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Village Water

Village Water

  • Tel: +260 (0) 211 846 110
  • Email: ellie@villagewater.org
  • Web: http://www.villagewater.org
  • Address:
    Plot 17B, Omela Mumba Road, Rhodes Park, PO Box 940010, Lusaka

Charity pictures

The facts

  • In Zambia, life expectancy is just 38 years
  • In rural areas 182 in every 1000 children die before their 5th birthday (WHO 2008)
  • One of the two biggest killers of children in Zambia is diarrhoea

Clean water and sanitation are the starting blocks for further development

  • Providing integrated water, sanitation and hygiene to communities reduces the number of deaths caused by diarrhoeal diseases by 65% (WHO)
  • Investment in water supply yields an average economic return of £4.40 to £1
  • Investment in sanitation yields an average economic return of £9.10 to £1

Nandusu Village statistics, collected from the local Rural Health Centre, shows the following:

  • Diarrhoea occurred 42 times the year before Village Water helped, 10 times the year they helped and twice the year after they helped
  • Worm infection occurred 30 times the year before Village Water helped, 4 times the year they helped and 0 times the year after they helped
  • Skin disease occurred 40 times the year before Village Water helped, 12 times the year they helped and there was no skin disease the year after they helped
  • Eye disease occurred 26 times the year before Village Water helped, twice the year they helped and there was no eye disease the year after they helped
  • Malaria occurred 20 times the year before Village Water helped, 4 times the year they helped and once the year after they helped

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The challenge
The Zambia National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Programme indicates that only 37% of the rural population has access to clean water and 13% has access to sanitation facilities. In accordance with the Millennium Development Goals, the Zambian Government has set itself the target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. In rural areas of Zambia this means ensuring that 75% of the Zambian population have access to clean water and 50% have access to sanitation. Village Water is working in partnership with the Local Government in Western Province to make this a reality.

Village Water have now worked with 319 communities and 14 schools, helping over 75,000 people in Zambia!
Village Water programs have a long-lasting impact. Good hygiene practice is maintained thus avoiding some of the life-threatening diseases. Families with access to water are able to grow their own food. A reliable source of water means small scale village farmers can harvest crops throughout the year instead of just in the rainy season. As a result surplus food can be sold at local markets.

The task of collecting water in 20 litre plastic containers and buckets falls on women and children and often takes hours. A local source of water gives village women the time to create their own local enterprise, and children the time to attend school. As more money is made through these enterprises, families are able to pay for medicines and an education for their children.

Village Water field workers
Key to Village Water's projects is the groundwork carried out by professional community workers who help villagers organise a Village Water and Sanitation Committee. Through this committee each village takes ownership of the well and pump, and the ability to fund the running costs. This focus on ownership rather than dependence is essential for sustainability. The process that has been found to work is as follows:

  • Each community sets up a village water committee.
  • Hygiene education classes are organised, covering kitchen and food cleanliness, dog control and children’s needs.
  • A sanitation program is undertaken - the village digs their own pit latrines, one per family.
  • They use donated cement and other materials, and volunteer their own labour.
  • A hand washing facility is installed at the exit of each latrine.
  • Village Water uses local knowledge and skilled volunteers to locate the underground water supply, and local contractors to dig the well. Then the pump is installed.
  • Two villagers (one man and one woman) are trained as pump minders for maintenance of the well. Semi-professional pump minders are also on hand to fix more technical problems. The monthly subscription system, set up by the village members when the well is installed, pays for any repairs (about 10 pence per working adult per month).
  • The treasurer collects small monthly donations from each working adult. This empowers them to fund spare parts and keep the pump in good repair.

Community-led total sanitation program
Villagers are educated in good hygiene practice and shown the benefits of self-help sanitation. Training focuses on water treatment, collection, storage and use. Villages are also educated on latrine building and use, hand washing, food storage and preservation, excreta disposal and general cleanliness. The lessons are fun and use stories, song, dance, pictures, music and humour to teach a new way of thinking and doing things.

Support Village Water
Village Water’s work would not be possible without the generous support of individual donors, Charitable Trusts, corporate donors and community groups. There are many ways to support the work of Village Water.

Read more about how to donate to Village Water and other ways you can support Village Water.

How Village Water use the money they receive in donations

  • £10 provides hygiene education and clean water  for one person
  • £40 buys cement for a rehabilitated well
  • £200 buys all the cement needed to install a new well
  • £100 covers the travel costs for working with one community program
  • £150 provides a week of pump mender training for two villagers, ensuring the community's well can be maintained
  • £300 pays for three field workers to carry out a full program of hygiene and sanitation training in a community
  • £450 pays for a brand new India Mark II water pump
  • £1,500 pays for refurbishing an installation, bringing a useless pump back into full use. At the same time a full Village Water community sanitation and hygiene mobilisation program is carried out. (The pumps that are refurbished have previously been  provided by organisations no longer working in the area. Village pump operators are trained as part of the program so they know how to carry out basic maintenance to give a pump a long and useful life.)
  • £2,500 pays for a complete pump installation plus a sanitation and hygiene program for a village of 250 people

About Village Water
Village Water UK is a charity registered in England and Wales (Charity No. 1117377). In January 2007 Village Water’s Zambian Field Director Mr Elisha Ngonomo was appointed. He is a highly experienced natural resources manager. Village Water Zambia (VWZ) was successfully registered as a a Zambian Non-Government Organisation (NGO) (ORS/102/35/3491) in May 2007.

As well as Village Water Zambia's head office in Lusaka, there are centres in Mongu and Kaoma in Western Province. Each centre has a professional team who go out to the villages to work with the local people. Read more about the Village Water background and team and Village Water Zambia.

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