Meet 37-year-old Dorothy. She lives in a small village in Malawi’s Chikwawa district. A smallholder farmer and a widow, Dorothy spends most of her time taking care of her five children.
Until recently, the 588 people in Dorothy’s village relied on Malawi’s biggest river (the Shire) for all of their water needs. The water was contaminated with human waste but people were left with no other options.
“The walk to the river was very bushy and threatening because of the distance and the hungry crocodiles,” Dorothy tells us. “I would often turn back home with an empty bucket after seeing the crocodiles. And most of the boreholes in neighbouring villages produce salty water, which cannot be used for drinking or cooking food.”
A case of cholera
In 2017, things took an even more serious turn for Dorothy and her family. Her 12-year-old daughter became unwell with diarrhoea. Dorothy rushed her to the hospital, where the doctor diagnosed her with cholera. This was a big shock for Dorothy, as it was the first such case in her family.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, medical investigations revealed that the disease had been caused due to the unsafe river water the family had been drinking.
“As head of the family, I had to buy all the necessities to support my daughter,” Dorothy says. “I was forced to sell some of the little farm produce I harvest from my field to support my daughter. This ... meant we had no food to eat at home. I stayed with my daughter to take care of her [in hospital]. This normally meant that I did not go to the field, and this affected the yield.”
Reaching breaking point
Dorothy’s young daughter was not the only one in the village who had contracted cholera.
Geoffrey Julius, the Village Chief, became very worried about the high number of diarrhoea and cholera cases during the rainy season. Reaching breaking point, he approached the District Health Office for help. Officials provided the village with chlorine to disinfect the river water, but only for a few months. People continued to use the river for cleaning dishes, washing, bathing and drinking.
Clean water, new hope
With support from the One Foundation through the Satema and Kasinthula Water Supply Project, UP drilled a borehole in the village. Because the drilling process was done following the ‘salinity curbing strategy’, the borehole water was clean and fresh with no salts.
Dorothy is delighted with the improvement that the borehole has brought. “I am now able to use clean, fresh and safe water – and there have not been any cases of cholera or even diarrhoea in my family or the entire village,” she says. “I no longer spend money on medication and I now use this money for household needs.”
Plus, now that Dorothy doesn’t need to walk long distances to the river to collect water, she’s able to use the time she is saving to invest in her farming business and enjoy quality time with her children.