For years, residents of Mararaba Kajuru, a small community in Kajuru Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State, relied on local streams and unprotected wells as their main water sources. “We got our water from local wells and nearby streams, which was very difficult, especially during the dry season. Sometimes, we wouldn’t have water to drink or wash with,” Solomon Ibrahim, secretary of the Mararaba Kajuru water committee, explained.

Over 39% of Nigerians in rural communities lack access to basic water supply. In Kaduna, rural residents depended on unprotected open-dug wells and rivers for drinking and other domestic uses. “We always had cases of typhoid, cholera and other diseases because the water wasn’t clean,” Solomon added.

In Sabon Gari Kufana, another village in Kaduna State that lacked a safe water supply, villagers were suffering from cholera, typhoid, and river blindness, transmitted by repeated bites from infected blackflies that breed in the river.“Drinking and using the water from the river was giving us and our children issues. We were always concerned but had no other choice or source of water,”Jummai Danbomyi, a resident of Kufana, noted.

However, in 2018, the villagers formed a water committee in Sabon Gari Kufana. In collaboration with Hope for the Village Child Foundation (HVCF), they dug a water well, sealed it with a concrete slab, and installed a hand pump. The sealed slab and hand pump reduce direct contact with the water and help protect the well from surface contamination. “Since we began using this improved well in 2018, there has been a difference. We now have a proper well that is sealed and clean, we are healthier and no longer treat cholera and typhoid every other day,” Jummai said.

The water wells initiative

HVCF was established in 1996 by Margaret Mama in response to the lack of healthcare access in the villages surrounding her Jacaranda farms and resort in Kaduna State. “During a visit to a nearby village to attend a burial of a worker’s child, she noticed the lack of healthcare and education and decided to take action. Because her husband is a doctor, she began accompanying his health workers to the villages to run health clinics, which marked the start,”Sister Rita Schwarzenberger, director of HVCF, explained.

HVCF now operates a specialised clinic at Kwoi, Jaba LGA that treats rickets in children, but its initiative with the most community ownership and engagement is the wells project. “A woman in the United States asked Margaret if she could donate some money for a well in memory of her late husband. An inscription was placed on the well honouring the late farmer, and the picture was returned to the donor. Gradually, other people who saw the picture also wanted to do the same, and that was how the well project began,” Sister Rita said.

Since then, HVCF says it has constructed over 400 wells in villages lacking access to safe drinking water in Kaduna. The strength of the HVCF model lies in its emphasis on community ownership for managing, maintaining, and sustaining the wells.

Chinonso Kenneth (Nigeria Health Watch).