FAQs

Founded in 2004, Village Water is committed to helping end the water and sanitation crisis in Africa. Working with district, provincial and national partners in Zambia and Mozambique, we support lasting, local solutions to reach 100% coverage of safe water and sanitation, leaving no one behind.

We work in the Mumbwa and Nalolo Districts, Zambia, and the Báruè District, Mozambique. Through the implementation of the District Wide Plan, we are working towards 100% Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) coverage in these three districts, including:

• Mass hygiene and sanitation promotion through training in hygiene practices like handwashing and safe water storage to prevent waterborne diseases.
• Infrastructure development in villages, schools and health centres, including solar-powered water points, flushable toilets, showers and accessible handwashing stations.
• Centralised training to support girls’ health classes and sanitary pad workshops to boost their school attendance and break harmful stigmas and traditions that stop them from thriving.
• Enterprise development through training and mentoring local masons to build flushable toilets, and Area Pump Minders for long-term pump maintenance.
• District and development planning through ensuring efforts are combined by all stakeholders to tackle water issues, with no duplication of work, to reach 100% coverage in water and sanitation. Read more about our Impact here.

On a trip to Zambia, our founding trustee and civil engineer, David Dixon, saw the desperate need for safe water and sanitation in rural villages. He enlisted his friends and family to start fundraising and Village Water was born.

Since then, we have carefully chosen Mozambique as a second country because the Water, Hygiene and Sanitation (WASH) sector is so undeveloped. We felt that with our small investment, we could make a massive impact. Additionally, Mozambique is accessible from eastern Zambia and the capital Lusaka, enabling a transfer of expertise and skills.

Yes, we work in emergencies. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we adjusted our programmes to help combat spread of the virus. We focussed on hygiene promotion, water point repairs and provision of handwashing facilities with soap, rather than working in new communities. Our support enabled our partners to raise awareness through radio promotions, vehicle mounted loudhailers, small group trainings and posters and leaflets in key areas such as marketplaces and health centres.

We’ve also responded to cholera outbreaks and natural disasters such as cyclones, supporting urgent repairs, hygiene campaigns, and access to safe water when communities need it most.

‘WASH’ is an acronym for water, sanitation and hygiene.

In 2022, 2.2 billion people lacked safely managed drinking water, 3.5 billion people lacked safely managed sanitation, and 2.2 billion people lacked basic handwashing facilities (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals). The global water crisis is the widespread shortage of safe and accessible water.

Zambia and Mozambique have a sub-Saharan climate, with some rural communities living in desert and semi-desert areas. Global warming is exacerbating the problem by decreasing the incidence of rainfall. The availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all is a human right and one of the 17 United Nation’s sustainable development goals, to which we align ourselves.

Healthy families mean healthy communities. Healthy communities access more education, who can then better support themselves and enjoy a higher standard of living. Healthy families need easy access to safe water.

Women and girls traditionally do most of the work collecting water and their time could be better spent on other things. Carrying heavy containers of water long distances every day prevents girls from going to school and causes severe neck and back pain. The walk alone can also be dangerous.

Women are the main carers, they look after sick children, take them to clinics and buy medicine. Safe water reduces the burden on women, by reducing waterborne diseases and infections.

Millions of girls around the world miss school or drop out altogether when they have their periods. In rural areas, access to sanitary towels is extremely limited due to affordability and availability. Cultural taboos can also make it difficult for girls to manage their menstruation with dignity and confidence.

Education among both boys and girls, as well as easy access to safe water and washing facilities, is key to helping girls feel comfortable in school, especially in areas where discussing or admitting the subject is taboo.

Through our Menstrual Health Management programme in schools, older children learn about menstruation, breaking down taboos and misinformation. Girls are also taught how to manage their period through sewing reusable sanitary pads. Through education, harmful misconceptions about menstruation can be challenged and dismantled.

Collecting wood to make a fire is time consuming, contributes to deforestation and adds to the world’s C02 output.

The typical cooking fire used to boil water causes prolonged smoke exposure to families and is associated with respiratory infections, eye damage, heart and lung disease, and lung cancer.

The United Nations Development Programme ranks nations by considering the health, education, income and living conditions in each country. Through this system, Zambia is ranked at 154 and Mozambique at 182, in contrast, the United Kingdom is 13.

This is due to a combination of complex factors including poverty, lack of infrastructure, social inequality, and climate change. Many communities in rural Zambia and Mozambique rely on subsistence farming to make a living, producing just enough food to feed their family but with no income left to invest in anything beyond the very basics.

They do, but it is not safe or sustainable. Water is drawn directly from rivers, or from scoop holes in the ground. Defecation out in the field is common and toilets in some communities amount to just an unhygienic hole in the ground with no nearby facilities for handwashing.

Water from most wells is unfiltered and often a long walk away. Some villagers will boil their water, but this means collecting wood to burn, more work, fewer trees and harmful CO2 fumes that increase global warming.

Many communities are unaware of the links between poor sanitation and hygiene practices, and health risks. That’s why we don’t just provide safe water, but also sanitation and hygiene training.

The distance to a water source will depend on many factors, including climate, geography, land and farm ownership, wealth and size of a community. Poorer communities will find themselves with the least privileged access to safe and clean water, instead using sources that are available to them, such as rivers, streams or digging holes in the ground.

Some natural water sources are unreliable and may dry up. Some are also polluted. Relocating an entire community is a complex undertaking and can be very expensive as many people who live in rural communities rely on agriculture and relocating may affect their livelihoods.

Climate change is significantly impacting water availability, causing water levels to fall so families spend time walking to areas where a scoop hole can be dug. Unnecessary walking distance on a regular basis wastes time, particularly for women and girls who do most of the work.

Since 2004, Village Water has supported nearly 2 million people with Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), but there is still a long way to go. Contaminated water and inadequate sanitation practices cause diseases such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery. Safe WASH is crucial for health, as well as improved livelihoods, school attendance and future opportunities.

While progress has been made, there is still a significant need for improved Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene due to complex factors which hinder development such as insufficient funding, climate change and challenges in sustainability and behaviour change.

Our approach includes long-term monitoring, training for local pump mechanics, promoting local ownership, and co-developing district-wide plans to achieve full WASH coverage. With these foundations in place, every solution we support is built to last.

Whilst it is the duty and responsibility of governments to support their populations, both Mozambique and Zambia are underfunded and under-resourced. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) is often not prioritised as highly as it could be. Although both governments are committed to improving access, international aid cuts, competing health needs, and pressing economic priorities all limit the level of investment currently possible.

Our goal is to work alongside local governments as partners, supporting them to build strong WASH systems and infrastructure on a district-by-district basis. We aim to demonstrate the vital role that equitable, sustainable WASH plays in creating a healthier and more just society.

Ultimately, we want to help establish independent, locally funded systems that continue delivering impact long into the future.

Developing the world’s water and sanitation infrastructure is a formidable worldwide endeavour involving many charities working in different parts of the world.

It makes sense for charities with shared goals in a region to join forces. We align ourselves with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals which bring organisations across the world together to achieve common goals. We know this is the only way to ensure no one is left behind.

We also work in close partnership with other charities, and in particular with our local partners, ECHO in Zambia and WATSAN in Mozambique.

We encourage the communities we work with to pool funding and maintain their water systems long after we have left. Through setting up water committees, made equally of men and women, communities can learn basic pump maintenance as well as encourage continued good hygiene practice.

Our investment provides initial Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) solutions to communities but importantly enables self-sustaining community-led collaboration, with the goal of funding and maintaining their own systems.

Everything we do aspires to long term local solutions. Long term monitoring via follow-up visits from our local partners ensures extra support is available if needed. In our carbon reduction project each borehole is visited yearly and monitored remotely quarterly. Communities are actively involved in every stage of the projects and take ownership and responsibility for the work. Data collection and interviews with community members show us that diseases are reducing, quality of life is improving, and people are really benefiting.

Read more about our Impact here.

No, we do not fund governments, but instead fund local partners to train local service provision teams in order to provide long-term sustainability and enterprise development. We do work closely with local councils to help them plan, monitor, and maximise their impact, ensuring Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services reach everyone and are maintained over time.

We have a rigorous programme of monitoring and data analysis to track trends in long-term health improvements when safe water is freely available and communities can practise improved hygiene behaviour. We also keep detailed impact reports, that include photographs, records and data on everything we do. We monitor all the villages where we have worked and, additionally, report back field stories and news on our website.

We review costings of equipment and resources needed for the projects regularly against current economic indicators and with finance teams in the UK and Africa. All project materials are procured from verified and approved sources, wherever possible, in-country. This supports local economies and ensures consistent quality.

Read more about our Finances here.

We publish our annual report and accounts on our website each year.

Yes, the donation pages of our website are hosted on ‘https’ – an application which protects data securely. When you visit the page asking for card details, the ‘https’ padlock symbol will appear in your web browser’s address bar to indicate that information being entered is secure. Village Water also strictly complies with the General Data Protection Regulation when handling the personal data of beneficiaries, donors, staff and volunteers.

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For cheques, please make payable to ‘Village Water’ and post to:
Village Water
c/o URC Office
Coleham Head
Shrewsbury
SY3 7BJ

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Email: info@villagewater.org

Phone: 01743 241563

Address:
Village Water,
c/o URC Office
Coleham Head
Shrewsbury
SY3 7BJ