RE:ACT sends team to Sierra Leone to provide water purification training
Posted by Ben Cook 18th February 2022 News
Estimated Reading Time: 1 min
RE:ACT is deploying a two-person team to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to provide training on how to use six water purification systems that will give local communities access to clean drinking water.
Departing on 18 February, Paul Taylor, RE:ACT International Operations Manager, and Keith Stone, RE:ACT International Responder, will provide training to staff of Concern Worldwide, as part of a joint project which also includes Freetown City Council.
The water purification systems are destined for Kroo Bay, an informal settlement in Freetown, and will produce 114 litres per minute of clean drinking water for over 9,000 local people.
Sierra Leone is one of the world's poorest countries and experiences the most annual rainfall of any African country. Informal settlements such as Kroo Bay are particularly vulnerable to flash floods and landslides, which pollute drinking water and risk spreading severe illness.
The project first started in 2019, after RE:ACT sent a team to Sierra Leone to help strengthen local capacity in the wake of torrential rain and landslides. The project was put on hold during the height of the Covid pandemic, but can now be safely resumed. It will be the first time in over two years that RE:ACT has deployed internationally.
Paul Taylor, RE:ACT International Operations Manager, said:
“We are delighted to be heading back out to Sierra Leone to complete this project and fulfil our promise to assist the local community. Once we have delivered this training we will leave community responders in Freetown with a capability that will give coastal settlements access to clean water during the rainy season, which are increasing in frequency as a result of our changing climate. I, like others in RE:ACT, have spent a great deal of time in Sierra Leone, and it is a place close to our hearts.”
Our thanks to our partners at Concern Worldwide, Freetown City Council, The Waterloo Foundation, Airlink, Brussels Airlines, NOAH Waters Systems, Garmin, Inmarsat, MSR, 511, and Aku, for making this possible.