IMPACT OF WATER
Just how far can a borehole go?
HEALTH
Clean, convenient water sources underpin all efforts to improve community health. People who don't have access to a safely managed water supply are vulnerable to dangerous water-borne illnesses, including typhoid, cholera and polio. Where water is scarce or hard to collect, people are also likely to limit or eliminate handwashing out of necessity. This dramatically increases the risk of falling ill or even dying due to infectious diseases. The boreholes Makolekole drills are reliable sources of clean water close to home, which improves hygiene and disease prevention. With safe water consistently available, the communities we serve are positioned to confront the problems of infection and disease.
EDUCATION
Children are often responsible for the chore of collecting their household's water. Particularly for girls, the need to travel long distances to physically collect water each day can limit their freedom to pursue an education. Beyond the simple time constraints, the health problems caused by insufficient access to water reduce school attendance. The opportunity for an education depends on water.
FEMALE EMPOWERMENT
When water is far away, the burden of collecting it most often falls on women and children, especially girls. The responsibility of collecting water can even prevent girls from going to school. A reliable source of clean water relieves that responsibility, freeing up an enormous amount of time for women and girls to pursue other goals. Moreover, access to clean water protects maternal health.
SAFETY
The journey to collect water may not only be long, but dangerous. In the Luangwa Valley, some of the rivers that people use as water sources are crocodile-infested, and people have died while trying to collect water as a result of crocodile attacks. Having a pump well in or near the village means people don't have to put themselves in danger while collecting water for their families.
ECONOMY
Water collection can be time-consuming and physically demanding. UNICEF estimates that a single trip to collect water in rural sub-Saharan Africa takes an average of 33 minutes, and the trip usually has to be made multiple times amounting to hours of lost time each day. This decreases the amount of effort and time people are able to put toward making a living. With convenient village wells, people can invest their time in earning more income to improve their quality of life.
Water is a foundational issue that empowers individuals and enables communities to grow. Help Makolekole bring water to the Luangwa Valley