Zambia: The Group Villages in Mchinji under the leadership of Head Wirima received access to tapped water for the first time. The people of the village located in Traditional Authority Gumba in the remote part of Mchinji District are delighted with the new development.
The provision of clean tapped water will help in giving the people of the nation remain safe from diseases. Due to lack of potable water, the people in the village often relied on unsafe means to get access to water for their daily needs.
Some of these sources include the water boreholes and shallow wells, of which, both are unsafe and unhygienic. The use of water from such sources can lead to people contracting waterborne diseases very frequently.
The members of the community are delighted by the new development that the administration is taking up, on their behalf. Source of Life Children Foundation handed over a solar-powered water system to the village on Tuesday.
The donation will help them inn getting access to safer and more hygienic water sources. The country representative of Life Children, Innocent Semu said they thought of going to the area because people have never enjoyed potable water for a long time.
“Finding safe water has been a challenge for the people over the past 50 years here and they were forced to get water from wells where they shared the water with animals.
“Today we have brought safe tapped water to the village and this is a convenient process for them,” said Semu.
Stella Grey, comes from the village that received the donation said she used to wake up at 4 am to be the first to get to a well. However, the wells usually dried up and there were limited quantities of safe water available for use.
The shallow wells in the village are a source of diseases because they are not well protected. Accordingly, the officials noted that these children used to often get sick due to the contamination in the water.
The woman claimed that she was happy to see tapped water in the village for the first time.
Senior disease control and surveillance officer under Gumba Health Centre, Allan Banda spoke about waterborne diseases and the unavailability of safe water. He said there is only one borehole in the area which makes waterborne diseases to rise.
“Due to poor water sources, 10 dysentery cases are registered in children under the age of five. We are hopeful the situation will change now,” said Banda.
“I am very happy with the water system in this area and will make sure the people take care of it,” said TA Gumba.
Source of Life Children Foundation is a child-focused Christian non-profit organisation and apart from water and sanitation, it works in the area of climate change, education, women empowerment and permaculture among others.