Water pump photo annotation

One of the RSVP initiators has all along longed for clean water supply. And this photograph provides an excellent background to the clean water status in the village.

Bugarama village has had a clean water project- actually a proper connection throughout the village, with one water outlet as shown on the picture being shared by about 10-15 families.

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The water connection goes through different villages most of which are closer to the source, and Bugarama is the furthest from the source.

I believe this might have been a Korean project (not sure). It was very well done, and I remember as a child when we stopped drinking water from rivers (Cyagara, Rusizi) and started for the first time having clean water for cooking and drinking.

In the days prior to clean water connection, we use to wake up at about 4-5am to go as upstream to the river as possible (walking about 30mins) in order to try and get the cleanest water (where people would have not put dirt in i.e. washing themselves, walking through the river etc...); but you will understand that we could never go to the source (the river originated from a different district all together).

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Retrospectively, even going in the morning wasn't necessarily a good idea, because, with the river originating from a different district, the dirts of the day were probably reaching Bugarama early in the morning. Sad!

Any way, that was always my first job before going for classes in the morning.

Later in 1980s, the water connection was established. And all seemed going well.The project employed a few people to look after the connection. But, a few years later, they worked unpaid, gave up and basic repairs were not made as people trained to do this had given up.

The next complication was that the very rich people started extending the connection into their own houses. Consenquently, with dry seasons becoming even more drier and repairs not made, the source became unable to supply water 24 hrs a day.

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As a response, we started then fetching water very early in the morning, before everyone else started using the water pump, about 4-5am, filling in as much water container as we possibly can at home, and then the pump dried up about 8am.

At first this succeeded at our own local pump, but year after year we started moving to pumps closer to the village tank. Sometimes we would wake up at 4am, fetch water and then go back to sleep.

As a child, I found it very difficult to wake up for classes after coming back from the cold with wet clothes (containers being sometimes big sauce pans): This is because, coming back very cold and wet, I tried to wrap as many things around my body as possible when going back to sleep; and once asleep, it was very difficult to be waken up for classes again.

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Since the problem was more acute in Bugarama, the furthest village from the source, the alternative then became to go to villages before ours along the water connection. However, people in neighbour villages started manning the water pumps, kind of giving priority to their own villagers before allowing other people to get water.

As you can see, there is No West to blame here...!!!!! This was a project from donors and after they left, every thing was so unregulated that it collapsed.

There are very easy answers: a clear water policy preventing rich people from diverting the communal water into their homes; employing people to run basic repairs; and alikes.

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The most sadening thing is that the rich people who diverted water from the communal connections started charging the poor neighbours for water.

In my time, we had 2 rich neighbours: One was an engeneer working in the rice field. He had a very beoutiful home, with electricity, television etc...and so in addition to watching football in his house, we went in to get water for free. His wife was a teacher and so, they did really have a very comfortable life, perhaps to the standards of here, or even more, as they had I think 3 domestic workers!!!!!!!!!! :One domestic for baby sitting, one for cooking, another for gardening job and a third working as a security guard (or something like that)

Unfortunately, RSVP cannot propose the solutions mentioned above because, even after UK charity legislation, RSVP has no urgent need to be legistered as a charity in Rwanda. RSVP's work in school and village is through the umbrella of the church. Or this solution outgrows the remit of the Church.

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Another solution is to use the rivers flanking the village to boost the water volume of the tank which supplies Bugarama. There is a tank on one hill and there are 3 rivers: * Rusizi (massive river, and second biggest in the country after Nyabalongo- the contributor of River Nile). Rusizi takes water from lake Kivu to lake Tanganyika); * Rubyiro (used for rice irrigation) and *Cyagara (also use for irrigation).

The last alternative sounds better. This is because these rivers are less likely to dry up. But, we would need the following (cited in no particular order):

1. Convince people that the water is clean: this is b'se the clean water connection was obtained from natural source -from the ground- I don't know how it is called in English- and it is normal belief that this is clean.This won't be a major problem.

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2. Know the requirements for filtering and treating water from a river to make it clean: i.e. What are the material used? Chemical used? How much would they cost?

3. If 2 is established, how much would the water tubes cost to get water from any of the 3 rivers to the water tank (already built). How much would this cost?

So, we need an informed advice on this before weighing up our options.

Is there among you Readers someone who did study these things? Please get in touch. It is only when we know the material and cost involved that we can start making some moves on practicalities.

It is sad because if the person who donated the money for the water connection died, they died thinking they have solved the problem of diseases due to dirt water in this region. Sadly, in spite of their best efforts and sacrifice, the problem reimmerged very quickly afterwards!     Top

And this was a project I can look back to and say here was a genuine development scheme, solving a real problem with a modern, realistic and evidence based solution. This is different to giving people goats and pigs to farm at home, when the donor knows these may end up sharing room with kids at night; or when they know subsistence farming doesn't get people far. But, of course, every little helps!!!!

Well, please see below other annotated photos.

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