Kabende Primary School Borehole Project – Zambia

This project is made possible through the partnership of Water Charity and the National Peace Corps Association.

Location
Kabende Primary School, Mansa District, Luapula Province, Zambia

Community Description
The Kabende community is rural and, there is no electricity or running water. Community members live in mud huts with grass thatch roofs. Most community members rely on farming as their source of income.  Kabende Primary School is about 25 km or 15.1 miles from the Provincial Capital of Mansa.

Problem Addressed
The school was utilizing an open well that would completely dry up in the hot season. This forced the young pupils, mostly girls, to walk long distances in search of an alternate source of water.

Project Description
A borehole at Kabende Primary School well will be drilled deeper and repaired.  Afterward, a handpump will be installed. The well will be covered, and therefore, offer cleaner drinking water than an open well.

During the construction process, the community will provide labor, sand, and stone for the project. The value of these contributions should be about 20% of the full project cost.

A broken, merry-go-round style “play pump,” installed in 2009, exists at this location, but it is all rusted, and has not worked in years. The local Mansa Municipal Council will assist in removing the merry-go-round (it will be installed elsewhere for children to play on).  The remaining cement slab will be demolished so that all the rusted, iron pipes can be removed.  A pedestal and hand pump will then be installed with PVC piping. The depth of the current borehole is 30.8 meters and the static water level is 10 meters.

The students will be engaged in the process of “sensitizing” the community, teaching them how to use and maintain the well. Teachers have prepared a class on the water, sanitation, and proper utilization of the borehole. Course discussions include information about boiling drinking water, chlorine usage, washing hands after latrine use, and proper hygiene. Following the course, students will create sketches, poems, and songs on various scenarios around water and sanitation. The students will then showcase their creations to sensitize the community at large. The Mansa Municipal Council (the local project partner) will be present to discuss maintenance topics and spare part prices.

Project Impact

This project will impact 533 people directly, 526 students and 7 teachers.  This will also benefit visitors to the school and future students.

Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Emily McKeone

Monitoring and Maintenance
The school and surrounding communities have been involved in every step of this project’s progress. They will be responsible for monitoring and maintaining the well. It is a truism, that development without community engagement is not sustainable.

These boreholes have an expected lifetime of 50 years.

Kabende Primary School has formed a maintenance committee to monitor and protect the borehole.  Teachers and the Parent-Teacher Association are involved in the committee.  This committee meets regularly to address any issues that arise.  The committee will be responsible for determining hours of operation for the borehole (and locking the borehole during off hours), as well as community fees.  All community fees will be safely secured for the spare parts fund.

Comments
While this is not an official Let Girls Learn project, it does fall into Water Charity’s LGL+ grouping of projects that have a pronounced element involving helping girls go to, and stay in, school.

Emily McKeone is a Return Peace Corps Volunteer.  She completed projects for Water Charity while in the Peace Corp and Water Charity assisted her to come back to complete 13 more schools in conjunction with her organization, Water for Zambia.  This is school #4 of 13 who will be receiving borehole wells.

This project is part of our Water for Zambia Program.   It also falls under our ongoing East Africa Water & Sanitation Program.

This project has been fully paid for by an anonymous donor.

If you like this project, please donate to the Water for Zambia Program so that we will have money available for similar projects.

This project has been completed.  To see the results of the project, CLICK HERE.