Kauma Village Water Project

Another urgent Marion Medical Mission project in 2000 was to provide a squatters area known as Kauma Village, with safe drinking water. 17,000 people live in this area, smashed together in deplorable conditions, inside the Capital City of Lilongwe. They had been getting their drinking water from open polluted ponds resulting in the spread of various diseases including Cholera. Together, working with the Capital City Baptist Church and 7 churches in Kauma Village we extended a city water main providing 32 water taps to 8 locations. Now for the first time these 17,000 people have safe drinking water.

Kauma Village is a squatters area where an estimated 17,000 people live. The Capital City of Lilongwe, Malawi surrounds it on the east, south and west. It has grown up, largely as a squatters type village, outside of the services provided by the government in Lilongwe. Many of the residents have moved to the Lilongwe area from their home villages, looking for jobs. They have many of the problems of city life without the city services. They have many of the problems of rural life without the traditional family and village support structures in place.

The villagers were still forced to drink from dirty streams or open stagnant water holes. In 1998, a Peace Corps worker asked Marion Medical Mission (MMM) if they could help provide clean water. MMM looked at the problem and investigated putting shallow wells in the area. These shallow wells provide good drinking water in the less densely populated areas to the north of Kauma Village, but in the village itself, the population density is high enough that the wells would quickly become contaminated. However, Kauma Village was only 1 kilometer from an 8-inch city water line but the city did not have the funds to extend piped water into Kauma Village.

Kauma Water Taps

Loading a bucket of water from a tap

When Tom Logan and Jim McGill discovered the nearness of the city water line, they were determined to find a way to tap into it. They approached the Capital City Water Board to extend the line and install water kiosks but the board wanted around $31,000 to do the work. MMM connected with Rev. Bobby Maynard of the Capital City Baptist Church who was working with 7 churches in Kauma Village to develop an orphanage and other health projects. By making it a self help project, like most of the other MMM projects, they were able to do job for $14,291, all donated by MMM. The villagers provided the labor to dig the ditches and provided sand and stone.

Since it was not practical to put water lines into everyone's home, they established 8 Water Kiosks where the villagers could buy clean water. Each kiosk has 4 actual water taps or faucets for drawing water.

Each Water Kiosk is the responsibility of a specific church in the Kauma village. This church will collect a small fee, equivalent to 1 cent US or less, per bucket of water. Then, they will be responsible to pay the monthly water bill to the city. There were, of course, problems getting the lines installed, the kiosks built etc., but with the help of the local churches, the project was finished in January 2001 and all 8 kiosks are in use.

This water project in Kauma is just one more way that Marion Medical Mission is trying to provide clean water to the people of Malawi. While shallow wells have been the most successful and popular method used so far, they are only a tool to be used where they are appropriate. The real goal is to improve the health and life style of the people in need.

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Water Kiosk

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Water Kiosk

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Orphan Housing being built in Kauma

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