In The Gambia, a small country on the western tip of Africa surrounded by Senegal, is where you will find the village of N’jau. Starting work in 2016, The Gambia project was originally an agricultural project. The community’s garden was being trampled by animals, so they asked for a fence to be installed in the first implementation trip. Our partnership with the community next focused on the need for a significant increase in irrigation capacity, so we designed and have installed a borehole, 12 water taps, and two 5000L water tanks that are filled via solar-powered pumps. Along with the community, we are working with the Women’s Initiative of Gambia (WIG) and local contractors to complete this project. The installation of the irrigation system made their crops so plentiful that we are currently working to build a market space for the community members to sell their produce. We were able to take a team of five to The Gambia in December 2024 to meet with the team and implement our solutions. We tested water quality of our previously installed pumps, as well as did soil testing for the plot of land that we will be building the market on in the future. We are grateful to have such a meaningful connection with the village of N’jau that we are working on our 3rd project with them in our ninth year of a partnership.
What do we do?
The overarching goals of our committee this year is to continue evaluating our previous projects to ensure they are still serving the community and functioning properly, as well as starting work on a new marketspace. The work our chapter has done in N’jau over the last few years has culminated in a successful garden complete with a new irrigation system and water tower. We added more tap heads to the garden and improved the material of the garden’s surrounding fence. As we look forward, the next project intends to further improve the day-to-day lives of the community in N’jau. The market will be an open air community market, and we are helping to design and build the actual structure.
Engineers Without Borders-USA 