As many of you already know, the aim of the Mobile Water School is to empower impoverished regions to solve independently the problems that many of them face in terms of lack of water and sanitation.
Thus, in the ideal case, after travelling to these places and having carried out a series of training workshops in simple technologies, such as manual drilling of wells, making pumps, construction of latrines, showers, tanks, rainwater collection, etc., the people who live in these regions have professionals trained to provide autonomous solutions to the problems of supply and sanitation in their areas. Thus, not only will they be able to build new water points by hiring local technicians trained by the Mobile Water School, but they will also have at their disposal the people and means to maintain and conserve their precious installation. In addition, in a next step, these trained people can teach others how to use these simple technologies and amplify the effect and impact of our initial action.
Drilling a new well in The Gambia, led by drilling technicians from Senegal.
At this point, we are happy to report that, although we have pointed out that this is an ideal case, it is often the case, and we are here to tell you about the latest example of this. It is happening in The Gambia. Here’s how it happened.
Back in January 2024, we agreed with a small Gambian NGO to carry out some handpump wells. The strategy in this case was somewhat different from what we usually tell you; instead of European trainers travelling there (4,000 km), it was Senegalese alumni already trained and experienced in drilling wells who would travel to their neighbouring country. Moreover, given that in this case time would not allow for the complete training of technicians from the region, the strategy would be to teach the beneficiary users of the new wells themselves how to maintain and conserve their water pumps, without having to ask for help from anyone outside the region. This is how our colleagues Bourama and Amadou travelled from Kolda and Ouonk, in the south of Senegal, to Gambia, barely 200 km away, to undertake this important mission on their own.
Loading materials for well drilling.
Our colleagues successfully carried out 3 wells involving the families in the 2 days of work that were necessary in each of them and gave half-day workshops to break the fear of the families to fix the pumps themselves in case a breakdown occurred or a part of the pump was worn out. Ultimately, repairs would be done with worn rubber tyres or nylon rope, so that it is very easy, and above all very cheap, to find spare parts.
Bourama giving a workshop on basic maintenance of EMAS pumps to the owner families.
The greatest joy came some time after the installation of these wells. A member of the local NGO told us that a few months later, one of the pumps had had a problem and stopped working, and the family who owned it had fixed it themselves! The pump had been repaired by its owners and was still working perfectly. This great news motivates us enormously and is the great proof of the sustainability of this model, mainly due to the simplicity of the technologies we propose and the involvement of the beneficiary users in the process. It is wonderful to see how the objective is achieved without the intervention of foreign NGOs. Neighbours solving their problems in an autonomous and local way.
These experiences are exciting and reinforce our belief that this way of pursuing universal access to water may be a priori less immediate and less attractive, but we are convinced that the strength of this way of doing things lies in its durability and sustainability, making people autonomous and masters of their future, actors of their wellbeing and security.
Gambian families owning a well with a hand pump.