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Many of the health problems throughout the underdeveloped world are water-related. This is especially true in the rural areas of Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia, Africa where the people suffer from dysentery and other water-borne diseases. Most of the villages depend on surface water collected from open ponds and water holes similar to the one pictured here. The Synod of Livingstonia, Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP), has a goal of making safe water available to everyone - even those in the most remote areas of Malawi. In 1990, missionary Jim McGill approached Marion Medical Mission with a way to provide safe water to villages using shallow wells that are sealed against surface pollution. The first year, we installed 13 wells. Since then the number has increased to the point that we have installed over 8800 wells by 2008. These wells provide well over 2,000,000 people with safe water. |
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While we started with the CCAP Synod of Livingstonia, we now also
partner with the CCAP Synod of Nkhoma in Malawi and the CCAP Synod of Zambia in Zambia and
with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT). It costs approximately $350 to install a shallow well. That comes to an average of about one dollar per day for a year! This is because the wells are built in cooperation with the villagers. The wells are self-help projects. Marion Medical Mission only provides what they cannot; the pipe, the pump, the concrete and some trained labor. The villagers make the brick and supply much of the labor. Each village signs a contract agreeing to pay an annual maintenance fee so spare parts are available. |
| The shallow wells are located approximately one-half mile from the
village, close to the location of the old water source. When completed, each well provides
from 100 to 300 people with safe drinking water. Marion Medical Mission receives thank you notes from village Head Men for their new shallow well. Our favorite one said: "We didn't think we would have anything this nice in our lifetime." |
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Inscribed on the concrete top slab of every well Marion Medical Mission installs is "Glory Be To God" in both English and in the local language. In Chitumbuka, this is "Uchindami Kwa Chiuta". After the pump is installed but before the well is turned over to the village, a dedication ceremony is held, with a prayer being offered by one of the villagers, thanking God for the well and asking Him to bless the village and the new well. |
| After the prayer a shallow well maintenance team member demonstrates how the pump works. The villagers and the shallow well committee are reminded of their agreement to pay the annual maintenance fee equal to about $5 to $10 so that spare parts are available to repair the well if it breaks. They are also told how to contact their maintenance person if they have trouble with the well. They are told that if their well breaks, they are to contact the maintenance person who will come and repair the well. If the well is repaired quickly, they should give the maintenance person a gift for his effort, such as a chicken, since he is a volunteer and does not otherwise get paid for the work. |
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This is miraculous. This is special. Not only do these wells provide safe water, but the cases of bloody dysentery have dropped dramatically. These wells represent real development; development that is sustained by the villages. Each village has the responsibility of providing and maintaining the safe drinking water it needs. |
In addition, the shallow well maintenance team now manufactures pumps at the Embangweni Hospital. In a letter to Marion Medical Mission on April 27, 1996, Mr. Soko, head of the shallow well maintenance team, said "We are No. 1 in the country of Malawi on pump manufacturing, well building and pump installing, so this is something very great! This has made me feel so happy. Please let everybody know about this. We are number 1 in supplying good water to the people!"
Presbyterian Missionary Judy Jewett, the former Acting Administrator of Embangweni Hospital, is enthusiastic about the benefits of the shallow well program. She reported, "It's wonderful! Wherever the wells are installed, we at the Hospital see a one-hundred percent drop in children with dysentery. Safe water virtually eliminates that health threat."
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