CREATE! Country Representative Omar Ndiaye Seck explained the design, use, and benefits of the solar water heater to the rapt and attentive crowd.
Thanks to creativity, innovation, and appropriate technology, a health center in Gagnick Mack, Senegal now has access to hot water!
No one in attendance, including CREATE!’s Senegalese staff, has ever seen or heard of such a simple solar heating system – no pumps, no electricity, no moving parts, and constructed with local materials.
During his recent visit to the field, CREATE! Executive Director Barry Wheeler trained the CREATE! field technicians in solar water heater design and functionality, including details about how this appropriate technology works to heat water. Following this training, the CREATE! field team installed the solar water heater at the health center in our partner community of Gagnick Mack in Senegal. Residents of both Gagnick Mack and Walo, in addition to 50 local school children, attended the installation.
Sunlight heats water circulating within the system. Hot water is then stored until needed in an insulated barrel.
The solar water heater is now providing hot water to the nurse midwife and health worker employed at the health center! This new, appropriate technology will help the midwife safely bring many happy and healthy babies into the world!
The completed solar water heater will help health workers sterilize equipment and keep the health center clean.