LifePump ends water woes in Humba village

Since time immemorial, water-borne diseases and mortalities have been order of the day in Humba and other surrounding villages.

Situated in Traditional Authority Kanduku’s area in Mwanza, communities have for long been using water from unprotected sources until the year 2009 when some organization through the district water office provided a borehole.

But the excitement ended abruptly, the water came out only for a few days and went dry.

55-year-old Rebecca Julaye says the nearby stream has been their main source of water. During the rainy season, they could fetch from the running river water but dug temporary sand wells during the dry season.

"When we make these wells, we don’t fetch the water immediately. We wait for some minutes for it to become clear. This water is generally smelly but we have had no choices. The next potable water point is far from this village. Going there means spending almost an hour to return," she narrates.

“Diarrheal diseases have always been a part of us for many years due to consumption of unclean water. It can’t be safe water since we use the same wells where domestic animals drink from, used for brick making and washing baby nappies, clothes, and beddings. There are times we could go to fetch the water and find it soiled with animal waste," recalls Masalima Jezimani of the same area.

She adds: “It’s was really uncomfortable. But we were forced to embrace this, we had no choices.”

Both Julaye and Jezimani corroborate that water is no longer a cause of stress especially among women of Humba village after Design Outreach installed a modern hand pump (borehole) called, LifePump.

“At first we thought it wouldn’t last long since it’s some design we have never seen. But we are now very excited that it’s still giving us potable water three months on. This has been a life-changing experience for us. We have never had such an opportunity to save water,” the vividly excited Julaye says.

Design Outreach (DO) is the United States-based Christian Non-Profit Organization on a mission to see marginalized and low-income communities transformed physically, economically, and spiritually.

The organization seeks to alleviate poverty by designing, manufacturing, and delivering scalable and sustainable appropriate technology.

LifePump is an innovative hand pump that has been in operation since the year 2013. Design Outreach is working in other countries such as Malawi, Haiti, Zambia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mali, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Zimbabwe, and Guatemala. Life Pump has been installed in all these countries.

DO aims at providing 3,000 LifePumps in Malawi by the year 2030 to serve an estimated 1,500,000 people.

Humba village LifePump borehole is one of the 28 boreholes which the organization has installed in Malawi since the year 2013. The LifePump was also approved by Malawi Government in 2018 after five years of piloting.

“Life Pumps is reliable and goes deeper than other boreholes. It is able to access water up to 150 meters deep. This reduces the occurrence of dry boreholes during dry season as well as providing a solution to climate change concerns and rural water access. Drillers abandon and declare a dry hole when they do not find water after 55 to 60 meters of drilling. With a LifePump, drillers can drill up to 100 meters and beyond and when they find water, the LifePump will be able to supply water,” says Titus Nnensa, Design Outreach Malawi’s Relationship Manager.

He adds that LifePump is cost-effective and has a life span of up to 30years.

“Prevention maintenance is supposed to be done only after five years although some LifePumps have operated in Malawi for 8 years without maintenance. Performance of the LifePump is also monitored remotely through a LifePump Link installed on the pump. We monitor the performance of each pump in terms of the number of hours it has worked and a number of liters drawn whilst we are in office and this also enables us to notice if there are any issues with the LifePump. This information is real-time,” he says.

Village Headman Humba expresses his excitement to finally have a functional borehole in his area, “We have had waterborne diseases throughout the year due to usage of water from unprotected sources. We have been losing at least five adults to such ailments per year, the children are countless.”

The village headman says Health Surveillance Assistants have sometimes been distributing Chlorine but it has been inconsistent.

“Women of this area like to do business but the shortage of water has been their major setback. They spent more time fetching water and nursing sick family members. They are now free people….The last two months have been good since this borehole was installed. This is an exemplary community,” he says.

Area Mechanic responsible for Humba and surrounding villages, George Jonamu says the borehole that was initially sunk in this area is popularly known as ‘Afridev’ (African Development Pump) which are usually sunk at a maximum depth of forty-five.

“They usually go dry especially during the dry season when the water table changes. The LifePump is different and more sophisticated. We have had a prolonged dry season this year, and if it was the other boreholes, water wouldn’t be coming out by now,” he says.

Jonamu was trained by the District Water Development Office to be maintaining boreholes in communities whenever they break down. He is equipped with knowledge on borehole repair and where to find spare parts within his locality. In return, the communities led by the village headman pay for his services.

Mwanza District Water Development Officer, Laston Chagunda says Mwanza district experience persistent water shortages because the water table is very low.

“It’s even hard to provide piped water because the area’s terrain can’t support gravity-fed water. The other areas within the district use Thambani mountain gravity for water supply but it can’t reach out to the whole district,” he explains.

Chagunda says the district has over 600 Afridev boreholes drilled by Non-Governmental Organisations and the government, disclosing that much as most of those are working, they have frequent breakdowns.

“They are functional because communities were trained to maintain them. They also access the spares parts locally. But I feel the LifePump is a better alternative because it doesn’t have frequent breakdowns and is not prone to vandalism. The LifePump borehole could help solve water woes if fully embraced. It can easily be managed by local communities, it’s cheaper than the other water alternatives,” he tells.

According to Water Aid Malawi, 5.6 million people out of the 18 million Malawians (One in three people) do not have clean water in Malawi.

Malawi is one of the countries that committed itself to achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SDGs are a UN Initiative, officially known as transforming our world, the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. They have seventeen aspirational global goals with169 targets between them.

Goal Six of the SDGs calls on all nations to ensure access to water and sanitation for all by 2030, but that would seem a bridge too far for Malawi if modern technologies like Lifepump are not embraced to improve the status quo.