We are so excited to announce that Mbossedji, one of our newest partner communities, officially has access to clean, abundant water! This is thanks to a successful well-rehabilitation and installation of a solar water pump by CREATE!’s highly skilled technicians. Now Mbossedji will have access to clean, fresh water year-round for drinking and agriculture use.
The Importance of Agriculture in Rural Senegal
Agriculture is the primary source of income for over 75% of families in rural Senegal. However, increasing desertification and decreasing rainfall present challenges for rural communities. For instance, around 80% of farmers depend on the rain to irrigate their crops, and Senegal’s rainy season is only 3-4 months long. This means that families have about nine months where they are forced to look for other income-generating opportunities outside of agriculture. Men will often leave their families to work in the cities or even as far as Europe.
The Benefit of a Solar Water Pump
Like many rural communities in Senegal, Mbossedji only had the chance to cultivate a garden during the short rainy season. Their commercial water system was too costly to support agriculture needs during the dry season. However, Mbossedji’s abandoned well proved to hold untapped potential. CREATE! partnered with well diggers, and fabricators to clean out and revitalize the well to bring back clean, abundant, and affordable water.
CREATE!’s technicians work to rehabilitate Mbossedji’s well and install a solar water pump.
Utilizing Renewable Technology
However, rehabilitating the well was only the beginning. Since the well was over 40 meters deep, drawing out water by hand would be a labor-intensive and time-consuming task, especially to maintain a large garden year-round. With a solar water pump, thousands of water is pumped daily into reservoirs without the use of expensive and damaging fossil fuels! Each reservoir holds up to 5,000 liters of water. Next, using a gravity-fed irrigation system, water will flow from the reservoirs to the basins where women fill their watering cans for the community garden.
CREATE! technicians adjust Mbossedji’s solar panels to ensure the most direct sunlight.
Preparing for Future Gardens
While CREATE! technicians worked on access to water, community members from Mbossedji prepared over two hectares of land for their future cooperative community garden. Mbossedji will have one of the most extensive gardens out of all of CREATE!’s partner communities! To accommodate the size of the garden, CREATE!’s technicians installed two reservoirs for storing water.
Each reservoir in Mbossedji stores up to 5,000 liters of water.
With water, Mbossedji has the means to turn the desert into a lush garden site. Community members have started their agricultural training with CREATE!’s technicians and are putting their new knowledge to work. Since the beginning of November, 138 members are learning practical watering methods, how to use cover crops, how to create organic fertilizer and compost, and many more sustainable agriculture methods. As a result, Mbossedji will be able to sustainably produce vegetables right from their village!
Piloting a Drip Irrigation System
Hand-watering twice a day can be labor-intensive, especially when community members have other agricultural duties and training sessions. This is why CREATE!’s technicians worked to install a pilot drip irrigation system to regularly water crops.
CREATE!’s technicians finish installing a drip irrigation system in Mbossedji’s future garden site.
You Helped One More Community Gain Access to Water
Thanks to donors like you, one more CREATE! partner community has gained access to clean, abundant water! Water is the source of life here, and the foundation for economic success in rural villages. Water means lush gardens that produce vegetables. Vegetables lead to food security and a reliable source of income for families. Thank you for helping Mbossedji take the first steps towards building community self-sufficiency.
