Calabash tanks across borders !

During the period between January 17 and February 03 2023, a reinforcement training on calebash rainwater harvesting tanks was held in Guinea Bissau. This training brought together mason-trainers from four West African countries: Nigeria, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau and Senegal.

On this occasion, IRHA sent the team that has built most of the calabash tanks in Senegal since 2019 (more than 130!), namely, the coordinator and technician Abdoul Aziz Konaré and the two masons Habib Ndong and Mady Faye.

During this training, the masons were able to perfect, among other things, the formwork system for the foundation slab, the construction of small water tanks for domestic use (hand wash, drinking water dispensary) and the brushing technique after each layer of plaster.

Aziz: "This trip allowed us on the one hand to discover Guinea Bissau, a country rich in culture and with a dense nature; to share respective experiences with masons from other countries like Obina (Nigeria) and Mamadjang (Guinea Conakry) and on the other hand to review the experience of IAGU LIMPO and its very available team of trainers (Guinea Bissau) and Clean Water - Healthy Village (The Netherlands), the two NGOs who organized this training and that have been developing the calabash system for more than 20 years across Africa. "

"A big thank you to the IRHA team for allowing us to make this trip which was our first experience in another country. The work will be continued in the wider Senegal area as water is a source of life. The salinisation of the water table is increasing, families have difficulty accessing drinking water and rainwater remains the main solution.