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Water

Where does the water come from?
The visitors always bought bottled water.
When they stayed the first night in a hotel on the coast
they had bathrooms with showers and plenty of water.
(Lots of people from other countries like to visit The Gambia
and stay by the sea. They expect to have all 'mod cons'.)

The area around the coast is heavily populated.
People may have access to water in their homes but the demand is so heavy that often water does not flow at times in the day.

When the visitors travelled to Janjanbureh they had access
to limited water from a tap and a shower in their rooms.
The toilet had a cistern but there was no water in it.
They collected the water into a bucket as they showered
and used this to flush it.
The water was never heated in any way
- don't forget -
any electricity is provided by a generator
and is very expensive to run.

In the villages

These pictures were taken at Janjanbureh on MacCarthy Island. People who live close to the river use it for washing their clothes. Even the white clothes always look very clean despite the red sandy soil. Many prefer to wash in the river as it is 'softer' water. Can you think of any advantages of washing clothes in the river? Compare it to how your clothes are washed. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each method? Which uses the most energy? Some people drink from the river. It is believed that as it is running water it is clean. It may be that people build up an immunity.

Wells

Return to Schools

There are two wells at Boraba School. One has a pump and is used by the local village. How do the children collect the water from the other well? How much would you need to collect each day? What weight would you need to carry? (A litre of water weighs one kilogram.)

The water has to be carried quite a distance. Children gradually learn to balance buckets and large bottles on their heads.

Do you think this might cause any problems?

Remember how much it will weigh?

When the teachers returned in 2006 this well had just been updated and had a pump. It had a wall around to prevent animals from making it dirty and was covered in. There was much happiness about this and although the well was a 'school' well it was used by the locals too.

At Sare Ngai, where some of the visitors went, there is a solar powered well which provides water for the 3,500 cattle and goats.

“We used to draw water from the river with horses and donkeys and bring it here on carts, or we walked all the way into Senegal with our cattle to find water.
Now the cattle can drink here, and we have more time to grow rice and vegetables.
So our lives have definitely improved.”
He adds that the cattle also fertilize the soil around the village now that they do not need to walk far away for water.

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