Jonyer Village, West Coast Region, The Gambia

‘Foni Kansala is one of the nine districts of the Gambia’s West Coast Region, which is located to the south of the Gambia River in the southwest of the country. Foni Kansala is in the southeast of the division, between Foni Bintang-Karenai and Foni Bondali. This area of the country is prone to illegal deforestation especially in rosewood. The area is also prone to wildfires and, as a result, this has led to scarcity of fresh drinking water. According to Global Forest Watch reports, in 2010, Foni Kansala District has 29.9ha of tree cover, extending over 0.21% of its land area. In 2009, it lost 75.0mha of tree cover, equivalent to 23.0t of CO2 of emissions. In Foni Kansala District, the peak fire season typically begins in mid-February and lasts around 12 weeks. All these factors have made life harder for the indigenous tribes that live within the district especially when it comes to clean drinking water. Notably the district is dominated by the Jola tribe and a handful of Mandinka tribe.’

Drop4drop In-country Partner

This project was undertaken as part of our campaign of projects that actively reduce carbon emissions. This project helped the community save their much needed wood which was previously being burnt daily to boil water. This project has also eliminated the many thousands of hours previously spent on walking to collect water.