounds us, making up to 60% of the human body and necessary for all life.

You wake up.  Flush the toilet.  Wash your hands.  Your face.  Brush your teeth.  Step into the shower...  and you've already used approximately 16 gallons of water.  Add your washing machine, dish washer, cooking, cleaning supplies, etc.  Look at your plate, even if you're just eating a meager salad there's 15 gallons of water that have gone into growing the lettuce alone! 

Water is ubiquitous in our lives.  But what if it wasn't?  What if you had the same needs but no faucet? 

Every morning and evening the girls and women of my village pull pan-after-pan of water 25 meters (approximately 82 feet) to the top of our well, place it on their heads, walk it back to their huts, and pour it into another pan waiting on the ground.  Since I too need water, I can be spotted every evening at the village well with three other women, our hands flying and clapping as we pull the heavy rope over the pulley.  A full pan of water is 24 liters, meaning that I carry 52 pounds of water 122-125 steps back to my hut. 

Beyond personal consumption, my agrarian community depends on water for crops.  That means our livelihood is reliant on rainfall (a meager 521 mm from July-September) and groundwater from the well.  In the long months between rainy seasons, my community works together to water their crops from well water.  In an incredible sense of community; all the women of my village pull water together for three hours or more, placing it on one another's heads, carrying each benoir into the garden, taking it off, and finally pouring the water into watering cans to use.  Every day.  For at least five months.  And then they pull water for the next day's drinking, washing, cooking, cleaning, etc. 

So I proposed a feeder basin project for my community.  A small basin next to the well connected to alarger basin inside the garden by pipe facilitates easier watering.  Women pour water into the small basin and it cuts out the work of lifting, carrying, and putting down the water in the garden.  It also encourages better watering practices since women are less likely to pour water from the top of their head directly onto their garden beds.  Unsurprisingly, my community was pretty enthusiastic.       

After writing the grant and the harvests were in, my community supplied horse drawn carts to carry supplies from our road town.  I explained construction requirements (thanks dad!) in French and Wolof (thanks to my many language teachers!), and we completed the project in less than a week

. 

 

My village took the project a step further, saving money from their early harvest to purchase an inner tube balloon that can pull up four times more water when pulled by a horse or donkey. 

 

Even though it was just a small project and the well is only 27 meters away from the center of the garden, the garden has grown exponentially since the water limitations have been reduced.  This year, every meter of the garden is being worked.  Even motivated women from neighboring communities have joined us with four of their own plots inside the garden. 

 

The easier access to water in the garden has meant higher yields.  Meaning more vegetables going into each family's lunch bowl.  More vegetables and cash crops being sold at the weekly market.  Meaning more financial autonomy for each of the ladies in the Mboure Community Women's Group.  Meaning increasing financial sway in the family.  Meaning more money going towards education and hospital bills.  Meaning a healthier and better educated next generation. 

So this wasn't an enormous project, it was just a drop in the bucket.