Aptech Africa Sierra Leone recently finished the supply and installation of 10 solar water pumping system in 10 communities across the country in a project funded by UNICEF.
Three of the communities had 7.5 Hp systems installed supplying at least 63,000 liters of water a day to service a total of 22,000 people in each community. The additional 7 communities had 5 Hp system installed pumping at least 42,000L of water per day to service around 16,000 people per community. In addition, Aptech installed 35W solar powered street lights in each community for security purposes.
This project was completed in the district of Portloko, Moyamba, Bonthe and Western Rural District in Sierra Leone. The beneficiaries were majorly households (community members), but also community health centers and schools in chosen communities within these districts. These sites were chosen because they were quite heavily populated towns, yet are without clean piped water, especially for school children and community health centers.
During this project, there were issues with the acquisition of land space for PV array structures in two of the communities (Conakry-dee and Goderich communities). In both cases, Aptech took advantage of it’s good relations with the community to engagement with local leaders to ensure the project was completed successfully. Aptech also offered casual labor jobs to community members during the installations.
Thanks to these installations, communities are expected to have improved sanitation through the availability of clean water for cooking and clean water for handwashing. Goderich community has major fishing as economic activity, so the availability of water should support the cleaning and storage processes of commercial fish.
