Hydraulic ram pumps and Sling Pumps

GRAVITY VILLAGE WATER SUPPLY IN SIERRA LEONEGRAVITY VILLAGE WATER SUPPLY IN SIERRALEONEBy John La RocheThe 370 people of Gbewobu Village in the Kenema District of Sierra Leone are building their owngravity water supply with funds provided by New Zealand. Gbewobu is one of 15 gravity water supplyschemes being supported by the British charity WaterAid, to provide desperately needed water suppliesto 16,500 people. WaterAid has been working in the area since the late 1980's having completed 21gravity schemes for a population if 45,000 people prior to the new program.Sierra Leone in West Africa is a one of the world's poorest countries with an equivalent GNP per capitaof US$210 (NZ US$12,350), with an under 5 child mortality rate of 249 /1000 (NZ 10/1000) where only37% of the population have access to safe water.During 1992 and again recently Sierra Leone has been wracked from incursions by rebel soldiers fromLiberia causing many Sierra Leoneans to flee their homes. In one village threatened by rebel troops, thewater supply caretaker, a volunteer, carefully removed all the taps and valves from the new gravity fedsystem and buried them in a safe place. Once the soldiers left he dug them up and restored the system tofull working order. Although the situation had been relatively calm for the last 18 months fighting hasoccurred again in March when operations in the Kenema district had to be temporarily closed down. OnChristmas Day the WaterAid Toyota truck was taken by 15 storm troopers and has not been seen again!The village of Gbewobu a Water Committee was established to oversee the construction and long ternmanagement of the scheme. The Community is responsible for;* providing all necessary local materials used for construction (sand, stone, and time for water supplyworks; mud blocks and roofing materials for latrines);* feeding and lodging all technical and health education personnel working with the project;* providing all unskilled labour necessary for the project's completion;* selecting from within the community two maintenance caretakers to work alongside the projects'health education staff and learn aspects of hygiene and sanitation education;http://www.lifewater.ca/wfs/wwsieleo.html (1 of 3) [1/13/2005 12:48:37 PM]