Mechanised borehole for Bunuso

Rationale and planning

This is a follow-up project to our completed latrine project in Bunuso, in which we built 101 household latrines for a village of 3600 people that previously had no toilets at all. During the planning for that project, we identified mechanisation of the village’s boreholes as the next priority.

Bunuso has three manual boreholes. Drawing water manually is hard work, and it falls predominantly on women and children. When we discussed mechanisation with the community, a woman called B (pictured) spoke up immediately in favour, saying it was worth the higher water price it would require. Other women in the meeting agreed with her.

Currently the water costs 10 peswas per gallon container. Mechanisation would raise costs somewhat, since electricity charges would need to be covered. During our meeting, a new price of 30 peswas per gallon was suggested and broadly accepted by the community.

What we propose

We will mechanise the three manual boreholes in Bunuso, fitting electric pumps and the associated pipework and overhead storage tanks. This will eliminate the burden of manual water drawing for the community, and make clean water more readily accessible throughout the day.

A community committee will manage the water charges and maintain a fund for repairs and electricity costs, following the same model we have used successfully in other villages.