The water effect; Life in all its fullness!

BY JUSTICE MANGANDA
The author is the Communications Officer for World Vision Malawi-WASH
Leonardo da Vinci, one of the great men of the
Renaissance described water as the driving force of all
nature. It is a very well-known fact that without potable
water life would be impossible and this is why today we say
that water is life!
World Vision Malawi (WVM) is part of World Vision
International, an international partnership of Christians,
whose mission is to follow our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human
transformation, seek justice and bear witness to the good
news of the Kingdom of the living God.
In its quest to provide life in all its fullness, WVM instituted a
long term Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
programme in line with governments water and sanitation
policies.
WASHs main goal is to significantly improve childrens
well-being by enabling families and communities to
achieve sustainable access to adequate potable water,
improved sanitation facilities and good hygiene practices.

commemorate this years World Water Day whose

theme is Water and Sustainable Development. With
water being the driving force of all nature, World Vision
Malawi has been making sustained efforts to have
increased access to sustainable and safe water supply
for the poor, vulnerable communities and children.

going to school. My sister and I no longer suffer from

diarrhoea like we used to and I am thankful to God
through World Vision for the borehole provided to us,
recalls Yamikani.
It is stories like these that encourage and motivate World
Vision staff and partners across the world to want to do
more in serving the people out there.

The majority of World Visions activities focus on the

well-being of children as they are vulnerable to many
situations and above all form the core future of
generations to come.
With this passion as the driving factor, by 2017 World
Vision Malawi intends to reach out to all its 31 Area
Programmes (APs) which are in 28 of the countrys 31
districts with its WASH programme. This is backed by an
investment plan to spend up to US$47 million.

safe water. There are also numerous young boys and

girls like Yamikani and Elina who cannot go to school
properly because they are in various ways affected
by diseases that come as a result of drinking and
using unsafe water.

Such stories
something.

The terraine to Sikedi village.

Interaction with people who are benefitting from World

Vision WASH programmes is quiet an amazing and
humbling experience. One learns how lives of women
and children have been transformed as a result of such
investments.

should

challenge

everyone

to

do

As part of its ongoing efforts, World Vision Malawi will on

1st
April
2015
officially
commission
the
Chikwina-Mpamba Gravity Fed Piped Water Supply
System which is in the area of T/A Nyaluwanga in
Nkhatabay district.
This is one of the largest WASH projects that World Vision
Malawi started implementing in 2004 and the first phase
of the project has now successfully completed. World
Vision Malawi invested money and resources worth over
US$5 million towards the completion of this project
alone.

Tank 3 at the Chikwina-Mpamba Gravity Fed Water Supply System.

Eight year old Elina Mpezenji and her brother Yamikani

aged 10 of Sikedi village T/A Chitekwere within the
catchment area of Nkhoma ADP in Lilongwe are healthy
children today because they are able to access safe
and potable water from a borehole provided to them by
World Vision Malawi.
Ever since I was born my brother and I have been
suffering from diarrhoea each and every month up to
the point that sometimes we could not go to school. My
performance was always poor for I could be absent
from school for 3 weeks per term suffering from
diarrhoea. I am thankful today because I can now enjoy
this very clean water, narrates Elina while smiling.

Even schools have fresh tap water.

According to the most recent report by the World Health

Organisation about 50 percent of Malawians live below the
national poverty line, while 17 percent lack access to water
and about 92 percent do not have access to proper
sanitation facilities. This is a serious situation that calls the
attention of everyone in the country if our dream to provide
life in all its fullness is to be realised.
Malawi will join the global community on March 22 to

Road access to Sikedi Village is a challenge and one

can only wonder today what it took for the drilling
machine to reach the place.
In an interview, the childrens father explained that the
effort they took in order to save their lives centred on
determination, team spirit and knowledge of how to
address their basic need.
We covered up the ridge with a temporal bridge for the
drilling machine to pass through; you cannot believe
this, but it took us 5 days to finish; indeed we did this for

Yamikani and Elina, all smiles.

our children to have access to clean and safe water,

said John Mpezenji.
The village is surrounded by hills and has a high number
of women and school going children apart from
Yamikani and Elina. The children most of the times are
the ones to draw water for household chores.
Before this borehole we were drinking water from a
spring where pigs, dogs and goats also depended on
as their source of water. My mother could wake us up
very early in the morning to fetch water before we go to
school while she prepared us porridge.
Because of the little water fetched every morning, we
could not even bother to take a bath but rather rush to
school. Today we are able to fetch water at our own
convenient time and we always take a bath before

World Vision staff sharing ideas at the constuction site.

This reveals that Malawis task is great, hence the

need for concerted efforts to change the future for
the betterment of our children.
Intake Weir on Manyenyezi Stream, Chikwina-Mpamba.

This new water facility has 5 water storage tanks with a

total capacity of 325 cubic meters and 210 water taps
reaching out to a population of approximately 25,000
people
including
all
schools
along
the
Chikwina-Mpamba road.
There are many other areas out there, very difficult to
reach like Sikedi Village, still struggling with no access to

As we commemorate the World Water Day this year,

let us remember that only healthy people can
contribute effectively to the development of our
nation. This is our call, not only as World Vision but all
people that live and love people. Water is life and
being the driving force of all nature, together we can
contribute to the well-being of our children by
providing potable water and change the future from
Good to Great!