What is a baseline study and why should I be excited?
The last census in the Central African Republic was taken two civil wars and almost 20 years ago. In order to know how many pumps we should install, we need to know how many people actually live in the villages we are serving.
We put a brave team to work counting everyone in our focus region, Mambéré-Kadéï, which is the size of Massachusetts. For 14 months, they ventured one of the poorest countries in the world, gathering data that is vital to our mission.
What is a baseline study and why should I be excited?
The last census in the Central African Republic was taken two civil wars and almost 20 years ago. In order to know how many pumps we should install, we need to know how many people actually live in the villages we are serving.
We put a brave team to work counting everyone in our focus region, Mambéré-Kadéï, which is the size of Massachusetts. For 14 months, they ventured one of the poorest countries in the world, gathering data that is vital to our mission.
Prior to Water for Good conducting our baseline survey, there existed no accurate up-to-date census for Mambéré-Kadéï. We quickly realized that we couldn’t hope to serve a population whose size, diversity, and density was to some degree unknown. So we got to work.
– Rich Klopp, CEO
Prior to Water for Good conducting our baseline survey, there existed no accurate up-to-date census for Mambéré-Kadéï. We quickly realized that we couldn’t hope to serve a population whose size, diversity, and density was to some degree unknown. So we got to work.
– Rich Klopp, CEO
Results
As the baseline team collected the information, we realized there were 100,000 more people living in these villages than the official estimate. We also found that only seven percent of the people in Mambéré-Kadéï had adequate access to clean water. This means there are more wells that need drilled and even more lives that need saved than we originally anticipated.
The good news is that with these additional wells, we are confident that adequate water access will be available for generations to come.
