Safe water supply for Fayaco, Senegal

Fayaco is a village located in the Saloum Islands of Senegal with a population of 730 inhabitants. The people have water from a watertanker, which is functioning, but gives water with high fluor and chlorine content, leading to osseous pain and tooth fluorose. The concentration is 545mg/liter for the Chlorine and 4,2 mg/liter for the fluorine against WHO standards respectively of 250mg/l and 1,5mg/l. This is very high and creates a public health problem.

Fresh water is only available during the rainy season, if people harvest the rainwater. Otherwise they have to go to the mainland by boat, where water can be bought at high prices.

Goals overview

Provide a water supply at a household level (15 m3 and 20 m3 per household) to at least overcome the dry period, for drinking and other small domestic uses. Setup training and awareness sessions on operation, maintenance and management of Rainwater Harvesting systems to ensure a sustainable clean water supply. Start training and awareness on water quality issues related to the Rainwater Harvesting systems.

Current status

The project will start as soon as budget is available - the start is also dependent on the rainy season, during which construction is complicated.

Project plan

CARITAS KAOLACK is a trusted RAIN partner since 2007. Within their target area, the need and relevance for water harvesting is extremely relevant. The currently available water could be purified, but this requires expensive and complicated procedures.

Expected outcomes

• 21 household RWH systems to provide people with safe water
• 15 people trained on operation, maintenance and management
• Awareness raised on water quality at 15 households

The approach within this project is that the responsibility of the project lies with the beneficiaries. In all the project phases, the beneficiaries are leading in taking initiatives, formulating their ideas and making suggestions.The project staff of CARITAS KAOLACK will give advice, adjust and train the beneficiaries to create awareness to manage the project after construction is finalised. A committee will be created to arrange meetings with all beneficiaries and facilitate communication with the project staff. Women have a leading role in this committee, since they are the ones who are responsible for fetching and managing water.

This rainwater harvesting project is part of the hydraulic program of CARITAS which cover all this area and where a monitoring program of the water users association is running. The management and the maintenance will be taken account by CARITAS in its monitoring and the users association in its management.