About the waterpumps in Tema and Sunga

The Fairwater pump in Tema  September 2012

location S4 31 58.2 E38 12 44.9
 <interviews by  Alisha Forbes, student Doane college USA>

Tema is a small, remote village in the Usambara mountains in Tanzania. It has around 1500 people, living in 650 households. In 2009, when MamboViewPoint started, there was no decent water supply available.

Local villager Fatuma Alfani: “I had to walk to Mambo Village three times a day to gather water for five grandchildren. Each trip took three hours”. Also Sadikingoma  gathered water once a day in Mambo for six children. “Health problems prevented me from making more trips and any additional water was taken from a dirty water hole nearby, my family was often sick with typhoid”.

Fatuma and Sadikingoma were happy when the Fairwater Pump in Tema was made. It safed them a full day task and the family of Sadikingoma hasn’t been sick since the pump water was available.

Project manager Herman: “Since The pump in Tema was the first Fairwater pump from the MamboViewPoint water project it took a long time to make it. The pump is funded by the tour company FairTravel in Tanzania. After waiting for another three sponsors to make the shipping of the pumps affordable it took a long time to get the pumps in Tanzania. They even got stuck at the Kenyan border, we had to pay VAT for importing and had to send a pickup to rescue them.” A volunteer from the Netherlands assisted to get the drill, sponsored by het Groeneland from the factory in Morogoro and right after that the new established local company Jamiwater started to get the techniques learned. Ali from Jamiwater: “It appeared that a lot can go wrong. The drill can stuck below the casing, the gravel, used for filtering can damage the pipe, the casing parts to prevent the whole from collapsing can rust together, the bolds which hold the bailer can go loose. We did almost everything wrong but in the end we are experienced water technicians and the new pumps can be placed in far less time”

Right now the pump in Tema has to provide all 1500 people which is far too many. Normally one pump for every 150 people is needed. It makes Fatuma and Sadikingoma say that they are happy but more is needed since they have to line up every day.

A third pump, planned on the border of Tema and Mambo will fill in a part of this demand.

Herman: “In the four years we are here we did a lot of projects already, but I think the Fairwater pumps is one of the major projects. If you look at how much effort we have to put it in and the effect it has, the balance and impact is tremendous positive.”

For details and the idea behind the Mambo Fairwater project have a look at http://mamboviewpoint.blogspot.com/  and www.Fairwater.org

 

                  The Fairwater pump in Sunga  September 2012

Location: S4 31 58.3 E38 12 44.8
 <interviews by  Alisha Forbes, student Doane college USA>

Sunga is a busy place in a remote area in the Usambara mountains. The main activities are the sawmill and trading, there is a regional market every Monday. Sunga is also the capital of the 8 villages around, grouped in the Ward Sunga. For the 1200 villagers there is one private owned pump available but this one is situated far outside the village.

Yahaya Selemani, water pump manager and chairman from Sunga: “A water hole was available in Sunga Village before the pump, but community members waited in line for 1 ½ hours to get one bucket of water.” Alfani, another villager of Sunga: “life is easier now since I can get water without long walks up and down the mountains.” Selemani: “Without long lines, people have more time for their jobs. Each house is paying 300 shillings per month to maintain the pump.” Brad Elder, physicist and guest of MamboViewPoint: “People take much more pride in it (work and final product) because it’s theirs, as opposed to something that’s given to them.”

Ali, director of Jamiwater: “After placing the pump it appeared that the filter down below in the pipe was not good enough and sand was blocking the bailer. It made a new borehole necessary where we put jute around the pipe to filter better. Also we used smaller gravel which had to come all the way from Tanga”

Brad: “Clean water is the number one determinant of whether or not you’ll live to die of old age. Everything else is icing on the cake. I went to the pump sites with Herman many times and was impressed to see hands-on how the pump project worked.”

The pump is sponsored by Charm and Ralph Tuijn who biked from Cairo to Cape town to raise money for the Fairwater pumps.

For details and the idea behind the Mambo Fariwater project have a look at http://mamboviewpoint.blogspot.com/ or www.Fairwater.org