Water for SWSC

The last few days have been noisy ones. We’ve had a drilling company on site working every single hour of daylight just a few hundred metres from my house. The noise is welcomed though. The noise equals water. The company has drilled just over 60 metres deep through the Kibombomene soil and the proper geographic layers until hitting fresh and clean water. 

 

Drilling Company hard at work

It has been proven that drinking clean water helps students focus. It has been proven that drinking clean water helps prevent illness. It has been proven that drinking clean water is a privilege to those of us from the developed nations; the places where we can afford to buy it or from the places where our Governments have been able to make this a priority for their citizens.....until now!  

Long time friend of SWSC and supporter Paul from Germany thought it was so important that we have clean water here. He thought it was so important that he secured donations from friends, families and the greatest donor from a Colleague until he was able to hire a Drilling team in Zambia to come and do the job. The organization that sourced the majority of funds was Germany’s ‘Foundation for a Social and Ecological Future’. The team has taken 3 days to drill the hole. They will be followed by another team in the next couple of weeks to install a hand pump. After this team finishes, our students, staff, volunteers and passing community members will have access to fresh water.  

It’s not been easy without running water. When I go to visit friends in the cities over the weekends, I usually really enjoy a good hot shower. Washing dishes in a sink becomes a breeze and I reserve a lot more energy from throwing my clothes into a washing machine instead of washing them from hand. However, it is interesting to keep track of exactly how much water I use every single day. There is next to no wasting. On an average day, I personally use approximately 40 Litres of water each day to do the following things:

·         5-10 Litres for bathing (water is first heated up in a metal dish over a fire)

·         10 Litres for mopping my floors (which everyone who has visited me can tell you I happen to be really good at, and boy oh boy, a mopped floor sure does looks good)

·         3-5 Litres for cooking (including boiling the kettle for the morning coffee made in my French press. Zambia’s Marika’s coffee is so far my favourite)

·         1 Litre for drinking

·         10-15 Litres for washing dishes (I only do breakfast and lunch dishes. I’m way too lazy to wash dishes after dinner)

·         40 Litres for washing my clothes by hand (only once per week including washing and rinsing)

I’m excited for clean water at SWSC. I’m happy that the well project falls into the “same world same chance” objective. We all deserve the same opportunities to develop our own futures. Our students are now one step further on their way to achieving that. Thanks goes to our friends in Germany living in the same world as us in Kibombomene.