 Over the last year, when conflict has allowed, Oxfam’s engineers have been out in the villages around Kebkebiya, drilling for water. Hit the right spot, and you can drill down to large, underground water sources, put in a borehole (pipe), attach a pump to the top, and, hey presto, you’ve got fresh, clean water on tap. But first you’ve got to find the right spot. So we hired the technical services of the ‘Ground Water and Wadis Department’ to undertake a geophysical survey to identify suitable drilling points.
Even so, out of the 40 holes drilled, only 25 were successful. Nine turned out to be dry, and in six the water was not fit for drinking because of chemical deposits.
Now that they’ve found the water, members of the local communities have been trained to operate, maintain, and mend the pumps… they’ll keep the water flowing. And public health workers have been out and about explaining the importance of drinking clean water to avoid disease.
If you need convincing of the benefits, let Hawa Mohammed Ali tell you: “I have seen miracles happen in my household; my children no longer complain about diarrhoea.”
The village water points are also helping to keep people safe: “Women in our village used to trek about seven kilometres in search of water,” says Fardouma Abbaker Musa. “We were subject to a lot of harassment and some were even raped and beaten. With this borehole in our village, most women are safe to collect water and have time to concentrate on other livelihood activities.” The water has also contributed to the wider peace effort in the area, as it “has drastically reduced tension between communities over competition for the limited water resources,” explains Sheikh Mohammed Ali Hamid.
But that’s not all. Collecting water was often a job for the children, and took up much of their day. “Since Oxfam drilled a borehole closer to our village, we can now send our children to school to learn,” says Zainabu Mohammed Yahya, pictured above.
So those gifts which you thought were just going to find water, have found far-reaching, often unimagined, benefits for over 118,000 people in Sudan. |