The global community is racing to slow down and eventually halt the spread of COVID-19, a pandemic that has claimed over half a million of lives and sickened 12.5 million people. In Africa, the virus has spread to dozens of countries. Governments and health authorities across the continent are striving to limit widespread infections. As of July 13th, 2020, The Gambia has reported 64 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with Senegal (The Gambia’s only immediate neighbour) recording 7,882 cases.
A state of public emergency was declared, amid intensified control measures against the deadly virus. The proclamation ordered the closure of non-essential commodity shops, bars, cafés, casinos, sporting venues, and a freeze on all forms of public gatherings, including in schools, in a bid to stop the spread of the virus. This also includes local community weekly markets (Lumos) and scaling down of transport systems.
As a respected and experienced NGO in The Gambia, United Purpose (UP) instituted a COVID-19 taskforce that coordinated and supported projects to implement activities while following the health guidelines.
A local technician and youths in the community conduction the repair wearing protective gear.
Key among these activities was the implementation of the CO2balance project that aims to support the repair of 80 wells across the country. Given that the COVID-19 transmission risk is reduced through effective hygiene and hand washing, UP felt it was necessary to continue providing WASH support to the vulnerable communities that lack proper WASH facilities since proper hand washing requires the use of clean water.
During the repair work, local technicians were provided with protective equipment like face masks and gloves. They also used sanitisers to thoroughly disinfect the surfaces of the materials and wells, and their surroundings after conducting the repair and before leaving the work site.
To make sure the water was still safe for drinking, the Department of Water Resources of The Gambia was contracted to conduct water quality tests and chlorination in all 80 of the repaired wells. They also advised the communities against practicing behaviours that would increase the risk of water contamination.
Picture of a repaired well being used by the community of Jamwaly in CRR, respecting social distancing guidelines.
UP formed and strengthened the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) committees to manage the use of the facilities. The committee and their communities were instructed on how to maintain the water points, but to also respect and maintain social distancing guidelines when they converge to fetch water at the well.
Fanta Kinteh, who lives with her four children in Brikama Ba (Central River Region), has expressed how the repair of the well in her village has restored and improved her family’s access to safe water:
A happy Fanta Kinteh fetching water from the repaired well.
“We used to travel 700 meters to the nearest village to fetch water. This has taken most of my time, thereby limiting my time to effectively conduct other domestic and livelihood activities. With the COVID-19 pandemic, we have enough and reliable safe water supply to effectively wash our hands. Thanks to the project, my family and I are safe from the virus!”
Ablie Njado from the Sankwia village in the LRR acknowledged how the repair of his community well has increased their response capacities to COVID-19:
“The radio’s people have been talking to us about hand washing to prevent us from [catching] the disease. But we could not do proper hand washing because we did not even have enough water to drink and cook our meals. Then thanks to the project, we are now able [to] wash our hands all the time. We can also do the minor repair work, even without the support of the technician, which reduces the risk of COVID-19 transmission.”
Our partnership with CO2balance
CO2balance is an ethical carbon project developer. UP has been working with them since 2013 to realise carbon finance. Carbon finance is an innovative business-based way to generate funds for clean water supplies. We have shown it can provide sufficient revenue to maintain rural water points in working order for at least five years. This is under a Gold Standard certified scheme. As the carbon finance depends upon the continued operation of the water points, it acts as an incentive to communities to 1) deal with minor problems, and 2) report major breakdowns promptly. While the prospect of steady business has stimulated the stocking of fast-wearing parts by local stores, and can support maintenance technician
small enterprises.
After successfully pioneering this approach in Malawi, this is our first such project together in The Gambia. If it is effective, we aim to extend its coverage to repair and sustain more water points - ultimately across the whole country.
Co2balance said:
‘We were excited to begin this project in the Gambia with UP to implement our work in a new country to provide safe water to as many people as we can. After visiting the country in September 2019 for the Local Stakeholder Consultation and visiting some communities, we saw first-hand the extreme need for safe drinking water. All of our projects are certified by the Gold Standard, who not only verify reductions in carbon emissions, but also contributions to at least three of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The benefits of our projects will thus be life changing for the communities in the project area.
We are thankful to the UP Gambian team for their support and initiative to quickly develop measures and
strategies that allowed the project activities to continue during the pandemics breakout whilst the country was in lockdown. This was not only to keep the project on track, but because the activities help prevent the spread of COVID-19 to those most vulnerable. It is a time of our lives where the importance of safe water and good hygiene and sanitation is saving more lives in the face of the pandemic – it soon became essential to ensure the project progressed and the remote communities were reached safely so they too could have their boreholes rehabilitated and gain the benefits that the trainings deliver. We are pleased that together we have rehabilitated all 80 boreholes on target despite the lockdown restrictions’.
Read more about our Carbon Initiative here