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Water babies
Bringing a child in to the world should be a moment of joy and celebration. But if you are a woman living in one of the world's poorest countries, with no safe water and sanitation, your journey through pregnancy and childbirth can be difficult and dangerous. Report by Tamsin Maunder. As the collectors of water, women often have to spend hours each day walking and queuing to collect water. They fill their containers of around 20kg and carry their heavy load home on their head, back or hips. This is a daily task and one that does not cease when they are pregnant. Even as their baby grows inside them, they spend their hours toiling in the hot sun to collect their family's water. Often though the water they work so hard to collect is unsafe to drink - causing themselves and their families to become sick or even die. The women from Aurigo in Ghana know of this problem only too well. The main source of water in their village is a muddy dugout hole in a cluster of trees, shared by animals. It is 20 minutes' walk downhill from the village, so water has to be carried uphill on the return journey home. The water level falls month by month throughout the dry season until March when it dries up completely. Then the community's women have to walk seven kilometres to the White Volta River to fetch their water until the rains come again in July - a journey that takes several hours. "I am expecting my baby this month," explains Sakina Nyene. "I used to come to collect water more than once each day, but now my belly is too heavy and I can only collect water once. Other women will bring me water on the day of my baby's birth. After that I will have to collect it myself. We know this water isn't safe but we have no choice. If we don't get clean water then I won't be able to wash my baby or give him a drink when he is born." Her friend Atndtoma who is also pregnant continues "It is hard to collect water while pregnant. My shoulders, wrists and chest hurt. I will have to carry on collecting water until I deliver." People like Lente Hichime, from Rusangu Hamakamo in Zambia, a warm and caring woman who has spent years helping mothers with seemingly ceaseless energy. "Before we just used to use our bare hands," she explains. "Then I was given a birthing kit by the health department as part of the training which helps a lot." But, there is a big problem that all of Lente's enthusiasm cannot solve. There is no safe water in her village. "This well is our only source of water, and when we drink it, it gives us stomach pain and diarrhoea. We do not have enough water for all our needs, I am often not able to wash mothers after they have delivered their baby, or wash the baby, because there is no water to spare. Mothers have to give this water to their children to drink and they get very sick. Several children have died this year from diarrhoea."
For new mothers the lack of water can be excruciating as Darou Nuri from Kulufo-Shegeder, Ethiopia describes. "It used to be very difficult to even get enough water for drinking and so when you gave birth it was very difficult to get enough water for cleaning the baby and your clothes. There is a fluid called 'atmet' made of barley and water that mothers drink when they give birth. Before it was difficult to make this and mothers would be so thirsty waiting for this drink. When I gave birth to my first child I remember that my mother took seven hours to collect water and so I had to wait for seven hours to get the atmet and it hurt so much." Back in Aurigo in Ghana, Ladi is only grateful that her five day old baby was born while there was still water in the muddy scoophole. "If my baby had been born later in the dry season and the dug-out had been empty, I would not have had water at all," she says. "Everybody would be struggling then to get water from the river, and I would have been too weak to carry the baby all the way there. It would have been very bad for me if I had had my baby two months later." In these circumstances water becomes even more of a precious commodity "Water is often brought as a present - a special gift," says Nairukoki from Loolera village in Tanzania. "For a mother who has just given birth the most important gift is water." But it does not have to be like this. WaterAid's projects enable communities to set up safe water supplies and sanitation facilities close to home, and help people to learn about safe hygiene too. And the difference they make to women during pregnancy and childbirth is amazing. Lente, the birth attendant from Zambia knows the difference water would make and is looking forward to this day that will be coming soon. "When we have clean water I will be able to wash mothers and their new born babies, we will have less disease and fewer children will die," she says. WaterAid's findings back up Lente's words. In a recent study exploring the impacts of WaterAid's work in Madagascar results in several villages showed that the death rates of new born babies and their mothers had significantly lowered. Darou knows of the changes first hand. Safe, clean water is now on tap in her village, and she had a very different experience when she gave birth to her beautiful baby girl, Neserie. "Now it is very easy as we have plenty of clean water for our needs," she says. "When I gave birth to my youngest everything was ready because we had this clean water. I was able to get the atmet on time and I was able to wash the baby, myself and my clothes straight away." The World Development Report stated that for every 10% increase in female literacy you can expect a 10% increase in life expectancy at birth. So if Darou's wishes come true and Neserie has a full education then the future of her children will be even brighter, and all because there is now clean water flowing from the village taps. Tamsin Maunder is WaterAid's Publications Manager. Project updateThe project work in Rusangu Hamakumo, Zambia, is now complete, which means that Lente and the 350 other residents have safe water on tap. WaterAid is now working with its partner Rural Aid in Ghana to explore the possible ways of ensuring that the women in Aurigo will be able to collect safe, clean water close to home too.
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