Water Situation of Cape Maclear
Cape Maclear Clean Drinking Water Project
Malawi 2005
Chembe Village
Laura Nicolson
29th June – 5th September
During the months of July and August this year I lived in Chembe Village, Cape Maclear, working on a number of different projects. One of these projects was the Chembe Village Clean Drinking Water Project. Although there was no physical work for me to do on this project I focussed on gathering information to aid the project. This report is a brief summary of the situation Cape Maclear with regards to the water usage.
Firstly I will outline the setup for water in Cape Maclear. Being situated on the lake, the villagers use the water from the shore for everything from washing and cleaning to cooking and drinking. This water is not clean, this is obvious from its appearance and at the time I was visiting there were many snails close to the shore. These snails carry Bilharzia, which is endemic in Cape Maclear. Also people live a lot of their lives on the shore of the lake, cleaning pots and pans, washing clothes, washing children and, although many would protest this fact, using the lake for 'sanitation'. During the rainy season all the dirt from the village will be washed into the lake.
However this is not the only water source in the village, 9 bore holes are located within the span of the village. A sketch of these locations is attached with the paper copy of this report. While I was in Malawi only 8 of these bore holes were operational with the other having been in disrepair for sometime (this was located in the Dwali, far right facing the lake (east?), side of the village). This, I was told, was due to the fact that all the villagers were responsible for the upkeep and no one had the money to repair it. One person had responsibility to oversee the upkeep of each particular bore hole but I never managed to meet any of these people while staying in the village. I have also included some pictures of these bore holes for your information. According to the markings some of them were provided by SCF (UK) in 1998, I believe this to be Save the Children Fund. The rest are unmarked but villagers told me that the government provided them.
Bottled water can also be purchased from various lodges, a couple of shops (in the Malawian sense of the word) and from locals around the village. This water is expensive even by western standards and it is a luxury local Malawians cannot afford. The water sold by locals was chilled water from the bore holes, and you have to be careful in the shop that your bottle is sealed. If not the chances are this is also bore hole water. While I was in Cape Maclear there was a row of craft shops being established at the new lodge (Cape Mac Lodge, beside Fat Monkeys). There was an ice machine at the end of this row. I am unsure of the purpose of the ice machine or the water source they were freezing but I occasionally saw people there giving children little blocks of ice. Obviously this was much to the amusement of the Cape Maclear kids, many had never felt ice before.
The recently opened Billy Riordran Clinic had a water supply. This I believe was a bore hole they had provided themselves but I am not one hundred per cent sure about this. This clinic has been running for a little over one year and provides access to medical care and medication to the 14,000 people of Cape Maclear. This clinic does however cost K50 (around 20p literally) for each consultation, a cost not all villagers can afford. I think the clinic had plans to distribute Bilharzia tablets to all villagers although I am unsure at what stage these plans are presently. Levi Kahunda (Co-ordinator of Vulnerable Children and Orphan Day Care Centre) said the clinic used to provide them with a supply of water for the children but that this had recently stopped. The day care centre has two storage buckets with taps (I think they are Oxfam devices). This is a difficult area as the project run by Levi was under evaluation by its American donors and did not appear to be fairing well. The purpose of the The Pendulum Project (the donors) was to provide money but that everything in Malawi should be Malawian run and the centre was to be a feeding centre for the children of Cape Maclear. There was no food while we were in Cape Maclear as all the money had been spent on renovating the building. However this is a separate issue and I digress.
I talked with everyone I met about their water usage and requirements for water. The next part of my report will outline some views and opinions I experienced, including my own. The well-educated villagers told me how they boiled their water, never drank the water from the lake etc (basically what they thought I wanted to hear). However, I spent a considerable amount of time with people and never experienced this first hand. In my experience the women would go the bore hole to collect water first thing in the morning, about 4 or 5 am. This water would subsequently be used for cooking and drinking. I never witnessed people drinking water a lot; they thought it was quite hilarious that we carried big bottles of water round with us. Many children asked me why Mzungus (white people) drank so much water. One improvement I think is education in the school about the importance of drinking water for health. Even though the women did collect a lot of water from the bore holes it wasn’t always convenient for them through the day. Various factors including the heat, the distance to the bore hole, waiting for water, the amount of energy required to pump the water and of course the ease at which water can be collected from the lake meant the bore holes perhaps weren’t used fully. This I felt was particularly the case for those living at the shore. Given the village spans less than a mile inland, this is a large percentage of people.
I am unsure myself but people were very confident that the water from the bore holes was perfectly clean and ready to drink. I didn’t drink it all the time as we boiled water from the taps at Gecko (Paul’s house) but out of curiosity I tried the bore hole water. It is impossible to tell the quality from consumption but one thing that was noticeable was the metallic after taste. Testing these sources will be great.
As in many developing countries religion bares a greater meaning to the villagers of Cape Maclear, the CCAP Christian church is the biggest but there are a number of others. A comment that sticks out in my mind was that some people believe that God has provided them with the lake full of water and they believe God loves them so why would the water from Him be unclean. I am hopeful this belief is held by a minority of people and would not affect peoples usage of proposed drinking water stands.
As for location of the tap stands I believe the priority would be the Primary School. I worked as a teacher in the school for most of my time in Cape Maclear and we also helped to do some renovation work to a couple of classrooms. There is no facility for water at the school at all. Bore holes are located quite close but no one fetches drinking water through the school day. The school has over 1000 registered pupils so I believe water here would be of great benefit to the community. There is also a secondary school at the other side of the village but I am unsure how many pupils go there.
If you have any further questions at all about my time in Cape Maclear please contact me at 0107915n@student.gla.ac.uk. Thank you for taking the time to read my report.
Malawi 2005
Chembe Village
Laura Nicolson
29th June – 5th September
During the months of July and August this year I lived in Chembe Village, Cape Maclear, working on a number of different projects. One of these projects was the Chembe Village Clean Drinking Water Project. Although there was no physical work for me to do on this project I focussed on gathering information to aid the project. This report is a brief summary of the situation Cape Maclear with regards to the water usage.
Firstly I will outline the setup for water in Cape Maclear. Being situated on the lake, the villagers use the water from the shore for everything from washing and cleaning to cooking and drinking. This water is not clean, this is obvious from its appearance and at the time I was visiting there were many snails close to the shore. These snails carry Bilharzia, which is endemic in Cape Maclear. Also people live a lot of their lives on the shore of the lake, cleaning pots and pans, washing clothes, washing children and, although many would protest this fact, using the lake for 'sanitation'. During the rainy season all the dirt from the village will be washed into the lake.
However this is not the only water source in the village, 9 bore holes are located within the span of the village. A sketch of these locations is attached with the paper copy of this report. While I was in Malawi only 8 of these bore holes were operational with the other having been in disrepair for sometime (this was located in the Dwali, far right facing the lake (east?), side of the village). This, I was told, was due to the fact that all the villagers were responsible for the upkeep and no one had the money to repair it. One person had responsibility to oversee the upkeep of each particular bore hole but I never managed to meet any of these people while staying in the village. I have also included some pictures of these bore holes for your information. According to the markings some of them were provided by SCF (UK) in 1998, I believe this to be Save the Children Fund. The rest are unmarked but villagers told me that the government provided them.
Bottled water can also be purchased from various lodges, a couple of shops (in the Malawian sense of the word) and from locals around the village. This water is expensive even by western standards and it is a luxury local Malawians cannot afford. The water sold by locals was chilled water from the bore holes, and you have to be careful in the shop that your bottle is sealed. If not the chances are this is also bore hole water. While I was in Cape Maclear there was a row of craft shops being established at the new lodge (Cape Mac Lodge, beside Fat Monkeys). There was an ice machine at the end of this row. I am unsure of the purpose of the ice machine or the water source they were freezing but I occasionally saw people there giving children little blocks of ice. Obviously this was much to the amusement of the Cape Maclear kids, many had never felt ice before.
The recently opened Billy Riordran Clinic had a water supply. This I believe was a bore hole they had provided themselves but I am not one hundred per cent sure about this. This clinic has been running for a little over one year and provides access to medical care and medication to the 14,000 people of Cape Maclear. This clinic does however cost K50 (around 20p literally) for each consultation, a cost not all villagers can afford. I think the clinic had plans to distribute Bilharzia tablets to all villagers although I am unsure at what stage these plans are presently. Levi Kahunda (Co-ordinator of Vulnerable Children and Orphan Day Care Centre) said the clinic used to provide them with a supply of water for the children but that this had recently stopped. The day care centre has two storage buckets with taps (I think they are Oxfam devices). This is a difficult area as the project run by Levi was under evaluation by its American donors and did not appear to be fairing well. The purpose of the The Pendulum Project (the donors) was to provide money but that everything in Malawi should be Malawian run and the centre was to be a feeding centre for the children of Cape Maclear. There was no food while we were in Cape Maclear as all the money had been spent on renovating the building. However this is a separate issue and I digress.
I talked with everyone I met about their water usage and requirements for water. The next part of my report will outline some views and opinions I experienced, including my own. The well-educated villagers told me how they boiled their water, never drank the water from the lake etc (basically what they thought I wanted to hear). However, I spent a considerable amount of time with people and never experienced this first hand. In my experience the women would go the bore hole to collect water first thing in the morning, about 4 or 5 am. This water would subsequently be used for cooking and drinking. I never witnessed people drinking water a lot; they thought it was quite hilarious that we carried big bottles of water round with us. Many children asked me why Mzungus (white people) drank so much water. One improvement I think is education in the school about the importance of drinking water for health. Even though the women did collect a lot of water from the bore holes it wasn’t always convenient for them through the day. Various factors including the heat, the distance to the bore hole, waiting for water, the amount of energy required to pump the water and of course the ease at which water can be collected from the lake meant the bore holes perhaps weren’t used fully. This I felt was particularly the case for those living at the shore. Given the village spans less than a mile inland, this is a large percentage of people.
I am unsure myself but people were very confident that the water from the bore holes was perfectly clean and ready to drink. I didn’t drink it all the time as we boiled water from the taps at Gecko (Paul’s house) but out of curiosity I tried the bore hole water. It is impossible to tell the quality from consumption but one thing that was noticeable was the metallic after taste. Testing these sources will be great.
As in many developing countries religion bares a greater meaning to the villagers of Cape Maclear, the CCAP Christian church is the biggest but there are a number of others. A comment that sticks out in my mind was that some people believe that God has provided them with the lake full of water and they believe God loves them so why would the water from Him be unclean. I am hopeful this belief is held by a minority of people and would not affect peoples usage of proposed drinking water stands.
As for location of the tap stands I believe the priority would be the Primary School. I worked as a teacher in the school for most of my time in Cape Maclear and we also helped to do some renovation work to a couple of classrooms. There is no facility for water at the school at all. Bore holes are located quite close but no one fetches drinking water through the school day. The school has over 1000 registered pupils so I believe water here would be of great benefit to the community. There is also a secondary school at the other side of the village but I am unsure how many pupils go there.
If you have any further questions at all about my time in Cape Maclear please contact me at 0107915n@student.gla.ac.uk. Thank you for taking the time to read my report.
posted by Laura Malawi at
2:51 pm
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