By Richard Kagunda

Kasungu, August 20, Mana: Kasungu District Environmental Health Officer, Rudolf Zinkanda Banda says access to safe and potable water is an entitlement that every individual must have regardless of where they live.

During a meeting organized by Water for People in Kasungu on Tuesday, Banda said proper sanitation and healthy living cannot be achieved in the absence of safe and potable water in homes.

“It is our wish to see that every individual has access to good quality water because health living and national development can only be achieved by those that are living a healthy life and safe water plays an important role towards that.

“As a country, we have been struggling with cholera outbreaks and one of the contributing factors was that a good number of people were unable to access safe and potable water,” he said.

Banda applauded Water for People for complementing government efforts in ensuring that communities have access to safe and clean water.

The non-governmental organization is set to pilot a project called Wash System for Health (WS4H) in Kasungu, Dowa and Chikwawa by rehabilitating non-functional water pumps.

Senior Sustainable Manager for the organization, Joseph Magoya, said the project stands to benefit many people in Kasungu and beyond.

“Our programme intends to further strengthen some of the systems that were already being implemented in the district. For example, Pump Aid has a social enterprise part called Beyond Water, which is implementing professional management of water pumps in rural communities in Kasungu.

“So, our project intends to rehabilitate non-functional water pumps in the areas where Beyond Water is already implementing its projects and then extend to other areas in due course,” he said.

On his part, Chikondi Kaomba who is programme manager for Pump Aid, the mother organization that owns Beyond Water, said his organization is geared towards providing safe and potable water to the masses.

“Before we started the project as Beyond Water, about 40 percent of water pumps in the area of our operation were non-functional. But with our intervention, the figure has gone down to 5 percent meaning 95 percent of the water points are now functional.

“So, as we collaborate with Water for People, the plans are to reach out to more areas,” Kaomba said.