A few years, we had the privilege to donate the funds to Buy Pumps and Save Lives campaign and we are ecstatic to finally be able to give an update that after several years, The LifePumps project is about to happen!

The team will be returning to Senegal to commence drilling and installation in Kédougou and expect the borehole preparation and installation of the pumps to take approximately four weeks and must be completed before the rainy season begins in June. The first action will be to bulldoze a road for heavy equipment to reach the remote villages of the Bassari people.

We know change happens when we invest in it – and we are so happy to report on the progress that’s being made and the impact we’ll be able to have to the people in Kédougou, Senegal. Everyone needs to have access to clean and safe drinking water and we’re felling very grateful to have played a small part in making that happen for some communities in need.

Project Goal: Under this Rotary International (RI) Project, five high-tech deep-water hand pumps, i.e. LifePumps™, will be installed in communities in the Ninefecha Region of Kédougou Senegal, as selected by the Senegalese Office of Rural Boreholes (L’OFOR). These communities are home to the Bassari people, who currently have to walk long distances to obtain drinking water from sources that are unsanitary and often inadequate. The purpose of the project is to provide those communities with a clean, reliable and adequate source of water, while at the same time demonstrating the significant advantage of the LifePumpsTM over the hand pumps currently in use in Africa.

Current Progress: In November of last year, five LifePumps and supporting equipment were purchased from the non-profit designer and manufacturer of the pump, Design Outreach, and loaded into crates bound for Dakar, Senegal where they were received and stored by the Dakar Soleil Rotary club of Senegal. After negotiations with the support of L’OFOR and the Dakar Soleil Rotary Club, a contract was signed with the construction company Batifort to drill three Deep-Water Hand Pumps for Senegal boreholes within the next two months. All five pumps have been fully funded, but due to the remoteness of the villages, the cost of drilling is more than anticipated. The project currently has sufficient funds to drill and install three LifePumps. The plan is to move forward with the installation of those first pumps and subsequently solicit the additional funds needed to drill the remaining two wells. The drilling, preparation, and testing of the three boreholes is expected to take approximately two weeks, at which time Ray Ehrig, a senior engineer from Design Outreach, will travel from the US to the sites in Kédougou to install the pumps and provide training on their installation and maintenance. Waste, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) training will also be provided for each community. By the end of March, three Bassari communities in the remote Fouta Djalon foothills of Kédougou are expected to be benefiting from a reliable source of clean, plentiful water.