"Do not wait for leaders. Do it alone, person to person." Mother Teresa
Water Programs
The retrieval of water is an onerous task for most village women. Water sources may be hours away from the home, and portability is often restricted to what can be carried on one's head or back. The job usually falls to a female child, who fetches water before and after school. Illnesses from dirty water cause absences from the small business that serves as the main source of income for the family. No matter how much we work with women to grow their businesses, or encourage girls to stay in school, the essential job of retrieving water will be an obstacle to success.
Our research on what is being done about the inability of billions of people to access clean water has pointed to the many organizations currently involved in digging new wells. The wells are often serviced by hand pumps, making them relatively cheap, easy to install, and requiring little maintenance. However, we see time and again wells that were not dug deeply enough to reach clean water, or broken pumps, or contaminated locations -- all which leave residents in the original state of lacking drinking water. Our tours of the villages in Kenya and Ghana have included sightings of wells and boreholes (a deep, narrow hole reaching straight to a water source) that were dug by government, or aid organizations, or even individuals, and then left in a state of unuse. We believe that the restoration of this existing infrastructure may be an easier way to tackle the water problem than drilling new wells.
The Village Net was presented with just such a stiuation in Ofankor. A borrower led us to a borehole that had been drilled almost 10 years ago by a Church that owned the land on which it was located. The land was managed from Accra, and the Church relied on a villager to manage the water sales. At first, the business consisted of locals with buckets. Over time, some of the water delivery
companies came to the borehole with the tanks they would fill and then distribute to homes. After a number of years, the pump broke and the Church repaired it. Only one year later, the pump broke again. Whether it was from overuse, or a poor installation, or simply that the pump itself was bad, we do not know. But the Church no longer had the reserves for repairs, and the borehole has been unused for nearly two years now. It was the largest source of drinking water in the metropolitan area, and it's inaccessiblity is sorely felt.
We talked with the Church and were given a verbal OK that, if The Village Net repaired the pump, it would also assume management of the water business. Our financial projections show a good profit on a very manageable business. Local oversight of the business would likely be done by a committee of area stakeholders. Ofankor's Chief agrees with the model and plans to go forward. However, since projects are rarely easily or quickly accomplished in Africa, we face the inevitable snag. A property dispute within the family that orginally sold the land to the Church has reared its ugly head. The Church has filed an injunction, and we wait for a decision.
What is exciting about this project is the portability of the model. Identification of existing water sources in both Ghana and Kenya could easily lead to the implementation of a for-profit business that would benefit the local community and provide a revenue stream for The Village Net. This opportunity to create a social enterprise is exciting, and we will keep you posted on our progress.