"We used to fetch water from scoop holes, but the water was very dirty, and the alternative was the river, which is a long distance walking." -Kamana Chinyunda, a resident of Chimboma village in the district of Kalabo.
Kamana Chinyunda is a 44-year-old woman from Chimboma, a village in the district of Kalabo in Zambia's Western Province. When an official from Zambia's Ministry of Water approached her village about forming a water committee, she was among the first people to volunteer her time. Village water committees manage the operation and maintenance of water facilities.
"I was very excited and readily volunteered to be part of the committee," says Chinyunda. "We all needed clean water. We used to fetch water from scoop holes, but the water was very dirty, and the alternative was the river which is a long distance walking." Especially during the rainy season, the unsanitary water exposed members of the community to diarrhea and other diseases.
Water is life, villagers in Chimboma agree. And, once offered access to clean water, they eagerly seized the opportunity by signing on to the Transforming Rural Livelihoods in Western Zambia Project. Under the project, every village contributes a once-off matching fee of 1,500 Zambian kwacha (about $90) towards the construction of a new borehole. The fee is about 25 kwacha per household ($1.55). Each villager also pays five kwacha ($0.30) each month to maintain the water point. The contribution promotes ownership of the facility and ensures the sustainability of the investment.
A member of the village water committee shows government officials the scoop hole that community members formerly relied on for water.
The scoop hole the community used to fetch water from was a health and safety risk to young and old alike.
Zambia's Western Province has the country's lowest water supply and sanitation access levels, at just over 49% and 7 %, respectively. The province also has the highest poverty levels in Zambia; 80.4% of its population are classified as poor and 64% live in extreme poverty.
The Transforming Rural Livelihoods Project aims to provide sustainable access to water and sanitation in 16 rural districts in the Western Province. The $38.23 million project, launched in January 2015, has to date led to the installation of 1,337 new boreholes and rehabilitation of a further 603 across the province.
In addition, 335 sanitation facilities have been built in public areas, including schools, rural health centres and markets; 2,454 village committees have been created and trained in water point management, and good hygiene practices. As a result of the project, 568,401 people having access to improved water supply and 317,623 to adequate sanitation.
"We are so grateful that we now have clean water at all times!" a village elder, Chinuda Changoto, exclaimed. "We no longer have to worry about our children getting sick or losing women and babies during childbirth due to a lack of hygiene," he said during a village meeting.
This newly constructed borehole serves a community of about 420 residents with clean and safe water.
