Following an initial fact-finding visit to Zambia, a 5-year programme was launched in 2003 to bring fresh water and sanitation & hygiene to rural communities in the Western Province, the poorest part of one of the poorest countries in Africa. To date, we have succeeded in serving over 13,500 people in 79 villages, each with either a new or rehabilitated well and with around 20 pit latrines for toilets, with hand washing, refuse pits and plate and vegetable racks to keep the food off the ground – and this is having a dramatic impact upon the health of the people, particularly children. All the sanitation work is undertaken by the people themselves with Village Water providing cement and other materials.

Beginning January 2007, the programme is led by the Village Water Field Director Mr Elisha Ngonomo. We are the only specialist village water and sanitation organisation working in Zambia, one of the poorest countries in Africa. Thanks to the generosity of sponsors, we have Land Rover vehicles operating from both our centres of Mongu and Kaoma transporting our teams of field workers to the villages where they work with the local people.

Our 2007 work programme comprises the installation of shallow wells and sanitation in 34 villages. We only install protected wells with manual water pumps that allow the people to draw uncontaminated water from underground. We are water diviners and visited the selected villages and recorded the exact places for well-digging by GPS satellite coordinates. Our teams of field workers have the job of mobilising the people:

• each community must set up a village water committee with a simple written constitution that we give them
• the treasurer collects small monthly donations from each working adult
• this allows them to fund spare parts and keep the pump in good repair
• select two villagers, one man, one woman, who we train as pump minders
• embark on a sanitation programme where they dig their own pit latrines, one per family
• use the cement and other materials, that we donate for digging latrines, but they must provide the labour
• install a hand washing facility at the exit of each latrine and at entrances to communal eating areas
• engage in hygiene education classes concerning kitchen and food cleanliness, dog control and children’s needs

Hence we are a charity active in all the basic needs of people to improve their quality and length of life.

Going to a distant waterhole, a village woman often spends two hours a day carrying one 20-litre plastic container of water. This is not sufficient water to drink, cook food or wash. Hence, the children go unwashed for long periods during which insects lay eggs that hatch into worms you can see under the children’s skin.

Village Water believes that no one should be deprived of water in our modern world.