Under the Acacias - a blog about the Fulani of Burkina Faso: "The poor and needy search for water..."

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January 17, 2008

"The poor and needy search for water..."

"...I the Lord will answer them..." (Is 41:17)

I am just back from a flying 4-day trip looking at possible well-drilling sites in half a dozen villages around Gorom-Gorom. I was accompanied by Chuck from Friends in Action, a Christian well-drilling ministry working in Burkina Faso, and Steve, from my home church Glenwood, in Cardiff.

As you can imagine, water is a major need in the sahel, and there were many more villages than we could possibly help. So, we were focusing on villages with major needs, where pastors in the area are already working. We visited about six villages, all in real need of good protected water supplies.

Deou was perhaps the most striking need. The town used to have springs flowing years ago, but over the last few years, the pumps in half the town have dried up. People end up walking up to 14km in hot season to find water.

We took apart one of the broken pumps, pulling out the pipes, and checking the underground water levels and flow capacity. Locals came to help us, and others sat by watching. We announced that the following morning we would be pumping out water to check the flow, and told the women to come with their water jugs, which they did by the dozen. An opportunity not to be missed – normally having to walk miles to find water, and then wait ages before your time to pump physically to get it, here was water free and at no effort! Steve’s best efforts to distribute God’s gift fairly were thwarted by the scrum that developed as each person sought and fought for their turn. It was mostly good-natured though, and brought many laughs for all involved.

We hope to be able to return later in the year to drill six wells in these villages, and put pumps there. We are trying to find money for this. Each well/pump will cost about £3000. In addition, we saw many pumps in need of repair, and we would like to help get them working again. If you would like to help finance these, please send money via World Horizons, with a covering letter saying the gift is for wells via the Burkina Faso Sahel Account.