Water stations in Chad – significant progress

September 2018 Chad

Tomorrow Foundation continues to support the construction of water stations in Chad and research in that field through the initiatives of the CRIPT (Centre de Recherche d’Innovation et de Production Technologique).

Chad has critical needs of drinking water and water supply to develop agriculture and breeding. Whether in desert areas or around lake Chad whose surface decreased from 25000 square kilometers to 4800 square kilometers during the last 50 years due to climate change, serious mismanagement and lack of regulation, access to water has become more and more difficult.

Hence a vast construction program of wells has been launched in 2016. Well drilling is done in an area distant from approximatively 600 km from the capital. Water pumps are produced locally and are delivered to the site to be installed and collect water at a depth which could reach 150m. One well can supply 10 to 15 villages and it takes 10 months to drill 15 wells. To ensure proper monitoring, maintenance and control, remote technologies are also used to collect technical data from each pump and analyse it in a central remote control centre.

The program significantly progressed these last months and Tomorrow Foundation is very pleased to see that 15 water pumps will be running by end of September 2018, improving living conditions of about 80 000 people. Thus without using excessive means, the program has a maximum social impact. It has also a role of soft barrier against terrorism as explained in a detailed previous research issued by the Foundation: by providing a resource essential to survive and to have an income, the wells will significantly decrease the risk that suffering populations will join criminal organizations.