Day
4 – Part 2: Silimi Village
On
the afternoon of day 4 we visited Silimi Village
 |
| Silimi villagers dancing around their water pump |
When
we first arrived in the village we were given the usual Zambian welcome of
African singing and dancing. My African dance moves had thankfully started to
improve by this point! This was followed by a talk from DAPP, WaterAid’s
project delivery partners, outlining the history of the WaterAid project in
Silimi. DAPP started by telling us that when they first began working with the
community the villagers thought that the questions they were being asked were
silly and not relevant e.g.
- Where do you
currently collect water from?
- Do you know that the
water source is contaminated?
- Where do you go to the toilet?
They didn’t understand what WaterAid were there to achieve.
DAPP
went on to explain that the first step in the process once they understood the communities
water and sanitation issues was to ask the villagers to prepare for the WaterAid
investment. They asked the village to begin by implementing the following:
- Latrines for each
household.
- A bathing shelter
for each household.
- A rubbish pit.
- A dish rack to
hygienically dry crockery.
- Set up a Water
Point Committee to look after the pump once installed.
The community took on this advice and began implementing all DAPP had asked. As the community responded so positively to this guidance DAPP then provided the Silimi villagers with cement and slabs to assist with the latrine construction. Once this work was underway DAPP worked with the new Water Point Committee within Silimi to decide on a location for the borehole. What then followed was hygiene education and training on how to construct simple hand wash facilities. The community now has all the facilities requested by DAPP along with a water pump, 70% sanitation coverage and are working towards increasing that to 100%.
Next,
we were given the chance to interview the Silimi Water Point Committee to
understand the history of the project and how they look after the pump on a day
to day basis.
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| Silimi borehole and the Water Point Committee |
Question 1: When was the water pump installed?
Answer: November 2011.
Question 2: How has life improved since the pump was installed?
Answer: We no longer have to walk for 4km to collect water
from open wells and streams. Life has improved and the community is much
healthier.
Question 3: How do you maintain the pump?
Answer: We put together a maintenance committee and they were
given training by DAPP. We regularly grease the pump and check the bolts.
Question 4: What you do with the extra time you now have since
you no longer have to walk 4km a day to collect water?
Answer: We now spend more time discussing the development of
our community and how we can continue to improve the facilities we have.
Question 5: Does your pump give a constant water supply?
Answer: Yes, we always have clean water.
Question 6: Do you allow neighbouring villages to use your pump
if they do not have their own safe water supply?
Answer: Yes we do as we were once in their position.
Question 7: Does everyone in the village have easy access to the
pump?
Answer: Yes, all villagers can easily access the water pump.
After
interviewing the Silimi Water Point Committee we then spent some time with a
local Silimi family, who had a functioning Latrine, to understand the benefits
this had brought to the family.
We
were introduced to Tobias (31) and Amelda Mazuba (28), a local family who have
lived in the village since August 2010. They have 4 children aged 2, 7, 9 and
11. They moved to the village from another location 20km away as the land
within Silimi was good for farming. The headman of Silimi gave them the land
and they used animals to transfer all of their belongings.
 |
| Me with Tobias, Amelda and 2 of their children |
We
went on to ask a bit about the Latrine the family had built. Tobias built the
latrine in 2011 after DAPP had instructed the villagers to begin constructing
toilet facilities. His latrine is a standard pit latrine with a concrete base
and hand wash facilities. DAPP provided hygiene education which seems to have
been completely taken on board by Tobias and his family as they had a full
understanding of the benefits of the latrine and hand wash facilities, which
was great to see.
 |
| Tobias's latrine and hand wash facility |
We
asked about their life since they moved to Silimi and the benefits this has
brought to their family. Amelda explained that their children find it easy to
attend school now as its only 5km away and they no longer have to get up early
and walk a long distance to collect water first. They have also noticed a
drastic reduction in illnesses within their family and they can now take
regular baths as there is a plentiful supply of water for the community.
Tobias
went on to tell us about what a typical day for them consists of. They spend
the morning weeding the field followed by some more light work in the field in
the afternoon. They grow vegetables, such as sweet potatoes which they grow for
their own consumption. They also grow maize which they sell to buy soap and
clothes and also use the money at the grinding mill where they grind the maize
in order to turn it into food and drink for his family. If they want to buy
soap or new clothes they need to walk for 2 hours to get to a local town called
Pemba .
 |
| Tobias's house (and their dog Scooby) |
 |
| Tobias's bathing facility |
It
was obvious that WaterAid and DAPP had a huge positive impact on Tobias and his
family and the benefits were clear to see.
Latrine Construction
After
our time with Tobias and Amelda we were given the chance to help construct the
foundations of a pit latrine for a local Silimi family, Felix and Ensha Chimpamba
and their 6 children (3 boys and 3 girls).
Felix
and Ensha have lived in Silimi for 21 years and they use the land for farming
maize, cotton, cowpeas and groundnuts. They have had a traditional latrine for
5 years and are looking forward to having improved facilities. All their children
help with the daily farming. Felix is the village secretary and works with the
headman to make sure all householders have or are working towards toilet
facilities. Before the water pump was installed the family collected water from
a shallow well in the rainy season. In the dry season they started their walk
for water at 7am returning at 10am and they would only have enough water for half of
the day. They would need to go back later on in the day for more. They carried
2 jerry cans of water on a bike.
We
started the latrine construction by helping David Hamalambo from DAPP construct
the concrete slab which would form the base of the latrine. A circular mould is
used to hold the concrete mix together to form this base slab. The following
mix was used for slab:
·
6 buckets of
sand
·
8 buckets of
stones
·
3 buckets of
cement
·
water
This
is all mixed together and put in the circular mould to set for 5 days.
 |
| The mould used to construct the latrine slab base |
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| Jess working hard to mix the concrete for the latrine slab |
We
then went on to assist in the laying of the foundations of a pit latrine for
Felix and Ensha. This involved laying 2 layers of bricks around the top of a 6
foot pit which had already been dug. We worked under the supervision of the
Silimi mason who kept a watchful eye over us. He had been trained by DAPP to
provide the masonry services to the village.
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| The pre dug pit for the latrine |
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| My handy work. I know what you're thinking, don't give up the day job! |
Once
the foundations were complete we then put the latrine slab on top of the bricks
which had been setting for the 5 previous days. After this was successfully
over the foundations we then packed soil around the brick foundations for
stability. The final part of the process was to mark out the boundary of where
the walls would then be built. They use something they call a G design for the
outside of the latrine which provides an entrance which gives no visibility of
the person using the latrine which ensures privacy.
It
was another fantastic afternoon and it felt great knowing that we’d helped a
number of families in the construction of better toilet facilities. The
construction process is really simple but it was obvious that this simple
technology could bring so many benefits to the local families. Another great
example of where WaterAid improve the lives of so many people.
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