Approximately 60% of the people in the northern districts do not have access to clean water and rely exclusively on open wells, lakes and other unprotected sources. The community borehole project is unique in that it concentrates efforts on finding existing damaged water supplies and boreholes, repairing them to restore the water supply to the community. Utilising carbon finance as a long term funding mechanism ensures security for the continuation of the borehole safeguarding the community into the future.
Clean Water for Life
The most basic requirement to sustain life is clean water. In many rural and peri-urban communities across Sub-Saharan Africa the struggle to find clean safe drinking water can take a major part of a families resource. More often than not the burden falls to women and children to collect water often walking a great distance from home. Even then water drawn from pools or rivers is often contaminated with pollutants and potentially lethal bacteria that cause illness and infections. To make the water palatable and safe to drink it needs to be boiled, however lack of education and the cost of fuel wood to do this, can make even these simple precautions prohibitive for the poorest families.
Community boreholes provide a safe, clean source of water for an average of 200 families close to home. The technology behind the approach is not new, but the process is unique. Boreholes are restored to full working order and a program is put in place to maintain the supply for the local community.
Once the borehole is back in operation providing clean water without the need to boil it, the project generates carbon credits. By monitoring the amount of clean water delivered each day as a result of the maintenance project, the fuel saved by not having to boil water to purify it can be calculated.
Social and Sustainability Benefits
The project is contributing to sustainable development:
- providing clean water without the need to boil it or walk for miles
- maintenance by the community
- resulting funds help repeat the process engaging with more communities in need in new areas.
1A HIGHER STANDARD for climate security and sustainable development Gold Standard for the Global Goals is a standard that sets requirements to design projects for maximum positive impact in climate and development — and to measure and report outcomes in the most credible and efficient way.
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