October 2018
Dear Donor,
Following on from my letter of 27th Dec last I am pleased to let you know that Stuart’s detailed report is now available. If you would like to read the full report, please email me and I will send it to you. It is an excellent and encouraging report which shows that overall the borehole projects have been successful, and have provided a serious number of children and adults with healthy water.
The report also
Identifies mistakes and misinformation.
Identifies how demand has changed over the years.
Identifies ways to maximise the benefits of donor funds.
Pin points mechanical and maintenance problems.
Pin points other activities with which we should consider involvement.
The main points I take from the report are -
The result of our decision c. 2012 to concentrate on smaller schools was that we wound up with some schools that were too small, and had neither the organisation, the experience nor the finance to enter into meaningful arrangements.
Stuart found that in practice, it was rarely the case that children took water home from school, and it is embarrassing that I in turn conveyed this expectation to do-nors. I regard this as a significant discourtesy to us all irrespective of whether the expectation was conveyed due to over enthusiasm of otherwise. I have to say I am somewhat unhappy that 19% of the schools we supported since 2015 made this mis-leading assertion. Given that little water will be carried home from schools, we must now reset our calculation of "minimum demand" required to justify a borehole.
In common with the experience of others we found that corrosion of steel pipes in older installations is a problem and where schools have performed their obligations heretofore we should consider replacement with plastic pipes.
Judging by the number of broken / disused pumps throughout the Zambian countryside, there is a problem with maintenance of pumps by untrained personnel . It seems nobody has addressed this issue to date. .
We need to maintain a sceptical attitude when assessing applications for boreholes as the example of Kabanana Community school showed when I visited this school in 2014 and again when visited by Brían Mac-
Manus and myself in 2015 it appeared to be a shining example of how well a school can perform. In 2016 it registered as our biggest disappointment.
Looking to the future we need to spend more time on the ground than the typical 2 weeks pa that I have been doing for past 12 years. For example I feel it is clear that:-
We should repair / upgrade previous installations ONLY where schools have behaved and progressed well since their borehole was installed. This will require additional time input.
We need to completely and critically review our selection process for new installations.
We need to consider how boreholes in general, not just our own installations, might be maintained (more) effectively. There are far too many disused boreholes for this question not to be asked and answered. These considerations will require extra time on the ground. We can make a very positive contribution by providing training to maintenance personnel in strategic locations.
I had envisaged possibly continuing with annual visits till age 80, however in view of longer annual visits now being necessary and Stuart's willingness I am entirely happy to hand over this function to him at this stage. As you may know Stuart is exactly half my age and he has considerably more experience on the ground due to his onsite project management over the years.
Thanking you for your support and encouragement.
Best wishes,
Derek Mulligan
About Zambia
Zambia is a large, landlocked country sparsely populated by over 70 ethnic groups. It is one of the poorest countries in southern Africa due to mismanagement, debt and disease. As in many other parts of sub-saharan Africa, rainfall has declined in the last 30 years, impacting farming, the economy and nutrition. About 16% of the population suffers from HIV/AIDS, malaria is widespread and life expectancy is 60.2 for males, and 64.4 for females which gives Zambia a world life expectancy ranking of 160. (WHO 2018). It is estimated that only 60% of people have access to water and 49% have sanitation, while 10,000 children under five die every year from diarrhoea.
According to the latest WHO data published in 2017 diarrhoeal disease deaths in Zambia reached 9,001 or 7.78% of total deaths. In 2015 in Zambia, an estimated 39,000 live-born children died before their fifth birthday,. Approximately 16 % of Zambian children under 5 experience episodes of diarrhoea and about 66 % of these cases involve at least one health facility visit for diarrhoea.
Water shortages mean that the education of school going children is severely affected because they have to assist their parents look for water and miss many days at school as a result. This affects their performance and the level of education goes down. Schools often have feeding programs meaning that the children have to carry water daily for their food to be cooked. In the poor and arid areas, the majority of water sources are not protected and become contaminated by either human or animal waste. Lack of toilets or latrines leads to contamination of water points.
Consumption of contaminated water leads in turn to waterborne diseases, poor health and a loss of income – not to mention the cost of medical treatment. Lack of knowledge among communities on proper hygiene practices like hand washing, the need to boil or treat drinking water, and general lack of environmental cleanliness has also contributed to emergence of waterborne diseases.
How We Can Help
In rural areas of Zambia, less than 50% of the population has access to a water source that is reliable and protected from contamination. Good health and an uninterrupted education are fundamental if communities are to develop. Each of the 91 schools where we have provided boreholes report immediate and significant increase in school attendance, due to reduced sickness, and much improved student alertness and ability to concentrate. Availability of safe, adequate and permanent water supply to the marginalized communities will reduce most of these problems, give enough time for income-earning activities, improve health and living standards, and ultimately improved the overall economy and reduce malnutrition.
Poor management of water facilities such as pumps and wells by the communities, leading to frequent breakdowns, is another area where we can help. By providing safe water to rural schools in the bush, we know we are enabling the poorest of the poor in a most fundamental and basic way to get on to the first rung of the ladder. Now they have an opportunity to progress.
Stuart McGovern reports on his experiences in Zambia
Through funds raised by Derek Mulligan, we drilled 9 boreholes in 2010, 14 new boreholes and 3 refurbished boreholes in 2011 (both of which projects I managed), and a further 70 installations subsequently. Each year a comprehensive report was produced which give an idea of the kind of situations that schools were finding themselves in with regard to the lack of clean drinking water.
Stuart McGovern, who has a background in mechanical engineering, has donated his time & expertise to executing projects on the ground in Zambia each year since 2010.
In 2014 a school called Kabbanna was seen as a shining example of how a school benefits from a borehole and again in 2015 when Derek and Brían MacManus visited this appeared to be the case. However in 2016 a different picture emerged at Kabanna and similarly at a nearby school, causing us to question whether these two schools should ever have been supported in the first instance. Drilling work was suspended for 2017 in order to review the overall programme: Derek asked me to survey a meaningful number of schools to see if the other projects were showing similar problems. And so I spent 5 weeks from 19th April to the 23rd May this year (2018) travelling around a random selection of the schools. I visited 22 schools in person, and contacted 6 others by phone. I was delighted to find that in fact our boreholes were by and large performing well, and most reported problems were the result of expected wear and tear in a rural African environment. There was a small number of cases where technical, managerial or human factors caused boreholes to be out of service.
I have made a detailed report on the situation at each school I visited with particular focus on the school’s attitude to the borehole, how it has been maintained and whether it was used for development. During my trip I was again reminded of the vital importance of both the Head Teacher and the community on the progress, development and the maintenance of schools and their infrastructure. To back a school with a borehole may seem a very good idea at the time when a head teacher has shown willingness to progress the school, but if he or she is replaced by another less progressive one, the project may not end up having the desired impact. By getting the community (especially the village head-man) more involved we can increase the likelihood that our investment will continue to benefit the community. Community schools survive on contributions from the community. They rarely get assistance from the government and depend greatly on outside help. Many rural community schools are either completely mud or moulded brick with mud pack. Cement is a luxury they rarely afford. They find it next to impossible to raise funds, even to pay the teacher something, not to mention maintain a borehole. They need assistance with maintenance if we are to guarantee that the borehole will continue to function.
I would strongly recommend revisiting all the schools that we have invested with bore-holes and consider securing that investment by means of restoring and upgrading the handpumps. The bore-holes drilled from 2008 – 2011 in particular are in need of new pipes, rods and possibly new pumps. They have rusted significantly and are now a source of constant concern for the schools that have them. PVC pipes can be retro-fitted, and for a relatively minor cost I believe we can restore many of these pumps to a high standard and likely give our initial investment another 7-8 years with little need for further maintenance. Finally and possibly most importantly is the quality of the research and the decisions as to where to drill. Other NGOs and government bodies are providing water to larger schools in the suburbs of towns, while there are still many rural areas desperately in need of clean drinking water. However as can be seen from the report, a lot of care is needed in discerning the right criteria for drilling at a rural school.
There is no doubt that the work done to date has had an enormous impact on the lives of thousands of Zambians, children and adults alike. The benefit of clean drinking water has certainly saved many lives and prevented much illness. Having spoken to different members of the communities from local MPs and councillors to village headmen and small farmers, priests and religious who work tirelessly in supporting the local communities and hospital workers who encounter sickness and disease daily, I have no doubt that water is indeed life for the people. I do believe that keeping our main focus on providing clean and safe water is without doubt a great benefit to the people of Zambia.
