Day 5 – Part 2: Muzoka (pre-intervention)

On the afternoon of day 5 we visited Muzoka; a pre-intervention, urban settlement. Muzoka is a junction town on the main road from Lusaka to Livingstone and it’s main source of income is the passing trade at their local market.

Muzoka

Before we went to meet with the community we were giving a briefing from WaterAid and SWASCO as they wanted to explain a few things before we went into the town. We were advised that Muzoka is ‘scoping in action’ as it is currently being considered for investment by WaterAid. The community has little or no awareness of WaterAid’s work and we were told not to make any offers of help as their needs were still being assessed. WaterAid and SWASCO are currently working with the community and the head man to understand their water and sanitation needs.

Following our initial briefing we were taken into the community for an open forum discussion with the households, SWASCO and representatives from their local council. We were welcomed by Mr Tembo, the council Chairman and introduced to the local councillor and Vincent Machumba, a representative from the local market. They would all be speaking on behalf of the community during our questions and answer session. Mr Ndilla from SWASCO then stood up and told the community that the aim of our afternoons visit was for us to get an understanding of their water supply issues and then went on to tell the community not to expect a solution from our visit as it was more of an information sharing session.

Our meeting with the Muzoka community

The Council Chairman spoke next and outlined the last few years of the towns’ history and their current water situation. They currently have two boreholes with pumps but one is situated at the school and they have limited access and the other is in the town but apparently breaks every other week. Muzoka, Chisekesi and Batoka were all identified as development cases in 1989. From my understanding this meant that the town and council had to prioritise their required services. They told us that education, health and electricity were their priorities as they already had access to water in the form of open wells. They understood that this water gave them health issues but their comment was that they thought the water situation would be resolved naturally! To me this clearly showed a community which had not yet benefited from the education WaterAid provides. As they originally prioritised education, health and electricity these services had been provided; they have a local school, a small medical centre and an electricity supply.

We went on to ask a bit more about their water issues. The demand for water in Muzoka is now a lot greater as they have an ever increasing population (2500 people). However, they are blessed with more water in the rainy season but this is in the open wells near the side of a main road. They advised that they welcomed the opportunity to tell us of their water issues as they receive little to no support from their government due to other priorities.

The local councillor for Muzoka then gave a speech about the towns’ issues. There is not enough water for the community due to the ever growing population. The council provides boreholes but these are to be shared by the ward and can be shared by up to 50 people. Their view is that each village requires more than 3 boreholes each to meet demand. The whole ward only has 30 boreholes which results in three villages sharing one borehole. Some villages still collect water from open wells and dams shared by animals. They know that the water quality is not good and they all fear diseases. Some people try to dig for water to avoid drinking contaminated supplies. These hand dug wells dry up in August and September, in the dry season. If people want water from the pump they need to rise at 3am and stand in a queue which can be up to 30 metres by 5am. They council may be providing the ward with five boreholes but this is still not enough. Woman in the ward are suffering as some still need to walk for 4km to collect water carrying 20 litre containers. Each family needs five containers for just one day.

Muzoka town

The councillors went on to tell us about the sanitation situation in Muzoka. Only a small minority of the households have latrines but due to the way they’re constructed a lot of them collapse in the rainy season. They cannot afford to buy cement to build solid foundations. Some people are forced to go to the toilet in the bush.

Next we asked about the water pumps and how the community currently maintains them. They advised that each borehole has a committee and an area pump minder who have the overall responsibility for the pump. The local householders all pay a monthly fee of 3500 kwacha (roughly £0.50) to go towards repairs. This all goes into a shared bank account. It was obvious that this process was not working in Muzoka as they’d already told us that their pump breaks every other week. Another clear example of a community in need of WaterAid support and education. This visit was the polar opposite of the experience we had in Mavwili (a post intervention community).

As we now had an understanding of the support process WaterAid followed we asked if the community would be willing to re-organise themselves in readiness for WaterAid investment, if they were able to help. They seemed willing to do what was required as they were very keen to receive some support. They advised that they had previously set up committees in preparation for support they had been given from other charities. I wondered what had went wrong to cause the water pumps installed by other charities to fail. Was it just over use of the pumps or a community which hadn’t received the necessary training and education to enable them to take ownership for their own services?

To conclude our visit we were taken to see two of their water points; one of the open wells and the hand pump within the town which breaks every other week. The well was just yards from the main road which passes through Muzoka and it was clear to see that the water was extremely contaminated. There was even a diesel spill just meters from the water body. The well is only 2 metres deep and is not easy to access due to the water logged ground. The only protection for the supply was an old fence around the perimeter that looked like it would collapse at any moment. Not a nice thing to see!

The open well in Muzoka

Diesel spill a metre away from the open well, their water source!

 Lastly we saw the six year old water pump which was currently out of service. This had been installed by another charity which was another great example of where training and education is more important than simply installing a pump. It was clear that the community didn’t have the knowledge to properly look after the pump so they would really benefit from WaterAid giving them the sense of ownership and pride which was so clear to see in Mavwili village (WaterAid success story).

Our day in Muzoka was a less positive experience but the one thing I left with was the knowledge that WaterAid have the right approach. All the people of Muzoka needed was a bit of support and education to give them the sense of ownership and pride to look after their own water and sanitation services. Hopefully our continued fundraising will mean that Muzoka get the investment they so dearly need.