Rehabilitation of rural piped water relieves community

Water is life and access to potable water is a human right. However, for residents of traditional authorities (T/As) Mwansambo and Mwadzama in Nkhotakota and T/A Kasakula in Ntchisi, access to potable water used to be a far-fetched dream since Mwansambo Rural Piped Water System stopped working in 1997.

Selemani Mangawa, 25, from Kango Village in T/A Mwansambo, says since the water system stopped working, they used to draw water from unprotected sources such as wells where animals also quench their thirst.

“This situation contributed to high prevalence of waterborne diseases in this area,” says Mangawa.

This water system was built in two stages in 1982 and 1987 to provide people in the three T/As with access to safe water through nine water storage tanks and 235 taps.

Due to decentralisation processes, the scheme was handed over to the community but with very little help and no technical know-how on its maintenance. No wonder it eventually collapsed.

As part of fulfilling its mandate to provide safe water and sanitation to Malawians, Water Aid, through its partner Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI), is rehabilitating the scheme with the view of supplying water to 42 000 people in Nkhotakota and Ntchisi by 2016.

PDI executive director James Longwe says the scheme had outlived its lifespan and had fallen into severe disrepair, with all tanks requiring major rehabilitation. Taps were also broken and pipes were leaking.

“This is partly due to lack of community ownership of the scheme as well as lack of capacity within communities and limited local district government support to maintain infrastructure,” says Longwe.

He adds that the system stopped working partly because no one took the responsibility of maintaining the scheme. This is why they have come up with Kanyerere Water Users’ Association (WUA) which will help collect money for maintenance.

“At first, volunteers would take care of the scheme but eventually, they got tired and stopped. This problem has been dealt with by the establishment of WUA which will employ a local utility operator using the contributions which will also be used for maintenance of the scheme,” says Longwe.

Kanyerere WUA board chairperson Joseph Kaunda says the association collects K50 per month from each household using a communal tap, K500 per month from a private tap and K1 000 per month from a person running a commercial tap.

“The contributions are made to avoid reverting to the state of disrepair. Vulnerable households who cannot manage to pay the monthly K50 are allowed to use the water for free,” says Kaunda.

Mwansambo Area Development Committee (ADC) community development assistant Emmanuel Mvula says he sensitises people to own and participate in various projects in line with decentralisation.

The sanitation project has a five-year duration running up to June 2016 and people have already started experiencing change in improved water supply and sanitation.

“The scheme’s coverage area now includes 42 532 people but currently only 7 090 people are accessing safe water from the scheme’s functioning taps,” says Longwe.

Gerald Thauzeni, a health surveillance assistant at Kanjiwa Village Clinic, says he used to treat nine to 10 children having water-borne diseases each working day but the trend has improved since the community adopted good hygienic practices.

Schools have also been reached with improved or ecological-friendly toilets known as ecosan which are crucial for girl education because they make girls stay in school, thereby contributing to girl education.

T/A Mwansambo says the project component of hygiene is important as, among other reasons, it is inclusive and contributes to quality education.

“The project also has various designs of toilets to cater for the needs of a wide range of groups of people, including the blind,” says T/A Mwansambo.

Kalowafumbi Jeremiya, 83, from Kango Village, T/A Mwansambo, is visually impaired and has benefited from the project. He confesses that he was one of the people who used to practise open defaecation due to lack of a toilet.

“I am indebted to PDI for assisting in constructing the toilet which is friendly to a visually impaired people. In the past, I had to cover myself with a blanket and to go in the bush, even in the rain, to relieve myself. I am now safe because to get to the toilet, I just trace a rope which is connected between my hut and the toilet,” says Jeremiya.