By Danielle Popkin | Fundraising and Administration Officer
As Pump Aid continues to bring reliable safe water access to rural Malawian communities, we would like to update our generous supporters on the impact of our work. We have been able to bring over 2 million people safe water access thanks to those who have donated over the past 26 years. This year, we have placed our focus on expanding our professionalised repair and maintenance (PRM) services to reach some of the most impoverished districts in central Malawi. Please see a case study of one of our recent success stories below:
Zumwanda Waterpoint
Zumwanda village is in the Area of Senior Chief Mphomwa in Kasungu district. According to the Group Village Headman (GVH), women faced severe safety risks, such as crocodiles, as they went fetching water from Dwangwa River for drinking and other domestic purposes. Women were forced to collect water from the river due to poor installation and lack of repair and maintenance on the village's borehole that was installed 20 years ago.
When installing the borehole, they used short rods, making it a low yielding pump that was overused by a population of close to 1,000 people, against the government’s recommended number of 250 people per waterpoint. The GVH said: “If it were not for Pump Aid, you would have seen long queues day and night at this waterpoint with women filling only 2 pails in an hour, then they wait for the water levels to rise again before another bucket fills up. This forced women to walk long distances to draw water from Dwangwa river where we lost a number of them to crocodile attacks, while others lost their limbs.”
Senior Group Village Headman (SGVH) said in addition to poor installation, engaging bush mechanics and untrained volunteers was the biggest mistake they ever made. “Out of desperation for safe water, we hired volunteers who ended up completely damaging our handpump, making us drink unclean water from unprotected sources. We had several cases of diarrhoea, particularly during the rainy season, but now, that is all history, no queues involved at our borehole, thanks to Pump Aid for professionally rehabilitating our waterpoint.” SGVH said.
The community turned to Pump Aid's social enterprise, Beyond Water, to provide the major rehabilitation of their waterpoint restoring reliable safe water access to the 1,000 waterpoint users. Zumwanda village is now in a Direct Contract with Beyond Water ensuring routine repair and maintenance services and securing a 99.3% pump functionality rate.
A 13-year-old pupil at Lisitu Primary School in Zumwanda village expressed gratitude to Pump Aid for making her education run smoothly after restoring the community waterpoint. “When our waterpoint was non-functional, our hygiene was compromised, we hardly could afford water to bathe or wash our school uniforms with. This increased cases of absenteeism from school, negatively affecting our education. The only alternative source of water, unclean water for that matter is Dwangwa river, which is far from here, moreover we were afraid of being attacked by the vicious crocodiles." She said.
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