Water is Essential for Development

Center
for Renewable Energy and
Appropriate Technology for the Environment
132 East Broadway
Suite 416
Eugene, OR 97401
NEWSLETTER
Fall 2015
“Water is Essential for Development”
A crowd of residents gathered in Darou Diadji
in July to help install the solar-powered pumping
system at the garden site’s newly rehabilitated well.
As the pump started up and brought water 200
feet to the surface from a well that had been unusable for 20 years, community members rejoiced!
CREATE!’s Senegal Country Representative Omar
Ndiaye Seck, who oversaw the solar pumping
system installation, says of the occasion: “This
moment will mark CREATE! field staff forever.
Water is a sovereign source of wealth, a source
of life, and an essential engine of development.
Without water, development for Senegal is not
possible. CREATE!’s intervention to ensure access
to abundant water through renewable energy will
now allow community members to grow bountiful crops throughout the year.”
Women from each of CREATE!’s partner communities appreciate that they now have easy access
to abundant, clean water. Ndeye Diop, 29, lives in
Thanks to rehabilitated wells and solar pumping systems, CREATE!
communities now have access to clean, affordable water.
Walo with her two children. With a new solar powered water pumping
system, village women like Ndeye no longer need to suffer the burden
of drawing water by hand from the well. Thanks to CREATE!, Ndeye
adds, “hope is reborn in our village.” She is thrilled that she can now
learn to grow her own vegetables throughout the year.
CREATE! Programs Provide Access to Water
“Water is life.” This is true everywhere, and especially
true in Senegal, where the annual dry season is nine
months long. Throughout West Africa, unpredictable
weather and drought stemming from climate change
restrict water availability. Through our programs,
CREATE! strives to expand access to water and fight
desertification, which further limits water access for
rural communities. Without an affordable and reliable source of water, year-round vegetable cultivation is impossible for these villages.
Wells across rural Senegal stand abandoned. Extended drought and high demand deplete local water
tables, rendering some wells unusable. In coastal
communities, rising tides inundate wells with salty
water. Water from the commercial well system is
expensive, chemically treated, and often too salty to
drink or use to irrigate crops. In the absence of reliable wells, many families in rural Senegal either use
commercial water or walk long distances to collect
water from streams or other sources.
www.createaction.org
CREATE! staff and community members worked together to rehabilitate
Darou Diadji’s well, which stood abandoned for more than 20 years.
Helping communities access abundant, clean water is an essential
component of CREATE! programs in Senegal. Our field technicians work
with local well diggers and community volunteers to complete necessary
improvements to existing village wells or to dig new wells. Traditional
continued on page 2
Access to Water, cont.
Each of CREATE!’s solar pumping systems pumps an average of
2,000 gallons of water per day from as much as 200 feet below
ground to an elevated reservoir.
Gravity fed networks of above ground basins
distribute water from the reservoirs throughout
the cooperative garden sites.
ingenuity of our staff helps strengthen the sustainability
and self-sufficiency of CREATE! programs in Senegal.
Members of the agricultural cooperatives in these
communities now have access to clean water and can
begin vegetable cultivation! Cooperative members in
all of our communities are now able to grow nutritious
fruits and vegetables for their households and sell the
produce in local markets, providing a much-needed
source of household income in a region of Senegal
where economic opportunities for women are almost
nonexistent.
CREATE! Field Staff inspect young trees in one of CREATE’s tree
nurseries. Darou Diadji village chief Mbaye Gueye says, “Trees are
needed to bring back the rain that is becoming increasingly rare”.
well diggers, working without heavy machinery or fossil fuels, are able
to reach water at depths of over 150 feet!
CREATE! field technicians work with community members to install
solar-powered pumping systems in the improved wells. Each pump
provides thousands of gallons of water each day, which a gravity-fed
irrigation system transfers to basins located in the garden site. Even in
cloudy weather, the solar pump can bring water to the surface at a rate
of 40 liters per minute!
Most recently, CREATE! field technicians installed solar water pumps
and gravity-fed irrigation systems at new cooperative garden sites in
Walo and Darou Diadji. These installations mark the first time that our
technicians were also able to source all necessary materials, including
solar panels, well pumps, and customized installation equipment, from
distributors and artisans located in Senegal. The local knowledge and
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CREATE! also works to address the root causes of
water scarcity in rural Senegal. CREATE!’s reforestation programs stabilize local water tables and combat
the spread of desertification in this region. CREATE!
field technicians work with cooperative members to
establish tree nurseries in garden sites and transplant
tree seedlings during the short rainy season. This year,
participants are planting almost 19,000 tree seedlings
in garden sites, near schools and mosques, and within
the yards of family homes. Participants also learn how
to properly care for tree seedlings. Trees provide shade,
moderate temperatures, produce fruit and nuts, and
stabilize soils in the garden sites. Maturing trees in our
partner communities serve as windbreaks and living
fences, moderating local temperatures and providing
refreshing shade. Planting trees also slows the spread of
desertification in these villages.
Our beneficiaries draw clear connections between
climate change, desertification, and limited water
resources in their villages. By providing access to
water and training in reforestation practices, CREATE!
ensures that our partner communities have the tools
they need to work towards economic empowerment
and self-sufficiency, even as they bear the burdens of
climate change and desertification.
www.createaction.org
Letter from the Director
Dear Friends,
During my most recent trip to Senegal, I discussed with our field staff CREATE!’s
philosophy of self-development and sustainability:
• vibrant and voluntary local participation
• social mobilization
• building the capacity of villagers to address unmet needs in their community
through skills training, education, and practical application
• responding to felt needs with techniques, technologies, and strategies that
are low-cost, accessible, and that can be easily replicated
CREATE! Country Representative Omar
Ndiaye Seck explains the design, use and
benefits of the solar water heater to a rapt
and attentive crowd in Gagnick Mack.
Under the leadership of our Country Representative, Omar Ndiaye Seck,
CREATE! field technicians integrate these tenets into their work, dramatically
improving water provision, local food production, energy conservation and
renewable energy, and income generation in our partner communities.
Looking for further ways in which CREATE! could help in rural Senegal, I asked
our field technicians if they were aware of other felt needs expressed by the
communities. Almost everyone responded that hot water is a felt need and would
be very welcome, especially at village health posts and maternity centers.
When I visited the health post that serves the communities of Walo and Gagnick
Mack, I met Ndam Diouf, the matron who delivers babies and conducts medical exams. Ndam told us that the health post often goes without hot water for
exams and births because they cannot afford butane for their small gas stove.
Utilizing the principles of passive solar energy, I worked with our Senegal field
team to engineer an appropriatate technology solution to this problem. Together,
we designed a solar water heater that requires no pumps, no electricity, no
moving parts, costs about $200, and can be built using only locally available
materials. This novel approach to producing hot water is easy to build and replicate, and will last many years.
The entire community of Gagnick Mack
worked together with CREATE! field
technicians to build and install the solar
water heater at the village health post.
With residents of Walo and Gagnick Mack in attendance (including 50 school
children), our staff took turns explaining the solar water heater design, principles,
and functionality. The CREATE! field team, with community participation, then
built and installed the solar water heater at the health post. When the installation
was complete and we tested it to ensure that it worked as designed (it does!), there
was great laughter, joy, and dancing! The health post will no longer need to rely
on expensive butane to heat water — only free energy from the sun.
For CREATE!, it is just as important to build the capacity of our field technicians
and empower them to effect change as it is to empower our partner communities. Ongoing technical training and a collaborative approach to problem solving
are vital and distinctive components of our program.
Our successful water and solar projects would not be possible without your
generous support. We are grateful for your ongoing commitment to these
communities. As always I look forward to hearing your comments, questions,
and suggestions.
Best regards,
Omar Seck and CREATE! field staff check
the water temperature in the storage tank
during the construction process.
www.createaction.org
Barry R. Wheeler, Executive Director
[email protected]
P.S. Interested in learning more about the passive solar hot water system? Visit
http://createaction.org/resources.php to download a detailed construction guide.
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Meet Moussa Ndiaye —
CREATE! Field Technician in Walo and Gagnick Mack
As agricultural technician for CREATE!’s new partner villages of Walo and Gagnick
Mack, Moussa Ndiaye helps community members to organize self-managing cooperative groups, plan and prepare their garden sites, and put in place a work schedule that will enable their gardens to flourish. Moussa trains cooperative members in
sustainable vegetable cultivation, improved cookstove construction, tree planting,
Voluntary Savings and Lending Association (VSLA) techniques, cooperative group
management, and other essential skills, all while reinforcing CREATE!’s principles
of community participation and local empowerment.
Moussa Ndiaye, CREATE! Field Technician
in Walo and Gagnick Mack, shares,
“Working with CREATE! has helped me
better discover my own abilities and
use them in the service of rural
populations.”
Moussa appreciates the opportunity to contribute to the economic development of
rural communities. He says, “Thanks to my work with CREATE!, I have discovered
that it is indeed possible to develop rural areas without large sums of money. It is
just a matter of finding the potential in a community and encouraging development
using means that are accessible to everyone. Working with CREATE! has helped me
better discover my own abilities and use them in the service of rural populations.”
Moussa studied chemistry at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar and holds a
certificate as a Senior Agriculture Technician from Emile Badiane de Bignona Agricultural Technical School. In his free time, Moussa likes to participate in sports,
take care of animals, watch soccer, and listen to Senegalese rap.
Water by the Numbers
358 million people in Africa
do not have access to clean water.
Nearly 10,000 people in rural Senegal now have access
to clean, affordable water thanks to CREATE! water projects.
The rainy season in Senegal lasts between
two and five months.
Senegal experiences about 37 rainy days annually,
all of which occur during the short rainy season.
The average annual rainfall in Senegal is 22 inches.
With access to affordable water, cooperative members in
CREATE! communities can now grow vegetables
12 months of the year.
This newsletter in printed on paper with 24% post consumer waste content. CREATE! is a nonprofit tax exempt organization with 501(c)3 status, #26-1535453.
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www.createaction.org