A village drinks safely in Mozambique
11 April 2008
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Mozambique country profile
| Millennium Development Goal 7:
Environment, Water and Sanitation
 More than half of all people in Mozambique have no
access to clean water. This isn't just a cause of inconvenience - it can be a
cause of illness and death, through diseases like diarrhoea and cholera.
A DFID-funded project recently brought clean water,
for the first time, to a suburb of Mozambique's capital, Maputo. Local people
now have safe water to drink - and the knock-on benefits have made huge changes
to local life.
Condemned to dirty water
The Fishers' Village, as the suburb is known, is
home to more than 20,000 people. Before February 2008, water was generally
obtained from household wells, as the village lacked a water supply system. But
there was no guarantee of cleanliness for water from this source, and it frequently
made villagers sick.
However, for many, there was no alternative -
buying water to drink and wash with costs 6 meticals (about 25 cents) per 25
litres, which is very expensive for the locals, many of whom live on less than a
dollar a day. For years, most of the residents of The Fishers' Village were
condemned to use dirty water.
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A new dawn
 To address this huge health risk, the Government's
Rural Water and Sanitation National Programme (supported by DFID) set about
installing an efficient supply network in the village. A sewage system was
constructed, water pipes were laid down and pumps were built. For the first time
since independence in 1975, local people had clean water to drink.
Ana Paula, 16, is a student at the village school
and the eldest daughter of her family. The new developments mean she can
concentrate on her education:
"With this in place I will have more time to
prepare my lessons, and care for my younger brothers. I used to wake up very
early at 4 in the morning and trek 4 kilometres to look for clean water."
"Sometimes, when we didn't have money to pay for the water we needed, I had to
work for other families. It was a painful situation. We usually have money when
father comes back from the sea, as he’s a fisherman. But when he’s not at home
life becomes very hard."
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Clean water changes lives
For Carlota Joana, 33, having access to clean water
has made her less dependent on others:
"This seems a miracle. I have never dreamed of
having drinking water in this neighbourhood. In 1990 I was
victim of an anti-personnel landmine, and, having lost my right leg, I came to stay
here at my sister's house. She took care of me, fetched water and did
everything."
"But when she died, I had to take over from her and take care of the
family. Then, because I couldn’t walk far with the support of crutches, things worsened. I always relied upon people’s goodwill - but that didn’t always come on
time. I congratulate the Government of Mozambique for this gift!"
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Beating malaria - and creating jobs
The chief of the neighbourhood, Benjamin Punguane,
is hugely pleased with the changes that have been made so far. He is confident
that, within a few months, everyone in the village will have drinking water at a
decent price - six times less than they used to pay the street vendors.
"The consequences of this investment are already visible,"
he says. "Before, we were
champions against cholera and diarrhoea. . . today we should worry about malaria.
Tackling malaria depends on a good sanitation system. We're addressing this by
building a new drainage ditch."
Benjamin also describes how more than 200 local youths
have found work as a result of the water project, either in helping build the new infrastructure or carrying out
administrative tasks. As DFID continues to support the Government in extending
clean water and sanitation across rural Mozambique, it is hoped that dirty water
will become a thing of the past for many other
villages.
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Key facts
- In Mozambique, DFID is the lead donor on
water, providing its funding through Direct Budget Support. In the
financial year 2007/08, DFID contributed £41 million in this way.
- The project in The Fishers' Village was part of the Rural Water and
Sanitation Programme, a wide-scale government effort to improve access to water
and sanitation amongst rural communities. The Government has also set up a new
Rural Water and Sanitation National Programme, which DFID is supporting as the
lead donor.
- In rural Mozambique, two-thirds of people do not have access to
secure sanitation and more than a half do not have access to clean
water.
- The percentage of people in Mozambique with access to
clean water rose from 41% in 2005 to 47% in 2007.
- Over the same period, the coverage of water supply increased from
43.1 to 48.7% in rural areas, and from 35 to 40% in urban areas.
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