Water

Water…it’s necessary for every living thing. Our bodies are composed of mostly water. There are foods, like lettuce, that are mostly water with a bit of green. The earth itself is covered more in water than in land. Yet there are so many places that are suffering from lack of water. It’s hard to comprehend the enormity of how we desperately need water to live and how the really dry places survive most of the year without water.

The sand dam project is beginning. We, along with a group of people from the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM), the local, district and provincial government, and two other MCCers journeyed to Mandie in the northern-most part of Manica province to scope out potential communities for sand dams.

We visited four communities…each with different needs but all with a similar problem—the lack of water. We visited to talk with community leaders about the possibility of building sand dams in their communities. We also looked at places where might be good locations for sand dams. We traipsed through underbrush, dry stream beds and rocks to look at spots where communities find water when they are desperate. Those who went to Kenya on the Sand Dam Tour were looking for good places to anchor a dam, where sand and water could collect and how close it was to a community. The rest of us followed, listened, and asked questions about the communities and about the process.

The communities were receptive to the idea. They are concerned about their lack of water. One community moved their animals (cattle and goats) about 15 km away so that the animals could find places to graze. Another community had a small harvest and so was concerned about how much food they would have. Another community has to walk 15 km to fetch water. Another dug an enormous hole—about two stories deep, 20 meters in diameter. They built steps to the bottom in the dirt with posts to hold onto. At the bottom were about 5 scoop holes where they get their water. They share this water source with another community about 40 km away. Several of the communities had lovely looking closed wells with pumps on them. But none of them were used because the water is too salty.

So, now the challenge is to help the communities to organize. They do all the work—digging a trench for the dam, collecting big rocks, carrying water to make cement, pouring cement (with the help of a hired mason), cooking for the workers and deciding who will be able to use the water generated by the sand dam. Our role is at the moment is working with CCM to organize the communities. Tony, another MCCer, and Joél will work a lot with the communities to build the actual dams. We will begin to spend quite a bit of time in the Mandie locality—dividing our time between Gondola and Mandie.

There are risks and challenges. There is the danger that the dams will not be completed before the rains begin around November 15 (they take approximately 3 months to complete in Kenya, but these are our first). There is the challenge of mobilizing communities to work together on a project where the results are not visible immediately (yes, they can see the dam, but the collection of water begins slowly and the dam “matures” several years in the future). There is the challenge of constructing the dams so that they hold and are not washed away by the water when it comes. And there is always the challenge of communicating cross culturally and in other languages.

But it is exciting. It is exciting to think how if this works, these communities can be transformed. That they might be able to bathe more frequently than once a week. That they will be able to raise crops to feed themselves year round. That their animals can be close to them where they can care for them. That children might grow up with clean water and not have to fight water born diseases as much. But that is all in the future.

In the meantime, so much to do…

View more pics at Flickr.