Just a few months ago, the remote village of Emoneni in Malawi only had one water source – a stagnant, natural well filled with a few centimetres of milky water. The water was unsafe to drink, but it was often the only choice that local people like Esther had.

Esther stands proudly at the village’s new water pump.

Esther, who lives in Emoneni with her husband and children, was thrilled when the village was identified as part of the Manyamula WASH project.

Since I married into the village in 1972, the Village Headman has been trying to get help for water, but no one came. In the rainy season, the village can collect rainwater in buckets, but the rest of the year they use the water from the natural well, where the water is white and stagnant.

In November 2017, Find Your Feet and Health Poverty Action drilled a new well in the village, with an easy-to-maintain pump to bring fresh water up from the ground. Now the village has a clean source of water just a few metres away which will benefit the 500 residents of Emoneni.

Before we had diarrhoea and dysentery. From the new well the water seems safe, which will reduce diseases. Now we have the new well, we can use this for the household and use the old one for livestock and irrigation. I am extremely happy as we have been provided with a deep well. On behalf of the entire community we feel the same way. The problem of water has now been solved.