Christina Christopher, 15, feels home and dry in Malewa Village, Traditional Authority Chimombo in Nsanje District.
The Standard Seven girl no longer wakes up before daybreak to fetch water from a filthy borehole near Nachipele Community Day Secondary School at the southern tip of Malawi.
Since last month, she and her neighbours have been drawing clean water from a communal tap in her backyard.
She narrates: “It’s amazing to have piped water so close to home. Since the tap started running in January, I no longer risk being crashed by speeding vehicles as was the case when I used to cross the busy Nsanje-Marka tarmac on the return trip to the overcrowded borehole, which used to dry up repeatedly.
“I used to get to class late and too exhausted to learn, but that is history. Additionally, I wash my clothes daily and bathe three times a day because water isn’t hard to get. Sanitation is improving both at home and at school.”
Her community is one of the 15 villages at the receiving end of the Chimombo solar-powered piped water supply scheme constructed by the Department of Disaster Management (Dodma) with funding from the African Development Bank. Dodma has installed similar systems in Mulanje, Phalombe, Zomba and Chikwawa in response to the destruction of water and sanitation facilities by Cyclone Idai which hit southern Africa in March 2019.
The Post-Cyclone Idai and Kenneth Emergency Recovery and Resilience Programme has improved access to safe water for more than 21 000 people in the five worst-hit districts.
At Nyachipele in T/A Chimombo area, a solar farm churns out electricity from the scorching sunshine typical of the Shire Valley, powering high-yielding pumps that lift water from the ground to the tanks that supply 74 communal taps in the surrounding villages. It is located near the overwhelmed hand-pumped borehole where Christina used to queue for water as early as 3am.
Her shift from the squeaking hand pump to the gushing tap stand near her home illustrates government policy to pipe water to rural communities.
Policymakers are waving goodbye to over three decades of unregulated drilling low-yielding boreholes that usually run dry.
Government has pledged 193 solar-powered piped water supply systems—one per constituency—by 2028 to accelerate provision of safe water for all in line with the Malawi 2063 and Global Agenda for Sustainable Development.
“The new policy comes in response to Sustainable Development Goal number six and the first Malawi2063 implementation plan which require us to provide access to safe water for all by 2030. We cannot achieve this goal using hand-pumped boreholes. We want to pipe water to places where people live, work and get essential services. No one should travel over 500 metres or 30 minutes to get water,” says Secretary for Water and Sanitation Elias Chimulambe.
Official figures show that 86 percent of Malawians have access to water, but the delight dwindles as 60 percent of Malawians endure long distances to fetch water outside their homesteads. The figure further drops as more than a quarter of the hand-pumped boreholes rust in disuse.
“We have lots of dry boreholes because they were not supervised by relevant authorities from the Ministry of Water and Sanitation. We have water maps and geophysical surveys to inform us where and how to drill for the good of the nation, but some partners don’t consult us” says Chimulambe.
A stump of an abandoned borehole stands poignantly next to the one where Christina used to endure the day-long hustle and bustle.
Cecilia Kaloza says the fierce scrambles for water surged when Cyclone Idai ripped homes, toilets and water points in the floodplain, forcing thousands to relocate from Nyachikadza wetland along the Shire River.
The majority of the survivors from lowlands along the flood-prone zone have since relocated to T/A Chimombo and neighbouring uplands.
“The exodus from disaster zones left the few surviving water points overcrowded day and night. For the hand pumps, there was no time to rest as each served over 1 000 people,” she says.
The population pressure on water points forced World Vision Malawi to drill four hand-pumped boreholes and repair nine in an emergency initiative to ensure each serves less than 250 people as required by the National Water Policy.
The fierce scramble for water points has eased with the new piped system running.
“We are free at last,” says Kaloza. “We are living in peace as we no longer jostle and fight for water as we used to when the water points were few.”
According to Chimombo Water Users Association (WUA) chairperson Samuel Phindu, the pipelines from the solar-powered pumps supply 28 water kiosks in 15 villages under group village head Chimombo. The community comprises about 31 000 people, including flood survivors from Nyachikadza who have been pouring in since Idai struck six years ago.
“My community, which has endured years of untold water problems, has tasted the convenience of piped water,” says Phindu. “So far, over 300 have asked the WUA to connect their homes to the piped water system. They will start enjoying access to safe water in their homes as soon as we get the metres,” he says.
Phindu says the piped system has created a safe settlement for people escaping persistent flooding and their hosts.
