Recently a Worldbank blog mentioned the study “The rising tide” indicating that women and girls in Sub Saharan Africa spend 40 billion hours per year on collecting water (Blog Worldbank).

One option to reduce time to collect water is having a well at or near the household. There are technologies that make affordable wells for small communities and households, for example EMAS technologies. In Bolivia over 70.000 household wells of 20 to 50 m deep were drilled commercially at a cost of $200 to $500 (including pump). Other low cost well drilling options are SHIPO (rotary) jetting, and Mzuzu drill and pumps include, EMAS, Rope and small solar pumps, Rainwater storage options include the EMAS underground and wire brick cement tanks. Options for groundwater recharge at the household level include the Tube recharge. For water treatment there is a range of household water filters and Satopans for sanitation.

A hands on training course on these low cost water technologies was held in Malawi in 2021
see also website SMART Centre Group. A similar course will be hosted in Kenya by Aqua Clara in Kenya (https://www.aquaclarakenya.com/) with support and trainers from the EMAS foundation and the SMART Centre Group. Download the course flyer here.

The course will take place from Tuesday 3 May to Saturday 14 May and is targetting Well drillers, welders, masons, technicians, entrepreneurs, others interested in these technologies. The fee for this course is 400 US$ which includes food during the training. Cost of travel and lodging is not included.

Those with interest can send a mail to info@smartcentregroup.com.

Feel free to forward this announcement to anyone who might be interested to join this course.