About the Project
The project consisted of borehole rehabilitation to improve access to a clean and safe water supply and sanitation services for three villages.
Location
Simbi 1, Simbi 2, and Nkata 1 villages in Traditional Authority Maseya, Chikwawa District, Malawi
Quick Project Stats
| Funding Date | February 2025 |
| Luena Investment | $1,350 |
| CBO Partner | Social Development and Advocacy Centre (SODAC) |
| Village | Simbi 1, Simbi 2, and Nkata 1 |
| Country | Malawi |
| # of Children Impacted | 2,550 |
| Community Contribution | Manual labor, contribution of locally-available materials |
Lack of Clean Water Access Leaves Women and Children at Risk
Vulnerable children and women in these three villages lack access to clean and safe drinking water. Chikwawa District is rural, with over 82% of households having no access to clean and potable drinking water. This district is also associated with high levels of food insecurity and poverty due to frequent droughts and floods.
Chikwawa District has high records of traditional practices that harm women and girls in Malawi. These include high cases of sexual gender-based violence (SGBV), girl child marriages, violence against women and girls (VAWG), high school dropout rates for girls, and poor health, especially from cholera, diarrhea, and malaria. This year alone, the area of Traditional Authority Maseya, where these villages are located, has already registered 22 cases of cholera with 5 deaths, 3 of which were children.
In these villages, women and girls walk long distances to access clean water for drinking and for their household use from other villages in the surrounding area. It takes them more than 30 minutes to walk through these deserted, risky, and dangerous roads. It is because of these reasons that most women and girls prefer to collect their drinking water from unprotected water sources such as from Shire River, open wells, and swamps, in spite of the associated health risks with water from these sources.
Repaired Boreholes Provide Clean Water to Village Communities
The donation from Luena Foundation was used to buy spare parts and hire a technician to rehabilitate the three boreholes at Simbi 1, Nkata 1, and Simbi 2 villages. The list of spare parts that we procured included bush bearings, casing hangers, hanger bearings, hanger pins, plunger (complete sets), wellhead/pumps, fulcrum pins, check valves, bags of cement, solvent cement, and drill rods. The funds were also used to pay for the cost of the water technician who was deployed to rehabilitate the three boreholes. For sustainability purposes, the remaining funds were used to conduct a refresher training to the members of the three borehole communities. SODAC will continue monitoring the usage and functionality of the three rehabilitated boreholes so that our communities may use them for many years to come.
Meet our Partner Community-Based Organization
SODAC is a registered NGO whose mandate is to promote the rights of marginalised children, girls and women in Malawi.
