Pre-Borehole Notes (Mar 2018)

Swalele Village, T/A Ngokwe, Machinga.

Swalele has 150 families with a population of around 500 people.  There are 20 villages in the surrounding area which use the same water source.  If we are successful installing a water well, the surrounding 20 villages are going to use it.  The 20 villages have 243 households in total and approximate population of 1,000 people.  The nearest borehole is 3 kms or 1.9 miles away.

Existing challenges today:

• During the dry season, they must wait a long time for their turn to draw one bucket of water.  This delay causes women to fight or quarrel as they struggle for the limited source of water.  They go to draw water at 4 AM and they return at 10 AM.  This disrupts home organization; it brings some marriage problems; students go very late to school, especially girls.
• More than 20 people have suffered from diarrhea this year alone and mainly children.
• Five people suffered from dysentery this year.
• This year, three people were bitten by snakes as they were going to the current water source.
• Two people died in October of 2018 due to diarrhea.