At least 22, 000 Malawians in Traditional Authority (TA) Kaphuka in Dedza are assured of long-term access to clean water infrastructure and supply courtesy of the WeltHungerHilfe (WHH) Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project, amidst the rampant Cholera outbreak in the country.
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The project which is funded by Charity: Water, a donor organization in the United States of America (USA), is being implemented in Malawi by WHH WASH Project.
With funding of US$1 million, the project is aimed at improving sanitation and hygiene by drilling 70 boreholes, sustaining clean water supply, and enhancing Open Defecation Free (ODF) status by 2024.
In an interview Head of Project at WHH Malawi, Harald Güelker said 43 individual boreholes and 10 hand-pumps have already been installed with the remaining few expected to be finalized by July 2023.
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“We are also in the course of rehabilitating 18 old boreholes which were broken and its repair proved to be beyond the communities’ financial capacity,” Güelker said.
Güelker further said that to ensure the sustainability of the infrastructure and supply of safe and clean water, WHH has in recent weeks engaged the communities and trained them in various skills pertaining to drilling, maintenance, and management of the clean water infrastructure.
He said the organization’s long-term WASH projects in Malawi has shown that just delivering the boreholes to communities is not enough to ensure the sustainability of clean water supply hence the extensive training to empower communities with the technical know-how to service, manage and maintain the boreholes.
A 2022-2027 WASH District Strategic Investment Plan (DSIP) for Dedza provides a detailed framework of the acute need for safe and clean water in four TAs of Kasumbu, Kaphuka, Kachere, and Kachindamoto out of the eight TAs in the district.
“The WASH services are highly demanded in these four selected TAs due to the increased magnitude, frequency, and impact of a number of disasters both natural and man-made which, among others, include strong winds, floods, droughts, hailstorms and disease outbreaks such as cholera,” reads part of the document.
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The DSIP envisions that 460, 000 new boreholes should be installed and 100 old ones rehabilitated by 2027 to ensure a sustainable source of clean and safe water to 115, 000 and 25, 000 people respectively.
WHH has already established 70 Water Point Committees (WPCs) in TA Kaphuka for operations and maintenance of the newly installed boreholes.