Promotion of manual drilling in Guinea

In the last decade UNICEF has supported manual drilling in several countries as a possible low cost and sustainable strategy to increase adequate water supply for the population. In partnership with local authorities and other stakeholders, UNICEF has implemented different activities to ensure high professional level in manual drilling: mapping of suitable zones, capacity building in construction of drilling tools and application of different drilling techniques, good practice in manual drilling, organization management. In Guinea manual drilling was unknown before 2011; at that time the joint program of SNAPE (National Water Authority) and UNICEF aiming to create an efficient manual drilling sector started, and after 3 years Guinea can be considered one of the most positive example of implementation of this program

Identification of suitable zones for manual drilling using borehole data, thematic maps and remote sensing

Manual drilling is a possible option to increase access to safe water with low cost techniques, but it can be applied only where hydrogeological conditions are suitable. To improve the method to produce maps of suitable zones for manual drilling, a research project has been carried out in Senegal and Guinea. The main objective is to elaborate a new method of interpretation of hydrogeological data and integrate indirect environmental information obtained from public data, available all over the world. The final results are more reliable and detailed maps to support manual drilling implementation, as well specific tools and method to process water point data. This paper presents the results obtained in Senegal and suggests some recommendations for future application