Saturday 18th February - Ngombe settlement urban pre intervention

Ngombe settlement urban pre intervention

Ngombe is a slum area in Lusaka which measures about 2 km radius with a population of 80,000 people which has risen from 35,000 in 2005.

My first thoughts on returning from the settlement are very difficult to put into words. What we have seen today has left me feeling very low and somewhat helpless. We have seen a part of the settlement where the really poor in this society go to wash their clothes and use the water to wash their eating and cooking utensils and themselves. If you think this is bad, some of the children even drink this water. Now for the really shocking bit, the stream that they use is highly polluted with the following:

• Human waste
• Animal waste
• Dead animals thrown into it
• A dump has formed by the stream
• The stream runs through a cementary

Can you imagine the pollutants that will be in this??

What choice do these people have? Little at the moment, this is why WaterAid and their partners exist to bring education about the use of clean water and the effects this on peoples lives, education about sanitation and  providing  clean water.

This is a BIG task ahead – some really good work is going on in the settlement re education, providing latrines and toilets for use and I will explain more on this later.

This is my first post about today and need to get something down asap. It is truly heartbreaking to see children playing around this water supply, drinking from it, wearing clothes washed in it and eating food served on dishes and using cutlery clean it it.

I will leave you with this thought – would you be happy for your family to live in this environment? We have a choice – these people have No Choice!!!