By HOPE BWALYA –
BEATRICE Mazuba, a 13-year-old girl from Haboombe village who once dreamt of a better future dropped out of school in grade two as a result of the long distance from her place to the nearest basic school.
Haboombe village was created in the year 2000 and is sandwiched by mountains with only one source of water and that is Kayola stream.
The village is situated 60 kilometers east of Monze in Southern province.
This community has a household population of 36 and a total population of 254 people, and its main source of livelihood is cotton farming, cutting plunks and livestock farming.
The area is located in a mountainous and sandy region. Its geographical location has been a challenge for drilling companies to get there due to non-availability of a proper road network.
Beatrice’s former school is situated 10 kilometres away from her village, more than a one hour walk.
However, Beatrice’s barriers to education were not just the distance to her school but also the distance to sources of clean water.
Every day, Beatrice would wake up at midnight and sometimes at 03:00 hours with a small torch that was bought by her uncle to go and draw water from a nearby stream called Kayola Stream, which is less
than 30 minutes from her place.
She would go at this time to allow herself to prepare in time for school but even with this effort, Beatrice’s concentration in class was poor.
“I stopped school when I was in grade two because of water problems. If the water problem would be dealt with life would be much easier.
“The community usually fetches water from this stream when it is flowing and that is during the rainy season, but it dries up in the hot season,” she says.
When the stream dries up, women dig shallow wells to scoop the water for drinking and for use in house chores.
The shallow wells are not only used by humans but also animals like dogs, thus posing a health hazard.
The women cover long distances to look for water.
They walk for four hours to and from Gwembe where they are charged K100 per month to fetch the commodity.
For the animals, the people of this village are charged K200 per month for their cattle.
When the situation worsens where they do not have the money to pay or the distance has become unbearable, the people in this community drink water from the Mukwele tree which they chew or cut in order to get the water.
However, the water that the tree produces is not enough to provide for cooking and for use for other house chores.
As a result, Beatrice has since appealed improved living standards of the community.
Haboombe’s village headman Gift Mweemba says the unavailability of water has hindered development in the village.
He says it has affected the education standards of the community as the highest grade that has been achieved is grade nine.
Mr Mweemba also added that his community suffers from a lot of waterborne diseases as a result of lack of clean drinking water.
He says his community has challenges with agriculture, as keeping cattle without water is costly and generally farming is a challenge as the community only depends on drought-resistant crops such as cotton, which is sold in order to raise money.
“We have a problem with water. We walk for two hours to find the source of water and another two hours to get to our homes. We are asking Government to assist us so that we can also develop like others,” he said.
To handle the village’s health problems is a clinic called Moomba rural health centre, which is 10 kilometers away from the village.
Patricia Nyirenda, the officer-in-charge at the clinic, says the clinic has been recording a number of waterborne related diseases since the drying up of the stream.
Ms Nyirenda says the cases are more rampant in places where access to clean drinking water is a challenge and the distance to a health post is unbearable.
She says sometimes she distributes chlorine around the communities, but because of the number of people compared to the available containers of chlorine, it is a challenge to reduce on the number of waterborne diseases.
Water Aid Zambia programme officer Kangwa Chinkutele observes that water in this part of the country is a huge challenge which needs all stakeholders to come on board and find a lasting solution.
She says lack of water has affected the people’s standard of hygiene and even affects their marital affairs as it would lead to the derailment of food being prepared and general cleanliness.
Ms Chinkutele has since appealed to Government and other stakeholders to get on the ground and help alleviate the suffering of the people because Water Aid Zambia alone cannot manage.
She says there is an urgent need for water in Haboombe Village as the development of the area depends on the availability of water.
“The water challenge has made such huge impacts on this village. Beatrice has not been able to go to school because she will be tired and sleeping in class because probably in the morning she spent a two-hour journey to draw water.
“As Water Aid Zambia we want her to go back to school so that she cuts on the hours to draw water from a further distance,” she said.
Water Aid Zambia was in the area to assess how best the organisation could assist the community in water and sanitation.
Zambia contains 45 per cent of the total water resources in the Southern African sub-region, and all that these people are asking for is to have a fair share of it in order to enhance their living standards.
As Darwin’s theory of evolution suggests, life began in water, and these people are in dire need of clean drinking water.
The desire for a nearby school, a nearby clinic, a nearby water source that would not dry up, and a better road network will enable the people of this village to have a true sense of what it means to be independent as well as being part of a sovereign State.