This project was designed to construct additional pipelines to the existing distribution systems in order to ensure running, quality water for the entire village. The project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteer Catherine Richardson.
To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.
Catherine reports as follows:
First of all, I’d like to thank you so much for Water Charity’s contribution to our project in Moldova, both from myself and from my community. I don’t know how we would have completed this without Water Charity. We have finished the work and our village is now fully connected to water!
At the beginning of my second year in my village, I wasn’t sure what to do. We were working on completing a pretty big project and I didn’t have any ideas of things to do after that. During a site visit with program staff, we met with my partner and he told us about all these ideas he had. They all seemed rather extraordinary and I wasn’t sure how I would be able to do any of them.
One of the things my partner, the mayor, told us is that during the planning of the village water system, the developer had left out an entire section. It wasn’t just a small part of the village near the river or anything either, it was the center of town, where everything is. There are a few small shops around town that aren’t in the center, but most of the places villagers need to go are. So this entire section did not have access to water outside of wells that were bad quality. This section included the health center, Orthodox church, Seventh-Day Adventist church, City Hall, Municipal Services, Fire Department, Cultural House, sports school, and 15 residential houses.
I learned that the village had been working towards connecting everyone to the water distribution system but that it was slow going and money had really just run out, so here we are with a health center that doesn’t have water, and people that still get sick from the quality of water in the wells. If we could figure out some way to get funds for the 20 percent of the village that didn’t have access to running water through the village’s distribution system, we could have 100 percent connectivity. Enter Water Charity!
The Municipal Services department chose a reputable company in the capital that specializes in exactly the type of materials we needed, and they brought all the necessary materials back to the village and began work. With good weather, the work was completed quickly. This involved bringing in a tractor with a rotor that dug 1 meter into the ground, along 1 kilometer of road. In the residential area, Municipal Services workers helped the residents of those houses to dig from their house to the road to connect to the piping that went in along the main line. This ended up connecting all of the aforementioned places. Once the piping was in and connected to each beneficiary, the ground was replaced once more.
At the culmination of our project, a representative from Peace Corps Moldova came to visit to see the scope of the work. We had the opportunity to speak with one of the villagers who didn’t have water prior to this project, and she was so happy to speak with us, and so excited to be able to use the water, especially for her garden. We also visited the health center, which now had water in the examination rooms, and we all got to test the water that now came from the tap! The director of the health center was very thankful, because it had been so difficult to do the work they needed to do there without water – water is essential to life and health!
Everyone is very excited about this development, and the fact that now the whole village has access to running water. This project has been very meaningful and feels like a huge accomplishment for them and for me.
Thank you again for providing support for this important and essential task. The citizens of Caplani, Moldova are so grateful!
We, in turn, wish to express our gratitude to Catherine for completing this excellent project.