The Well Project

The Wells Project aims to provide remote communities with access to clean fresh water. In 2011 LOA has funded six wells in Pursat province, in villages where people were previously walking over 2km’s every day to collect water for drinking, cooking and gardening or farming. Often the girls were asked to collect the water because the boys needed to go to school.

During the dry season when dams and rivers were running low, water becomes muddy and family members were regularly becoming sick, with typhoid being the most common ailment. During these times, girls were expected to stay home to care for the sick family members, or to take over the mothers role in the house while she cared for ill siblings. 

The wells were completed in April this year and COCD (the implementing partner) have monitored amazing improvements in girls attendance in the area, and a huge reduction in water transmitted diseases. COCD has also monitored a rise in income in many of the families benefitting from the wells. Home gardens, mushroom and bean farms and other small enterprises have been flourishing with the assistance of a clean, local water source.