The joy of pure, clear water!

In early August 2021, a friend mentioned in an email about her upcoming 80th birthday and that she did not want presents but wondered instead if monetary gifts could go toward a ‘water project’. Not many days later, it was suggested that the gift go toward getting water to Kahanda Primary School which has 350 pupils. These children come from various villages within a 5 mile radius of Nyangombe.

In all honesty, we were not quite sure what the real answer was in providing water to the school. Should it be a hand dug well, should we pipe it one thousand yards from Nyangombe or both and a dozen other ideas were flitting through our minds.

On the 20th September, World Vision Zambia had a drilling rig in the area and made this one of their projects which was amazing. They drilled two dry holes and then the third which yielded 1.5 litres per second, or 5,000lts per hour at a depth of 54 metres which was way more water than what is needed. The next challenge was how to extract water at that depth in a simple way.

A pump was made available and serious construction work began using the building trainees and workers from Nyangombe. The basic work was completed in a day and ways were found to overcome problems as they arose. There was great excitement amongst the children!

Having no water in the immediate area, except for 54 metres below surface, we filled a water tanker and took, sand, gravel and a mixer to speed up the work. The concrete work was running ahead of pump installation! On completion of pump installation, concrete was quickly poured and the water pump installation took shape. With the concrete cured, the school children were asked to bring their containers for filling after school. It was a day of great joy because these children represent more than 2,000 family members who will benefit greatly from pure water.

The children asked us to thank donors who participated in giving to a project which will lead to a marked improvement in the health and wellbeing for up to 3,000 people in the surrounding villages of Kahanda and Mwana Mutowa.

This is probably the fastest water project achieved so far, so we too, are thrilled!