UNICEF assists Changoima Primary School with portable water

They often say “water is life”! Water anchors the existence and progress of so many things. In the typical African setting, this saying is a no brainer. The value of water can never be overestimated.

Changoima catholic primary school and the surrounding communities can now afford a smile as they can live the saying “water is life”. For many years, the school with the surrounding communities have suffered great want of portable water that could drive other developmental aspects of life. Often the people around this area have depended on a single borehole that was serviced time and again because it couldn’t contain the pressure of the big population.

Many pupils especially girls dropped out of school either because of pressure from parents to assist in fetching water or because of low levels of hygiene.

The surrounding community spent most of their valuable time fetching water; time which could have been used to do other developmental activities.

But thanks to UNICEF which has funded a project to provide portable water to the school and the surrounding community. Through this project, UNICEF has drilled a well where they have placed a solar powered submissive pump. This water is then channeled into the tanks that have been placed at the school, providing clean water to the school and the surrounding community. 

Commenting on the development, head teacher for Changoima primary, Felix Lockie applauded UNICEF for this great gift. He says with this project, many young boys and girls will be retained in school since they will have less work in their homes after school hours but also because of the hygiene that it will provide.

“Already we have begun seeing an upward trend in school attendance since the coming of this project. Without doubt, this project will go a long way assisting our learners and the surrounding community” said Lockie.

UNICEF handed over the facility to the community on 25th April 2021.

In a related development, SCOP Malawi is constructing water reservoirs to harvest and reuse water that goes unused through runoff.

Reported by Stella Chidetsa (Parish communications correspondent).

Here are images from the project.