A Fond Farewell to Zambia

Hi,

We have our bags packed and waiting for our wonderful drivers to arrive for the short trip back to the airport.

A big thank you to all the WaterAid Zambia staff, drivers and WaterAid UK staff for making this trip so special and showing us the wonderful work that WaterAid are doing.

will see you all soon

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!!!

Friday 17th February

Details to follow

Just got back from visiting a post intervention peri urban area

Hello everyone,
Sorry I have been quiet for a couple of days - all is well, have just been so busy.  

I've just got back from visiting a posst intervention peri urban area and seen the water infrastructure they have in place.   Not really much different to at home, with collection and supply for water and billing!

I've also been to area that is in the process of Water Aid intervening and have helped with completing and installing a grass roof for a latrine and also helping with a roof construction.  

The people here are so friendly and welcoming and have a wonderful outlook onlife.  

We are so tired but also elated at the end of each day, we end up eating, at the debrief, and then asleep.

More later.....

Tuesday - A day in the life of - The people of Haboombe Village

Pictures will follow once back in the uk

These have been some of the friendliest people I have ever met!   We have spent a day with local people and all they want is clean water.   It's really difficult to put my feelings in to words.   We are all tired as we've been up since 3:45am.   I'll write more soon.

We were up early (3:45) for a 3 hour drive to the village of Haboombe, none of us we really sure what this would entail. We headed off along a tarmac road in our 4x4’s (a big clue) and soon we were onto dirt roads which eventually turned into tracks. The driver’s skills at negotiating the water etc was impressive, they made the journey seem easy!!!

On arrival the first thing to strike us was the joyous and happy reception we received form the villagers who had been waiting for this day to arrive when WaterAid and the supporters would arrive.

Here are some key facts about Hamoombe village.

Hamoombe Village is in Moomba Ward and is part of the Monze region of Zambia

The village has 28 households and a population of 283 an average of 10 people per household

The main problem encountered by the village is a lack of a clean water supply, we are the first external visitors that the villagers have seen. The villagers talked about their desire to have a clean and close water supply that would reduce the amount of water bourne illnesses that they encounter and also reduce the amount of time they spend collecting the river water. This would enable them to grow other crops and possibly enable them to be able to sell some and create some further income.

I have been paired up with Sally from Welsh Water for the day and we are spending the day with Les Hamoombe who was born in 1926 in the next district and founded this particular village in 1985 when their current village was unable to support them as the maize fields were too far away.

Our translator for the day is Clement We spent the first part of the day talking with Les Haboombe and his extended family who explained to us the that they have 12 people in their household and that they collect about 85 litres of water per day, currently this is a 10 minute walk down to the stream (which we went to see later)

During rainy season water is only a few hundred yards away (as now)

Main water supply is 7km away and this is a round trip of 4 hours to collect and sometimes have to go further which is a 6 hour round trip

All go to collect water and they will collect 85 litres per day for 12 people, when water is scare they will go without washing of clothes / dishes and themselves, hygiene becomes an even greater problem for them.

One of the main tasks other than collecting water is to pound maize to become meal, each bowl will produce enough meal for 4 people and they have to pound 3 bowls per day. The maize is mixed with the river water that has been collected.. the other main tasks of the day are to collect fire wood, make fire, tend to the crops, collect water and collect vegetables.

When the village started the land needed to be cleared of trees and also animals, elephants and hyenas were frequent visitors and now elephants are a rare site, the last time they passed through was April 2011. Remaining are warthogs and monkeys, both of which cause problems to the crops, so the villagers have to protect the crops. We were also informed that lions were occasionally seen ( we hoped that today was not one!!!)

After we had finished talking we went down to the river to collect water with the family, I was not really fully prepared for what we saw. The river was very dark in colour and contained contained human and animal excrement, fortunately none was visible but the thought of what was in  the water was making me feel a little queasy.

We spend a little while down at the river and assisted Nellie with collecting water, this she done by clearing a bowl in the sand and waited for the water to start to fill and then scooped the water into a container. This was when it really dawned on us thet these people have NO CHOICE about the water they drink and use for cooking and cleaning with.. Sally and I helped carry 25 litres of water back to the village, we were exhausted at the end of this trip and could not imagine carry the water for 4kms. We were amazed though at the ease with which Nellie was able to lift the water container onto her head and carry with ease!!!

Some points raised were

• How many more communities are in their position?
• Local authorities are given finance but not enough gets to the people really in need.
• They do not want to move away as they would refer to have their village developed.
• Betty Haboombe asked if the funds could go direct to the village for them to arrange for a pump to be installed.

Once the meeting with the villagers closed we then got back into our vehicles for the 3 hour drive back along the rural tracks and crossing streams etc.

Our thoughts at the end of the day were how positive the village were and that they really understood the benefits of having a clean water supply and having pit latrines – lets hope their dreams become a reality!!

Making contact

It's Monday evening and I've arrived safely and have met the Assistant District Commissioner.   We're all tired but looking forward to an interesting day tomrorow.

We've arrived and ....

Good morning!   We have arrived and it's madness!   Zambia won the African Cup of Nations yesterday and there was great excitement on the plane when it was announced. The plane was surrounded when we landed and we had to wait for security to clear everyone away, the pilot commented that he had never had such a reaction to a landing before!!! All of the local people thought that we might be the conquering footballers returning home - really bizarre!

Once we got out of the airport the scenes on the streets were of sheer joy and elation, loads of cars / trucks etc driving around with flags / banners tooting horns. great scenes.

Off to WaterAid's offices in Lusaka where we met all of the team from Lusaka and had an introduction to the work undertaken in the 2 main areas of Upla and Monze.

after a couple of hours at WaterAid;s offices we were then off on our 3 hour journey to Monze and the Golden Pillow Lodge. Time for a bit of a rest,