Clean Water

Like many countries of West Africa, Togo remains unable to provide improved water access to the majority of its 2.5 million people living in rural areas. Many rural women must walk further than 15 minutes from their homes 4-6 times per day to collect drinking water from polluted surface water sources to the transport and storage, or from non-protected boreholes.

The surface water sources are shared with animals and are both highly turbid (many suspended particles) and contaminated with fecal coli form. Such contamination creates numerous risks for public health, particularly high incidence of diarrheal disease in children under 5 which is the third leading cause of death world-wide and is responsible for 1/4 of the stunted growth of the surviving children in the developing world. Water purification techniques used in high-income nations are neither economically nor technically feasible in developing countries. As a result,there is a critical need for inexpensive, appropriate water purification methods. Light in the World Development Foundations' (LWDF) mission is to improve the well-being of needy Togolese women and children by seeking to alleviate the basic need for clean and safe water as well as a sanitary environment for Togolese women and children

It is typically the women and children who have the responsibility of “harvesting” enough water to meet their family’s needs. If they are lucky, they have access to a nearby community water pump. Unfortunately, pumps in general have a chronic break-down rate with repairs hard to come by due to unavailability of parts and/or knowledge of repair.

Many villages in Togo have a well which can be a social gathering place too, but in dry season (5-8 months per year), they are often dry or murky and can become easily contaminated (see picture). The water trickles, but those who are patient can hopefully collect good clean drinking water as the spring slowly bubbles up. They walk miles from home to find water. The source of water is the traditional wells which are not protected and cause diseases. Sometimes they drink surface water from stream and lakes, the least likely to be safe and clean(see picture in the left). Light in the World Development Foundation (LWDF) goal is to promote health. Clean water is necessary to promote health. Therefore, LWDF plans to provide at least 5 wells with clean water by the end of 2015.