Building a Well

After traveling to Jackiline’s village and walking for water with her, we drove to another outlying area of Kigali where Living Waters were just capping a new well in a community. Living Waters had provided the Rwandan people 75 wells last year alone. This donor supported organization based in Houston, TX has brought not only clean water but a sanitation and public health curriculum to tens of thousands of individuals world-wide. With an average cost of $10k per well in Rwanda, the success and proliferation of these wells has been completely funded through the efforts of people who care.

At this well site the Living Water staff were assembling then lowering the PVC pipes into the previously drilled hole Sitting beside the well was a pump housing, a couple of rubber grommets, sections of long rods with a plunger one, and a pump handle. Was this all it took to bring clean water to a community? In addition to each well hole, Living Waters pours a concrete pad along with a run off channel to divert the excess spilled water away from the pump. To be honest it looked more like a high school science project that the solution to clean water world-wide.

We watched as the Living Waters team did the final assembly and started pumping the well. This particular well was aprox 50m or 150ft (shallow for the high altitude area of Rwanda) so it took under a minute to prime the pump and for the water to flow. The crew made some adjustments to the handle and tightened a few bolts and it was done. Clean water is not an insurmountable task. 

Mark Warren, Founder of Global Benefit as the first water flows.