On the face of it you may think that providing clean safe water to the people of Bokola and Kaniche is as simple as digging a well. Unfortunately that’s not the case.
Over the last few weeks Nathan and Michael have been working tirelessly with village elders and the wider community to put in place action plans.
One of the most important parts of these plans is hygiene education and planning for the building of latrines. As you may have noticed this week the latrine building is nearly finished in both villages and there is a strong sense of progress.
Latrines aren’t the most glamorous part of our work, and lack the drama of the drilling rigs we will see in September, but they play a vital role. Without somewhere safe to go to the toilet there’s a high risk of human waste entering the water table, which is something the communities have been working hard to avoid. The work has been done by community members themselves people like Velina, who has singlehandedly dug three pits. For Grace, who we have been following regularly, the hard work has paid off and her latrine just needs a roof.
The dire need for clean fresh water was brought into sharp focus this week as highlighted in the story of the scoop. The dry season is at its peak and situation got worse this week for the women of Bokola village who had to work frantically to deepen the water scoop to allow them to get enough water just to live normally. All or their hard work came to nothing and the small amount of filthy water they did collect had to be rationed. Never before has the need to share and donate been more acute than now.
