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A drop in the bucket

September 10th, 2020

Follow the journey we make bringing safe water to people in some of the remotest rural regions in Zambia and Mozambique


Every year, diarrhoeal diseases kill 801,000 young children – more children than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined

Centre for Disease Control and Prevention

Changing lives for good

To-date we have worked in 1737 villages, schools and health centres in Zambia and Mozambique, helping over 500,000 people. See how we do it in our gallery below:

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Across large areas of rural Zambia and Mozambique, water is collected from a variety of unsafe sources.

Rosemary Kapanga collecting her water from a scoop hole

Ms Chipango Njamba, Nolulu village, Zambia. Water is a heavy load to carry and women, who do most of the work, often have to walk miles to bring water to their homes.

But untreated water will contain bacteria causing eye infections and diarrhoea. Additionally the impacts of COVID-19 could be considerably higher for those who don’t have access to safe water.

Some villagers boil their water to kill off bacteria, but collecting wood is yet more work, results in deforestation and adds to the world’s C02 output.

The typical cooking fire might produce about 400 cigarettes’ worth of smoke an hour, and prolonged exposure is associated with respiratory infections, eye damage, heart and lung disease, and lung cancer. *

Kutema village, Zambia. Our partners mostly work in rural and sometimes very remote villages. To-date we have brought safe water to 1737 villages and schools in Zambia and Mozambique.

Village Water partners setup water committees in each village and ask them to agree and commit to hygiene & sanitation trainings, and also to help in maintenance of the waterpoint after completion.

Well construction teams begin work

Chimbua school kids pose beside their new pump

Once the well is completed our partners will conduct a water test to make sure the water is safe.

Village Water partners also support solar powered pumps in schools to supply large water tanks and which in turn provide running water to toilet blocks and taps around the school.

Regina Sepiso from Lui school, Zambia

Mercy Munalula learns how to use a tippy tap

Sanguene school, Zambia. At each village and school our local partners conduct hygiene and sanitation trainings

Muwawa primary school kids eager to learn

Teachers conduct menstrual health training to break down the stigma that stops girls from going to school once they start puberty.

Safe water and better/improved facilities mean healthy kids at school – Chianga school, Mozambique

Girls learning agriculture in Chianga school Mozambique

This is what we do and where we work

Sources:

* National Geographic

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