As a dry area that receives little rainfall, there is no guarantee for families nor farmers that they can have access to safe water for domestic and livestock use.
A hand pump they previously relied on had long been broken, leaving them fully dependent on highly contaminated water sources.
To make matters worse, not only was the water unsafe, it was also hardly enough to meet their daily demand.
While animals only drunk water twice in a week, residents survived for days without water for bathing and cleaning.
For household consumption, villagers would wake up at wee hours of the night, carry their empty jerricans and walk long distances to collect water from the wells, exposing themselves to safety risks.
Despite their efforts, water scarcity caused many to wait for hours to fill their 20-liter jerrican.
To enable residents to gain easy access to clean and safe water, ACTED embarked on repairing the broken hand pump of the communal shallow well to facilitate better and efficient pumping of water, with funding from USAID-OFDA.
The community now has access to clean and safe water that they can drink, use for domestic and hygiene needs, and to water their animals.
“There is no more risk of waking up at 3am to fetch water at the contaminated wells, we can now wear clean clothes and have plenty of water to drink.” -A community member The repaired hand pump addressed one of the biggest problem the residents were facing, especially for women and girls who bear the biggest burden of collecting water for their households.
“Community members in Wamba are now enjoying safe water.” -Natena, Chairperson of Naipash Women Group