What is the issue?

Access to clean water in Mozambique is a tough problem, with about half of the country’s population not having access safe water supplies. Much of the rural community is relying on unclean sources like rivers and hand-dug shallow wells, using wood or charcoal fires to sanitize the water before use. This scenario puts people at risk of waterborne illnesses, and at the same time releases carbon from the fires, harming the environment and driving global warming.

Why Handpumps?

This project tackles water safety concerns and subsequent carbon emissions by responding to the need for clean water with an engineering solution: restoring the boreholes that draw water from deep underground which has been cleaned and filtered through rocks and sediment. With access to a clean supply of water, communities’ basic human needs are met, overcoming dangerous water purification practices and ensuring a safer, cleaner tomorrow for these communities.

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Spread across multiple remote Mozambiquan villages, this innovative program rehabilitates, installs and maintains disused community water pumps to ensure communities have safe water access, as well as building local capacity to ensure that the water points are managed into the future. This creates a true win-win: delivering safe water access for each individual community, whilst also reducing household emissions from purifying water over open fires. As a result, this reduces the risk of water borne illnesses and the need to boil water for purification, which exposes households to hazardous air pollution. This saves thousands of tonnes of firewood per year and reduces a monitored amount of CO2 emissions. Finally, by implementing a WASH campaign and training, the project also improves hygiene and sanitation practices within the communities.