Farewell to pangs of diarrhoea infections

Some 67 households in Malawi have been fetching water from the only well that could keep water through summer.

Despite water being unsafe for consumption, children like the nine-year-old Madalitso could miss classes due to water woes.

Madalitso and several other children in the community had to wake up early, and walk about a kilometre, to fetch water before leaving for school. Sometimes, due to long queues at the well, Madalitso could go to school late.

“Because of congestion at the well, I could go to school late, and this affected my performance so much as I could scoop position 30, 40 or so,” explains Madalitso.

However, Madalitso can now afford a smile as just a few yards from her house, World Vision has drilled a borehole. Today, she no longer has to cover close to a kilometer to fetch water infested with diarrhea-inducing germs.

With the borehole in sight from the house, Madalitso can fetch water anytime and go to school on time. Several children in the village have benefited from this borehole.

Madalitso who is now transitioning to grade five soon has also had an improved performance at school. She attributes her improvement to the clean and potable water she is now able to fetch within a stone-throw distance from her house.

“Today I am so happy that World Vision came to reduce our water misery. My life is now so well that I rarely suffer from diarrhea as before because of the clean water from the borehole. Besides that, my school performance has also greatly improved as just last term I scooped position seven, so I am really happy and grateful to World Vision,” says Madalitso, the aspiring nurse.

Mushani now chairs the borehole committee in the community. He has mobilised his fellow villagers to erect a fence around the borehole premises to keep livestock away from the water point.

Mushani says the borehole has also helped families concentrate on other household chores than before as women spent much time fetching water due to congestion and distance at the well.

“We are so grateful as a village. Before this borehole, our women took more hours fetching water at the well, as such much of farm work had to be done by men as women fetched water for domestic use, and as such we could not do much. But with this borehole, we are happy as husbands and wives can now work together on the farm to produce food for the family,” he says.

So far Hammer Mushani has collected over Mk 165,000 ($98) from the households to help with maintenance costs in case the borehole breaks down. To increase the coffers, Mushani and his committee contemplate investing the contributions in farming so that they should have more money by the next harvest.