CREATE! field technicians and community volunteers begin by digging a trench next to the garden site.
The short rainy season in Senegal brings heavy downpours that can overwhelm existing drainage systems. After the garden plot in Thieneba suffered flooding after recent rains, cooperative members and CREATE! field technicians collaborated to design and install a drainage ditch. This drainage system protects fragile seedlings from potentially damaging heavy rains.
Volunteers dig the trench so that it drains into an abandoned well.
Cooperative members worked with CREATE! field technicians and a local mason to dig a drainage trench and line it with cement and bricks. The ditch drains into an abandoned well, so that the rainwater replenishes local groundwater supplies. Since the installation of the drainage ditch, recent rains have effectively drained from the garden and into the abandoned well.
Cooperative members assist with construction of the trench.
Volunteers line the ditch with cement.
The completed trench effectively drains flood water from the garden plot.