Malawi
Context
Landlocked Malawi is among the world's poorest countries. Most of its 11 million people live in rural areas, where population density is high and water-related diseases and HIV/AIDS are widespread. Official figures for water and sanitation cannot be relied upon and often include broken facilities.
- Only 15-30% of the rural population has access to a latrine
- HIV/AIDS affects 30% of those living in urban areas and 15% of the rural population
- Nearly half the population is under 15 years old and many are orphans
What has WaterAid achieved?
- WaterAid has revived old approaches to composting latrines and developed social marketing programmes to encourage take-up. Nearly 3,000 latrines have been constructed.
- 203 hand dug wells have been constructed by WaterAid in the Salima District, bringing safe water to 26,177 people.
- 24 out of Malawi's 28 districts have now been mapped through a WaterAid-initiated mapping project.
- In the Machinga District, existing piped water systems have been rehabilitated by WaterAid. One scheme will provide 15,000 people with a safe water supply.
WaterAid's programme in Malawi
WaterAid has been working in Malawi since 1999 and works in partnership with district governments, a local non governmental organisation (NGO), a church-based organisation and a public water company.
WaterAid is concentrating on rehabilitating existing water systems in Malawi rather than building new ones. We help communities to set up water and sanitation committees which have responsibility for the overall management of water projects.
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Credit: WaterAid /
Jon Spaull |
Case study
18 year old Hawa Salimua lives in Mzalule village, where WaterAid's partner, Salima District Assembly, recently installed a handpump.
I collect water from this handpump three times a day. The water is much sweeter than it used to be when it was an open well. I feel that my children will be born into a much better future because of this clean water.
Price points:
£2.50 could pay for the mapping of one waterpoint using GPS £15 could pay for the tools needed to construct a hand dug well £90 could pay for the cement to build a shallow well with a two metre apron and drain £513 could pay for a drilled shallow well and handpump
Films/technology/other links:
Sanitation in Malawi (film)
Agnes and the crocodiles (film)
The Salima District Project
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Malawi Sources:
World Bank (2011) World Development Indicators database - databank.worldbank.org, WHO / UNICEF (2010) Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) report 2010, UNDP (2011), Human Development Report 2011 NB. Official statistics tend to understate the extent of water and sanitation problems, sometimes by a large factor. There are not sufficient resources available for accurate monitoring of either population or coverage. Varying definitions of water and sanitation coverage are used and national figures mask large regional differences in coverage. 
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What we do
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