Sponsor a Well in Africa

Sponsor a Village Well or School Washroom!

The average cost to sponsor a well in Africa, build a communal washroom and provide health & hygiene training for schools, villages and orphanages are listed below. If you would like to sponsor a well or other project but can not afford to do so by yourself, we will match you with another donor as co-sponsors. We encourage you to work with your co-workers, school, extended family, local church, friends and neighbours or organize a community fund-raising drive to help reach one of the following sponsorship levels:

Sponsor a Well or Washroom in LIBERIA and HAITI
Activity	Sole Sponsor ($USD)	Co-Sponsor ($USD)
Drill a well	$3,000	$1,600
Sponsor a Communal Washroom	$1,200
Rehabilitate a Well & Repair Broken Pumps	$1,100
Sponsor a Health & Hygiene Workshop	$500
Provide a community with all essential services (well, washroom & workshop)	$4,200	$2,200
Notes: Costs are in $US Dollars. The costs listed above are average costs for community cluster projects where project sites are selected by local lifewater workers. Local villagers actively participate in the work, usually contributing $200 to $500 towards each project through cash payments, supplies, labour and services. *If you want a well or communal washroom to be built in a community of your choosing, see below for pricing notes.*

Sponsor a Well or Washroom in NIGERIA, KENYA and ZAMBIA
Activity	Nigeria ($USD)	Kenya ($USD)	Zambia ($USD)
Drill a well	$3,500	$3,600	$5,600
Build a washroom	$2,500	$3,500	Not Available
Provide all essential services (well & washroom)	$6,000	$7,000	Not Available
Notes: Costs are in $US Dollars. Average project costs in Zambia, Kenya and Nigeria are higher than in Liberia and Haiti due to differing construction requirements, government inspection and permitting expenses, cost of local materials, project clustering efficiencies, lower pump subsidies etc Costs in Zambia are significantly below local commercial rates, but are higher than in other countries because: It is a land locked country so it is very expensive to import equipment and parts for our rigs and other equipment; We usually have to drill 40-70 meters to obtain a clean water source; The standard rig used by most organizations in other countries do not work in Zambia. We work in the Copperbelt region of Zambia and our rigs drill through the granite plates and other hard rock types there. This also means we have a higher percentage of breakage on our rigs which makes them very costly to maintain; Cost for employees is higher due to government required workers compensation and other fees that have to be paid on each employee/trainer plus wages. Costs listed above are the average costs for community cluster projects where project sites have been selected by local lifewater workers. Villagers actively participate in the work, contributing local funds, labour, materials and services. *If you want a well or communal washroom to be built in a community of your choosing, see below for pricing notes.*

Details on sponsorship activities are provided below:

Drill a Well: This gift includes a borehole, casing and screen, a cement pad and BUSH hand pump. Your gift will have lasting benefits as it provides an average of 500 people with a nearby supply of clean, safe water. No down payment is required and you will be matched with a recent project that has been successfully completed.
Build a Washroom: With your support, we are building communal washrooms at schools and teaching villagers to build family latrines near their home. Stop the spread of disease at its source, protect children from jungle predators and keep children from drowning as they defecate in the ocean.
Fix an Existing Well and Handpump: Rehabilitating an existing water system is the fastest, cheapest way of providing safe water to a community. You know that there is enough water and the people are used to getting the water from there. Your gift will create safe water by providing a new handpump, a sanitary cement seal and cement pad. The repaired well will be disinfected and tested to ensure the people have safe water!
Sponsor a Health & Hygiene Workshop: Provide women with skills and training they need to help keep their families healthy. They are taught things such as how to keep drinking water safe, how to build hand wash stations and how to provide critical first aid to young children who are suffering from running stomach.
Provide a Community with Essential Water & Sanitation Services: Help us build the foundation to build a nation by giving returning refugees the basic necessities they need to rebuild destroyed villages. By providing a well and washroom facilities, you stop the spread of diseases that quickly claim the lives of young babies and village elders.

Directed Donations
Project Completion in a Liberian Community of your choosing

If you wish to sponsor a project at a specific location (such as a school that your group has adopted), we ask that you cover 100% of the project costs. Fees for directed projects somewhat higher than those listed above depending on how far the workers have to travel to get to the area, the condition of the roads, degree of community involvement, drilling conditions, borehole depth etc. There is also decreased efficiency when the team has to break from their scheduled work with community clusters in order to carry-out a donor directed project. Directed project costs are based on cost-recovery for the local teams and are typically as follows:

Activity	Cost ($USD)
Project Initiation & Community Education Fee	$500
Non-Refundable Zone Based Mobilization Charge (see map below)	$400 - $800
Non-Refundable Project Deposit	$500
Additional Well Construction Charges
Drilling Completion Payment	$1,700
Per Foot Additional (beyond 50 ft)<	$30/ft
Handpump Installation (includes cement pad)	$800
Additional Latrine Completion Charge	$1,000

Directed projects follow the steps outlined below:

Directed projects are only available in Liberia. Look at the map below to determine if your project location is within one of the zones currently serviced by our in-country teams.
If it is, lifewater.ca requires a $500 USD project initiation fee along with local contact name(s) and phone numbers (and email where available) before starting the project. This fee covers the cost of the Lifewater team working with Community Leaders to organize a site visit, travelling to the site and assessing drilling conditions and/or options for constructing communal washroom(s), and holding a community health & hygiene workshop.
After this work has been done, if it is determined that there is a good chance of successfully drilling a well or building the communal washroom, a non-refundable payment should be sent to lifewater.ca ($500 drilling deposit plus a $400 to $800 zone-based mobilization fee). This payment covers the cost of community mobilization meetings, equipment mobilization and up to two (2) attempts to construct a borehole or one (1) attempt to dig and line a washroom vault.
Once your non-refundable deposit has been received, your community is added to list of pending projects. Depending on previously confirmed local committments and whether it is rainy season, it can take several months for the project to start.
You are encouraged to work directly with your in-country representatives to have the community provide as much support for this project as possible (financial, materials, labour). Local participation in the project leads to community ownership and long-term maintenance of the completed well and/or washroom. Reductions in the final project price should be negotiated with lifewater.ca prior to work being commenced.
The drilling completion fee covers all borehole, well casing, well screen, centralizers and other expenses associated with completing a well up to a maximum of 50 feet. Drilling beyond this depth will be billed at a rate of $30/foot. These fees are only charged if the well is succesfully completed.
For well projects, a handpump and cement pad will be installed if adequate quantities of safe water are found (typically 2 GPM or greater). The pump installation fee includes completion of well development, disinfection, and training of Community Caretaker and Pump Repair Technician.
The balance of the project cost should be paid once documentation demonstrating project completion have been received.

Other Sponsorship Needs

$25,000: Provide a new Drill Rig: Supply a hard-working team with a new LS-200 mud rotary drill rig. After several years of continuous service drilling safe water supplies, these small drill rigs wear-out and need to be replaced. A very worth-while investment since one machine can drill approximately 100 safe water wells before it needs to be replaced. Without this machine, the National drill teams can not provide safe water for their families, their neighbours and nearby villages.
$15,000: Provide a used Pick-up Truck: One of the main logistical problems in developing countries is transportation. Trucks are constantly loaded to the limit and need to be driven in extreme heat and over very rough roads. Without reliable transport, the safe water drilling program grinds to a halt. Your donation will purchase a used but sturdy Toyota 4-W Drive pick-up truck to transport all their drilling equipment and supplies to the villages in need of safe drinking water.
$4,000: Provide required training: Equipment, trucks and supplies alone do not provide safe drinking water. Local people need hands-on training and support from knowledgeable volunteers to effectively drill boreholes, complete wells and build handpumps. A Liberian bishop helped dedicate the first well drilled by Lifewater in Liberia by saying "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.... Teach him to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." Help empower local people by supporting volunteers who travel overseas using their vacation time to provide required training and teaching.