As a result of new construction and a terrible drought, St. Boniface Hospital began to face a water shortage. With wells running dry and cisterns nearly empty, the hospital’s operations team began trucking water, 3,000 gallons at a time, from two miles away and filling the hospital’s cisterns by hand, bucket by bucket. The addition of a Maternity Center in 2014, a Surgical Center in 2016, and an Infectious Disease Center in 2018 incentivized St. Boniface to complete the long awaited Dugue Water Extension.

On July 4, 2016, with funding from Food for the Poor, Build Health International started working on a permanent solution to the water crisis: building an extension to the pipeline that brings water from nearby Dugue Spring to the town of Fond-des-Blancs, allowing water to flow directly to the hospital. The project started by laying PVC pipe in a trench leading from the hospital cisterns through the town. In the center of town, the team laid pipe beneath the sidewalk, removing cement and re-pouring the sidewalk all at once to avoid disruptions for local residents. After digging a nearly mile-long trench for the new pipeline, the crew reached the main line that brings water from the Dugue Spring into the town. At the tie-in joint, Master Plumber Jack Manderson connected the two lines, and the construction phase was complete. Water now flows directly to St. Boniface Hospital and fills a 12,000 gallon tank.