© 2007 AID AFRICA UK Registered Charity Number 1116336
Water is always a problem in rural Malawi—either the land is eroded and seeds swept away in the torrential annual rains, or the dry season loses the community water supply, placing colossal pressure on the public bore-holes, and dirty, infected rivers and wells.
A broken bore-hole, serving several villages, can be life-threatening - especially where much of the population is already seriously weakened by hunger and disease.
A broken bore-
So what does a repaired bore-hole mean to a woman in the bush?
She has time to care for her family and provide relatively stress-free, clean, pure water. Cooking, hygiene, laundry, and land irrigation are all possible, and she has time for social interaction and community projects.
She has time to care for her family and provide relatively stress-
Women have to walk, often for hours, to find clean water then carry it back on their heads. Sometimes they are charged for water at the neighbouring pump, and congestion there means queues. With so many of their daylight hours focused on gathering water, inevitably their fields are neglected and the harvest affected.
Alternatively, they might choose to collect water from rivers or wells, probably dirty and infected with water-borne disease. Those in our target group—orphans, the elderly, disabled and chronically sick are particularly prone to make this choice through frailty or ill health.
Alternatively, they might choose to collect water from rivers or wells, probably dirty and infected with water-
A broken bore-hole -
eerily quiet and deserted
eerily quiet and deserted
