Improvement and rehabilitation of wells on Dibo Island (Mozambique)

On 14 March 2019, for the first time in history (since records began), a cyclone of Idai’s magnitude struck Mozambique. It was the country most severely affected, along with Malawi and Zimbabwe, causing more than 600 deaths and leaving nearly a million people homeless.

A few days later, on 25 April, Cyclone Kenneth struck Mozambique again, along with Tanzania.

Specifically, on the island of Ibo, Cyclone Kenneth affected more than 8,000 people, who lost their homes, their livelihoods and decent access to basic social services.

Access to drinking water has been an ongoing problem on the island, although it is true that after the two cyclones this problem has worsened considerably, as many of the island’s water wells have been affected and there is a lack of hygiene and sanitation systems.

For this reason, the lack of safe access to drinking water and basic hygiene infrastructure is the main source of gastrointestinal diseases and child malnutrition.

ASL’s intervention

Following the passage of two cyclones through Mozambique, the Fons Català de Cooperació al Desenvolupament (Catalan Fund for Development Cooperation) and ASL’s EREC team decided to carry out a joint intervention to assess the damage and study which sector should be prioritised in order to improve the lives of those affected. With the support of the IBO Foundation, which has been working on the island for years, the members of the EREC team carried out an analysis of the damage, focusing on access to drinking water and housing.

First trip to the field

On 20 June, two volunteer members of ASL’s EREC team travelled to the island of Ibo to assess the most appropriate intervention, given the damage caused by the two cyclones (Kenneth and Idai).

After studying the damage and taking into account the economic and time factors available to us, it was determined that the most effective and urgent intervention was to repair and improve some thirty community wells that supply drinking water to the population.

The analyses carried out detected that most of the wells contained bacteria that cause gastrointestinal diseases in the population, as well as excessively high pH and salinity levels.

Of all the wells visited, eight did not have any type of cover to prevent animals and other sources of contamination from falling in; six did not have a pump or had a broken pump; two were in disuse; and most had leaks of contaminating groundwater.

With this information, ASL decided to send a second team to the field to repair these community wells and continue testing the water to determine the problems with each well and the required chlorination levels.

Second field trip

The second field trip focused on improving community wells to make them safer for the population. Two ASL volunteers travelled to the island of Ibo in mid-August.

First, the wells with the highest usage and consumption by the population were chosen in order to maximise the number of people benefiting from the project. Local staff were hired to carry out the initial tasks: building a cover to secure the well, laying the foundations for the well and building a washing area to facilitate the cleaning of clothes, thereby helping to divert dirty water and reduce contamination of drinking water.