Clean water and a healthier community in Sierra Leone

Yeanoh Fofanah lived her entire life without access to safe drinking water, having to access water from a nearby stream, exposing her to various hazards.

When a water well project was implemented in her community, Yeanoh was overjoyed. She says;

‘It’s been three years since this community well was built. We were suffering to get clean water. We usually fetch from the streams to drink. There was no clean water to drink. Throughout those days, we had several strange sicknesses. We suffered from illness like cholera, because the water was not clean.

Since the community well was dug, our lives have changed, we now have a clean water well and are living a healthier life.’

This was part of larger EU funded project which reached 50 communities across four chiefdoms targeting an average of 20 women, 5 male farmers and 3 community facilitators over a 40-month period.

Ibrahim Fatu Kamara is the Director of Trócaire partner AAD-SL. He says; ‘the water well is now very close to the community. The project not only provided safe drinking water but also established a water management committee to ensure that the facility is properly managed and maintained.

Yeanoh adds,  “The committee also set up and enforce community laws to maintain sanitation such as taking your shoes off before entering the premise of the well’

These programmes have been funded through the EU’s Governance Accountability Under Gender Empowered Development by Civil Society programme – GAUGED CIVIL.