Communities hail Design Outreach for providing clean water

By Glory Msowoya

Malawi: Communities under village headman Nkundiza, Traditional Authority Ngabu in Chikwawa have hailed Design Outreach for providing them with hand-operated pumps called LifePumps which are aimed at providing clean water.

Design Outreach is a non-profit humanitarian engineering organisation based in the United States with the mission of developing and delivering life-changing solutions for the poor and underserved communities in developing countries.

When asked how the pump is working, Group Village Headman Nkundiza told Malawi News Agency that access to clean water was a major issue among his subjects prior to the installation of the pump in the area.

He stated that many organisations had failed to drill boreholes in the area due to the low water table in Chikwawa, but with the help of Design Outreach, they were able to install the pump at 60 metres.

“Water woes were impacting negatively on the lives of my subjects because they were walking long distances searching for clean water. We are very grateful for this development,” he said

One of the villagers, Anneti Sauti, stated that women were walking more than five kilometres to get water from streams and boreholes in other areas.

She said: “Before this pump, we were walking long distances to access water, it was not easy for one to do that. We used to go and fetch water at around 3:00 am. The borehole would normally have very long queues. But with the coming in of this Life Pump in my village, we are no longer walking long distances to fetch water. We are now able to bath our children and prepare food for them in good time unlike in the past when children were late for school due to lack of water.”

Patrick Chapangoti, another Nkundiza resident, pleaded with other organisations to consider providing additional water pumps in the area in order to reduce the number of people using the pump.

“Currently this pump is being used with over 600 people, from this village and its surrounding villages. I feel like one pump is not enough,” he said

Titus Nnensa, Design Outreach Operations Manager, stated that the life pumps are ideal for the Malawian situation because they can be used for five years without maintenance and have a lifespan of more than 30 years.

This is due to the LifePump components being made of extremely durable stainless-steel material.

Furthermore, the LifePumps can reach depths of up to 150 metres and are not easily vandalised.

He stated that no vandalism has occurred in Malawi since the installation of LifePumps began in 2013.

“Design Outreach field teams also provide training to communities through their borehole committee for them to be able to take good care of their LifePump,” he said.