Emma Tsamba, 24, sighed with relief while lifting a bucketful of water from a tap in her village near Marka Primary School in Nsanje District.
Her smile said it all, fetching water for her family has never been easier.
“Who might have known that an ordinary villager like me would be getting water from a tap like our colleagues in towns and cities?” the mother of two asked rather rhetorically.
Tsamba and her neighbours used to rise as early as 2am to avoid fierce scrambles for water at the school’s hand pump, which frequently dried up and broke down.
In 2017, Nsanje District Council, with support from the UK Government through Unicef Malawi, replaced the hand pump with a solar-powered piped water system that supplies learners, teachers and surrounding communities.
Today, solar panels silently turn sunlight into electricity, powering a submersible pump that lifts groundwater into massive tanks.
The water glides to five tap stands on campus, one near teachers’ residences and another in a neighbouring community.
This gives a glimpse of the ripple effect of a new government policy of supplying rural communities using pipes, not hand pumps.
We travelled to the southern tip of the country to appreciate the trickle-down of the new strategy from policymaking tables at Capital Hill to the far-flung communities.
During the visit, Marka Water Point Committee chairperson Milika Bode says she is delighted that women and children in her community no longer do the work of pipes.
“With taps close to home, we no longer carry water over a long distance from overcrowded boreholes that repeatedly dry up. Pipes do that for us, saving time to care for chores that benefit our families, crops and businesses,” she bragged.
Piping water into villages near public institutions in places like Marka, Nyachilenda and Nyamithuthu not only improves sanitation, hygiene and public health but also cuts the long walks, waiting and jostling.
This recalls the rural majority from open wells and other contaminated wells that fuel preventable infections, including cholera.
“Day and night, people were jostling for water at the unpredictable school borehole, pushing both learners and their families to unsafe water sources,” says Marka Primary School deputy headteacher Bertha Khundila.
She arrived from Nyachilenda Primary School in 2021, testifying to how easy access to safe water can improve the delivery of essential services in remote settings.
Khundila narrates: “Teachers shun rural schools with water problems.
“When I heard of my transfer, I inquired if there was piped water here. My former school has it. Water is almost everything. It motivated me to come here. I prefer piped water to hand pumps that require a lot of energy and time. They frequently break down, pushing people to unsafe sources.”
Marka Primary School has 2010 learners and 20 teachers.
The pipes penetrating neighbouring communities personify the pledge by government and its partners to pipe safe water to rural localities where women and children endure exhausting travels to communal hand pumps.
Government has pledged to establish 193 solar-powered water supply schemes by 2028—one per constituency.
With 21 taking shape in 2023, the demand for piped water in rural homesteads is surging.
“Over 100 people have approached the committee to ask for household connections. We want pipes to reach every village and every home. We want a small water board to serve us better,” says Bode.
This illustrates the power of partnerships in ensuring the rural communities, where 84 percent of Malawians live, are not left behind.
Secretary for Water and Sanitation Elias Chimulambe says no one should travel over 500 metres or 30 minutes in search of water.
To him, cutting the long walks could fast-track strides to provide safe water for all in line with national and global goals, including Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“We cannot achieve universal access to water by 2030 using ordinary boreholes. We need high-yielding systems that are either solar-powered or motorised to achieve SDG6 and the first implementation plan of the Malawi2063,” Chimulambe said.
Government plans to establish systems that provide 10 to 25 litres per second in rural trading centres, with pipes supplying neighbouring settlements and public facilities.
Chimulambe stated: “The 2025/26 budget will contain funds for a high-yielding solar-powered system to be constructed at Marka Market so that interested households can get connected and enjoy safe water through a water users association.
“We don’t want boreholes everywhere. Malawi has vast amounts of groundwater, which we need to overcome effects of climate change. But unregulated drilling can deplete this vital resource,” he said.
According to Nsanje district water development officer Chiyembekezo Helema, the district has 1 989 boreholes fitted with hand pumps and 29 piped water systems, including four managed by WUAs.
“Piped water is the way to go. About 300 piped systems of them could adequately supply the population that rely on the nearly 2 000 boreholes. Pipes could also take freshwater to areas where people resort to unprotected wells or streams because the only borehole in their midst produces saline water
