projects » Water provision

Clean water is essential for life, but one in eight of the world’s population does not have access to it. This, and lack of safe sanitation, result in over two million people dying from water-related diseases every year (Water Aid, 2011).

Water is the single most important component of the elements that form the 4 cornerstones of the Village Foundations ethos. All of the other elements are intrinsically linked to it and without it, all other elements would fail.

Access to clean water was the first priority for the Project in Ndanga and a water borehole was drilled costing approximately £2,200. The well was dug to 48 meters even though water was found at 8 metres. This provided the villages with clean, fresh water which was not salty as is the problem with other wells which are much shallower.

Indeed the borehole which is operating at Ndanga Primary School is not drilled deep enough and is salty to taste.

In 2009, an audit was undertaken by Dayton Nazombe which recorded every person who visited the borehole in one month, identified how far they had travelled, the constituents of each family, and how much water they were taking at each visit. This demonstrated that 1450 families were accessing the water provided by Village Foundations.

This Audit is due to be repeated in the coming months.

During 2010, up to 10 villages – not just Ndanga Village, were accessing the borehole on the Project site because of the quality of its water. Women reported travelling up to 10km per trip, four times per day. Whilst this was a great credit to the Charity, it was putting undue pressure on the mechanisms involved with the pumping of the water.

It was agreed that in order to relieve the stress on the Project borehole that a second borehole nearby in Ndanga village was reactivated. This was welcomed by all the villagers.

There are now two borehole committees in place to monitor the use of each of the Project pumps. The villagers have set up a small Post Office account as they are expected to contribute to the ongoing costs to maintain and repair the boreholes. This will also provide a measure of sustainability to this element of the Project.

Discussion is currently underway to consider using the boreholes to implement an Irrigation system which will ensure that there is year round harvest from the agricultural plot.