Clean Water in Malawi
During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, one of the concerns we reacted to was the need to repair broken boreholes so communities had access to safe, clean water for drinking and washing their hands.
Since April, we have worked closely with District Councils to repairs hundreds of boreholes and will continue to do so.
Providing Safe and Clean Water
Malawians living in rural locations rely on boreholes to collect their water for drinking, cooking and washing. When the coronavirus pandemic reached Malawi in early 2020, the District Councils informed us that thousands of their boreholes were not working across their Districts.
Most people in rural Malawi do not have running water in their homes so have to walk to their nearest borehole. A borehole is a simple manual pump which provides fresh and clean water in Africa. By repairing the boreholes, we reduce the over-crowding at the ones that are working. One borehole supplies water to an average of 150 people several times a day each. Local schools benefit from these too.
borehole repair supplies
repairs underway at a borehole
team effort to fix boreholes
Repairing Boreholes in Malawi, Africa
Lots of charities put money into drilling new boreholes which is wonderful but very few organisations contribute ongoing funds for maintenance. Like everything, the boreholes can become damaged and need repairing but District Councils and the communities do not have the funds to do this.
Ripple Africa’s approach is very successful as it believes in working closely with both the community and local government structures. The District Councils have the staff who are capable of fixing boreholes but they lack the funds to purchase the spare parts or funds to get the teams out to where the boreholes are.
By supporting Ripple Africa, you can help us to fund these repairs which for a relatively small amount of money will make a huge difference to thousands of Malawian families by enabling them to have access to safe and clean water.
Believe it or not, some of the boreholes we have fixed have not been working for over 10 years. These simple repairs really do make a world of difference to people in such a very short space of time.
What Does a Borehole Cost in Africa?
To drill a new borehole would cost an average of £6,500/$8,000. However, a typical cost to repair a borehole is between £100 and £200 depending on the type of repair needed.
To keep the costs to a minimum, we normally fund 50 to 100 borehole repairs at one time.
Villagers have access to clean water