Laos Villages
Water Project

When the possibility of building a new school in Ban Faen was discussed with the village elders, they decided that the school was more important than anything else because it was crucial to the future of the children. Very close behind it however was the wish to have a supply of clean water. Until then, the women of the village had to walk down to the river 2km away to wash clothes and fetch water, which was difficult in the rainy season with the paths covered in mud and also unhygienic.

 

Buoyed on by the success of the school project, we investigated the possibility of bringing water to the village. The idea was not to have water supplies to each house, just standpipes in the village. It soon became clear that pumping the water all this way (using diesel pumps) could help other nearby villages with little extra cost, so the project was designed to bring water to 3 villages.

 

The project took several months and was completed in 2008, and all three villages now have a good supply of fresh, clean water.