January 2021
School children enjoying having safe clean drinking water again via the refurbished pump
Good news, extremely good news!
A very successful year with a further 38 projects completed and tremendous benefits obtained for every Euro spent. Notwithstanding Covid, 2020 has become our most successful year, with projects in:
Eastern Province – 20 installations.
Lumezi Regional Hospital.
Luapula Province (Northern Province) – 11 installations.
Chibombo District, Lusaka Province – 6 installations.
Ngabwe Province – 1 installation.
Total expenditure this year amounted to €54,800 (see inside for more details).
Your support in 2020 has enabled us to bring water to over 16,400 students whilst at 32 schools and household water to over 6,500. In addition, we upgraded or replaced water supplies at one hospital, three Health Centres, and in two rural communities.
2020
In Eastern Province our focus was assisted by World Vision who originally installed most of the boreholes we refurbished, while in Luapula Province our focus was specifically directed by the Government Dept. of Child Protection (Mr Muma Kapambwe).
It was particularly encouraging to note again this year that ALL refurbishments were successful. This is a source of great reassurance because there is an element of risk associated with refurbishing installations where the quality of the original work is unknown. This is the reason why so many organisations, including ourselves till recently, opt exclusively for new installations. Fortunately we decided to challenge this logic and it is remarkable that to date we have not experienced one disappointment. Typically at least 4 abandoned or malfunctioning installations can be refurbished for the cost of one new one. Furthermore where a borehole is known to have provided water in the past there is some certainty regarding future supply whereas occasionally a newly drilled borehole proves to be dry.
As usual most of our projects were in schools, but this year we added three very deserving locations:
Chindwale Health Post – This Health Centre told us they are “catering for a population of 3,949 and we have no water” .
Lupande Health Post – This facility was also trying to operate without safe water and expressed grave concern “regarding hygiene on the maternity wing and throughout the entire clinic”.
Lumezi Hospital - We provided much needed extra water storage capacity.
Our successes this year are due to our supervisor Bright Chimbwe and especially to the hard work and dedication of Fr Martin McGowan, who managed and co-ordinated the activities on the ground. This he did in addition to his primary duties in running his parish. The Lumezi hospital project was particularly time consuming due to the extent of the works involved. Fr Martin also supervised the works in the area of Chimombo, and in particular St. Theresa school and Katuba primary school. It was due to Fr Martin’s tireless efforts that we were able to complete 38 projects in 2020.
In previous years we have been relying on the work of Stuart McGovern for the management on the ground of projects, and for follow-up visits to verify functionality and pick up any lessons to be learned from past experiences.
This year, Stuart is following his vocation for the priesthood, and understandably is no longer available for this work. We want to extend our sincerest thanks to Stuart for the magnificent work he has done in the past for the people of Zambia, and to wish him well in his vocation.
It’s been my primary objective this year to identify who will take over my role on a programmed basis perhaps over a two year period. Several discussions have taken place and I am optimistic of success early in 2021.
Income and Expenditure Statement for 2020
Income:
Cash in hand December 2019 ZMK 576,072
Miscellaneous receipt ZMK 1,754
Euro transfers to Zambia
Donor funds €21,407
Tax rebate from 2019 €17,783
Value in Zambian currency ZMK 644,881
Available funds ZMK 1,222,707
Project Expenses:
Site survey expenses (note 2) ZMK 45,330
Lumezi Hospital ZMK 72,300
St Theresa school ZMK 53,906
St Lucia apron & pump ZMK 19,782
Katuba Pri. School risers ZMK 3,105
Luapula Province (11 sites) ZMK 31,500
St Charles Centre ZMK 1,350
Muwanju Clinic tank stand ZMK 8,000
Purchase 32 hand Pumps (note 1) ZMK 330,267
Site manager salary ZMK 117,810
Site manager Expenses ZMK 12,669
Miscellaneous ZMK 4,807
Site Materials ZMK 6,661
Total costs for 2020 ZMK 707,487
Cash in Hand December 2020 (notes 3 & 4) ZMK 515,220
Notes to Expenditure Statement:
In addition to the 17 named projects, boreholes at a further 20 schools were refurbished and new hand pumps supplied.
Applications for projects were invited from various schools, and a site survey carried out by Bright to verify the need.
Funds in hand at 31st Dec 2020 are held in Zambia, and therefore expressed in Zambian Kwacha. Approx. equivalent €20,100.
The Zambian Kwacha de-valued by 38% during 2020
A MESSAGE FROM DEREK MULLIGAN FOR DONORS TO THE ZAMBIAN SCHOOL BOREHOLE DRILLING PROGRAMME
Our work is a direct follow-on to the work of CareAid International, founded by John S. Pittock. CareAid's main partner on the ground in Zambia was Fr. Martin McGowan of St.Patrick's Missionary Society ("Kiltegan Fathers") who was pivotal in advising on appropriate projects to be supported, and in monitoring and supervising projects as they progressed to completion. Derek Mulligan was involved particularly with water projects.
CareAid's first Zambian water projects were executed in 2006/2007 when 15 boreholes were funded. John Pittock retired from the board and from active involvement with new CareAid projects in January 2009. After John Pittock retired from CareAid in 2009, fundraising activities (other than for water projects) virtually ceased. CareAid was wound up as an independent organisation in 2014.
The water project work continues today under the guidance of Derek Mulligan, with all funds now channelled through St. Patricks Missionary Society and managed by Fr. Martin McGowan in Zambia. As a registered charity, St. Patricks can reclaim tax paid on personal donations.
Bringing water to Zambian schools
This year (2020) we continued the very successful borehole refurbishment program which we initiated in 2019. This time last year, our ambition was to execute 27 projects in 2020. In fact, a total of 38 projects were completed this year, including such diverse activities as the supply and installation of two large water storage tanks at Lumezi Hospital, the replacement of corroded borehole riser pipes at three locations, the supply and installation of electric submersible pumps at two locations, and the refurbishment and replacement of pumps at 31 of these locations.
In addition, we carried out an assessment of the needs of three large schools with a total student population of 6500. The water consumption requirements for these schools would exceed the capacity of a hand operated pump, and so we hope to install electric submersible pumps in 2021.
One of these schools, Munkanta Primary in Northern Province, is a good example of the benefits of refurbishing existing installations. When we arrived for our assessment, the school had been without clean water for three months, only having access to an unsanitary open well which was close to drying up. Unskilled repair attempts had damaged the PVC riser pipes in the borehole: attempts to repair the damage by clamping car tubes over the damaged areas had been unsuccessful. This school has 1737 pupils, well beyond the capacity of a single hand pump. As an interim measure, we installed a new hand pump and new riser pipes in the existing borehole, and we would hope to return in 2021 to get full benefit from the borehole by the installation of an electric submersible pump. It probably goes without saying that in the era of coronavirus, access to clean water for drinking and hand hygiene is more important than ever before.
Plans for 2021
We have an expenditure budget for "PROJECT 2021" of €75,000 made up as follows:
42 borehole refurbishments at a cost of c.€1,000 each €42,000
Provide electric pumps & associated pipework in four locations €12,000
Drill 4 new boreholes at a cost of c.€4,000 each €16,000
Overhead costs € 5,000
Total planned expenditure €75,000
We currently have funds on hand, including donations plus “tax back” received from Revenue, amounting to ZMK 515,220 (€20,100). This gives us a CURRENT FUNDRAISING TARGET for 2021 projects of €55,000. This will enable us to bring new clean water supplies to a further 2,000 to 2,500 people, and to secure and future-proof the water supply for a further 20 to 25,000 through refurbishments and upgrades.
Planning for the future
The principal objective for 2021 is succession planning, and at the same time strengthening the foundations of these water projects with additional personnel. We are actively seeking new volunteers to share the workload. Fr Martin has his primary duties in running his busy parish, and we cannot continue to make such heavy demands on his time as he was asked in 2020. In 2021 we intend to explore new projects in Malawi where a confrere of Fr Martin McGowan's, and Bishop of Mzuzu, Tipperary man John Ryan, sees "enormous need for boreholes in Schools and Clinics" in his area of Malawi which is close to the eastern region of Zambia where we have been very active in the past. Bishop Ryan is extremely enthusiastic and envisages success over the years akin to that achieved by Fr Martin McGowan. Arrangements are in hand for our Supervisor Bright Chimbwe to make an exploratory visit to Malawi in January 2021. Extending our activities in this manner would provide a desirable degree of loadsharing and would strengthen our organisation against the threat of a “single point of failure”.
There is no doubt that the work done to date has had an enormous impact on the lives of thousands of Zambian children and adults alike.
One of the new storage tanks at Lumezi Hospital, installed on a new elevated platform constructed by Bright Chimbwe. Lumezi caters for a population of 146,000 and supports 25 Health Posts
