BBC Lifeline appeal

Margarida with her family; her daughter Rosa died from Cholera aged six months old.

Credit: WaterAid / Suzanne Fenwick

The BBC Lifeline Appeal showed WaterAid’s work in Mozambique in a national broadcast just before Songs of Praise on BBC ONE on the evening of Sunday 20 November. Mozambique in Southern Africa is a desperately poor country where life expectancy is low and many children die before their fifth birthday.

The programme tells the stories of three people: Margarida and Hilario in the capital city Maputo and Manuel in the Niassa Province, Northern Mozambique.

Margarida’s precious daughter Rosa was just six months old when she died. There are over fourteen thousand people in the urban slum that Margarida lives in and none of them have access to clean, safe water. The sad fact is that Rosa could still be alive today if the community had access to safe, clean drinking water - something that we take for granted.

In poor countries around the world two million people, mainly children, die unnecessarily every year simply because they don’t have access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. That means one child dies every 15 seconds from water-related diseases; a shocking statistic.

Hilario has seen the benefits of WaterAid’s work.

Credit: WaterAid / Suzanne Fenwick

Hilario’s 56 and married with six children. He remembers how things were before WaterAid came to his district of Maputo.

“This whole area was one big swamp without any drainage. We had to try to dig a path for the water but it was hopeless and so many people suffered from malaria and cholera”

But now the whole area has been transformed. Thanks to WaterAid, a brand new drainage system has been installed. The charity’s local partner organisation ADASBU worked with local people to build the drains and then taught them how to keep them clean. The latrines are emptied regularly and the rubbish is collected daily. All the work is carried out by local people. Now that the streets are clean Hilario and his wife have set up a shop in their front yard selling bread and mangoes. Life in this community has much improved - they’re healthier, happier and have the basics of life - safe clean water.

Most Mozambicans live in the countryside. Niassa Province in the north is very dry and water is scarce. Women trek for miles to collect water from dirty swamps which are often shared with animals. This leaves little time to care for their family or children scarce time to go to school.

The village of Muita is home to six thousand people. Until recently there was no clean water here and very few latrines. Manuel Oragy is the “regulo” or chief of Muita.

“So many people used to get ill with diseases like cholera, diarrhoea, malaria and scabies. In one year seven children died of cholera.”

In 2001 WaterAid’s partner in this area, ESTAMOS, began to work with the villagers to improve life for the whole community.

Manuel Oragy’s maize crop, grown with the compost from his Ecosan latrine.

Credit: WaterAid / Suzanne Fenwick

The whole community were involved in choosing the solution for their village. WaterAid believes it’s important to show a range of options so that local people can choose a solution that is right for them. If a project is going to last it needs to be appropriate to local conditions, affordable and it must be built and managed by local people. Four years on there are three fully functioning, conveniently situated water pumps and most of the villagers now have a latrine in their home.

For their sanitation needs, Muita village chose WaterAid’s Ecosan Latrine which offers more than a healthier lifestyle – when it is mixed with ash and soil, the human waste creates a compost that costs nothing and is very effective as a fertiliser. Crops flourish and any compost or crops left over can be sold.

Working through its partners, WaterAid has helped over 300,000 people in Mozambique. But there are still over a billion people in the world who don’t have safe drinking water and over two and a half billion who don’t have adequate sanitation. Just £15 could provide one person with safe, clean water and sanitation, transforming someone’s life.

Please help WaterAid to continue providing safe clean water and sanitation facilities for those in need.