Project Details

Peer Water Exchange Member: Ruvuma Mission to the Poor and Disabled (PADI) Project Location: United Republic of Tanzania, East Africa

Current Situation:

These three remote schools currently use an open well that is a couple of kilometers away. The well is hand dug and open so it is contaminated. It is used by  both animals and people. People use it for drinking, cleaning, and waste disposal. Because it is open, it breeds mosquitoes.

1. Students leave class to fetch water. It is an arduous and constant task.
2. Often, the water is not safe to drink and students fall ill, missing more school.

• With so little water, students and families cannot grow their food, a missed opportunity for commerce and self sufficiency.

 

What Your Support Will Provide:

• The project will provide 1 hand pump to each school.
• 1,200 students will benefit from the project (592 are girls and 608 boys)
  • 417 at Luwawasi Sec. School
  • 505 at Kalembo Sec. School
  • 278 at Chandarua Sec. School.
• There will also be a school management committee in each school responsible for hand pump maintenance and managing maintenance fund.They plan to build a house around the pump.
• Training/education will include how to avoid washing, bathing , cultivating or doing any sort of human activities of the upstream land to avoid deforestations and water contamination.
• Also the community is taught to practice forestation around the well areas to avoid water source dry up.

 

Mobilizing The Community: Project Able To Start ASAP
PADI conducts meetings with villages and schools requesting water support. They explain how the project will be conducted and project requirements which include:

1. The school community is required to construct a pump house as their contribution.
2. They also form a Water Maintenance Fund ( WMF) and Wells Monitoring Committee (WMC) which consist of 10 people per well.
3. Then the villages/schools sign a contract of receiving the support.

BLUE PLANET RUN SUCCESSES IN NEARBY REGION

Mdandamo Secondary School is a former beneficiary of the Blue Planet Run/Peer Water Exchange funding. It is similar to the current project (same region, different community).

The project harvested more than 2500 kilograms of produce. This helped increase school income through produce selling. Students had access to better nutrition by eating their own vegetables.

Headmaster, Mr. Fracis Kyando, said, “The bore hole well has enabled our school to start vegetable production which saves money used to buy from business people. Also, time waste has minimized by 98%. We really appreciate the support. We hope it will resolve some of the health issues that we have been facing our school.”

70-year old Mrs. Azizi Aly, a widow living at Luhira in Mletele ward is among the more than 600 villagers who have benefited from the project. She had the following comments: “ As we are living far away from the town centre, we had no dreams to get such services now. I am over 70 years now. It is for my first time to use water from the improved sources like this, for all 70 years we have been using local dug wells which are open and offer free access to dogs, pigs, mosquito and human activities like clothes washing and bathing. It is even worse during the rainy season when some of the wells become dirtied soil due to run off water from hills to the streams. Your support has helped to restrict some of the dangers that we used to face. Thanks very much. We are very happy that our health will be improved.”

IS THERE MORE TO BE DONE? YES – AND WE ARE TRYING!

After the construction of 39 improved traditional water wells in nine village, and 1 bore hole in Mdandamo Secondary school, the need to expand the project to other areas is great. More than 10 requests from secondary schools and villages within and outside the region have been received at our office requesting to be given the same support.
Your support will deliver life-changing opportunities to 3 more schools serving 1,200 students.