A Senegal Village Water Supply Project

In: Water and environment journal, Band 2, Heft 4, S. 391-398

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis Project Describes a rural water supply project in Senegal, West Africa, carried out in phases by Balfours, during the period 1983‐88.The first phase was a study, followed by detailed survey, construction works and borehole drilling.The scheme was financed by a $6 million grant from the Overseas Development Administration (ODA). British equipment such as the vehicles, pumps, elevated sectional steel water towers, pipes and fittings, were purchased and shipped to Senegal by the Crown Aents.Balfours designed, specified, and supervised the construction of water supply systems in 18 villages in Senegal comprising deep boreholes, pumping plant, elevated sectional steel water towers, and limited piped distribution systems. In order to ensure a full understanding of the project by the people it was to serve, and because major international contractors were unwilling to bid for a project which was scattered across a large area of Senegal, the work was carried out by direct labour, much of which was recruited in the villages in which the works were located. About 85000 people and 250000 cattle and sheep were provided with safe, reliable supplies of clean drinking water, as a result of the project.