Celebrating ten years of safe water

Ten years of safe water: Asha at one of the tapstands

Credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti

Ten years ago, the Barabara Ya Mwinyi community from the low income Temeke District of Dar es Salaam had to rely on traditional, hand-dug open wells for their drinking water.

Then, in 1997, WaterAid and our local partner WAHECO helped the community to drill a borehole fitted with an electric pump to bring water to two storage tanks and a network of six tapstands in the area.

Sixty five year old resident Asha Yusufkisemi was the founding member of the community's water and sanitation committee, which was responsible for planning the project, and now manages it.

Asha was motivated to volunteer her time to set the project up because the previous water situation was so terrible, as she describes:

"We had no protected well so we had to dig our own traditional well down at the bottom of the valley near the river," she explains. "We dug a hole that was two metres deep.

"During the dry season there was a lot of congestion there, because the water level would drop and we would each have to wait five to six hours for our turn to collect water.

"We had problems with diseases, including cholera. It was horrible, very horrible. I knew a few people who got it, and some people in other areas even died from it."

Now, a decade later, the new well has hugely improved life in the community. Without the daily burden of trekking to a distant water source and waiting hours for their turn to collect water, the women have much more time every day. And the threat of serious water-related diseases no longer looms as large.

A traditional, polluted water source in Temeke.

Credit: WaterAid / Marco Betti

Asha tells us what ten years of safe water means to her:

"I am a farmer, I have my own shaban (smallholding) out of town. Before we had the new tapstand some days I wouldn't go to the farm at all, I would just collect water all day, and store it so I could go to the farm the next day.

"We didn't have enough water. Some days we would have to decide that the water we got that day would just be for drinking. Washing and other purposes would have to wait until another day.

"Now there is no worry, I can wake up early in the morning and go to the farm and know I can come back and fetch water from the tapstand without there being a queue. Now I can spend more time at the farm growing cassava, rice and sweet potatoes."

Although now retired, Asha maintains an active interest in the water and sanitation committee.

"The committee is responsible for all the day to day activities of the water project. The committee cleans the reservoir and does all the things to make the project sustainable," she said.

The committee charges a nominal fee per bucket of water collected and the money funds maintenance, repairs, tapstand attendant wages and expansion of the network, meaning that other neighbouring communities will soon have similar success stories.

"All the women now have more time to do other activities compared with beforehand when we were all waiting at the traditional well. People who are employed are now able to get to their workplaces on time and farmers can spend more time on their farms. But the fact that the water is now safe is the best thing for me."