By Hanleck Mkumba
Mangochi, Mana: People in Group Village Head (GVH) Kalonga in the area of Traditional Authority (TA) Ntonda in Mangochi have thanked Malawi Red Cross Society (MRCS) for drilling K6 million bore hole.
The area has had no potable water for over 11 years of drinking from unsafe water sources from their settlement through Community Based Rural Land Development Programme popularly known as: ‘Kudzigulira Malo.’
GVH Kalonga told Malawi News Agency (Mana) during a Media tour that the borehole would continue providing safe water for the people in his area as opposed to drinking from unsafe sources in the course of the Cholera outbreak in the district.
“I would like to thank MRCS for drilling a borehole in the area because women were travelling long distances to draw water,” he said, adding that this was the case for almost 11 years as women used to travel distances to fetch the commodity.
One of the women in the Village, Judith Kanyoza hailed MRCS for drilling the borehole in her village saying gone are the days when communities drank from unsafe water sources.
“For the first time in many years, we are now drinking from a borehole as opposed to unsafe water sources where goats also took their turn to drink from the same sources,” she added.
MRCS Community Resilient Programme Coordinator, Leonard Maganga said the society came in to support people at Kalonga Village after noticing that the people had no good source of water for years.
“The people at Kalonga had no safe water for many years since they came to settle here through Community Based Land Development Programme some years ago,” he said.
Through a participatory rural appraisal the people at Kalonga Village chose water as their first priority and this is how the MRCS came in to support them.
MRCS implements resilience programme in Chikwawa where the humanitarian organization is responding to people’s needs through water, sanitation and hygiene component.
Apart from drilling the borehole, MRCS support girls with sanitary pads at Kabudila 1 Primary School to minimize absenteeism and drop outs among girls.
MRCS has been implementing the intervention for four years beginning from 2020 in TA Ntonda in Mangochi.
