For too many communities in Malawi, the quest for clean, safe drinking water is a gruelling daily reality. This burden falls heaviest on women and girls, who are traditionally responsible for water collection, a task that has profound and devastating consequences on their health, safety, education, and economic freedom.
Fathima Saley, Durban manager of Africa Muslims Agency (AMA), highlights the severe impact on females. “The lack of access to clean drinking water disproportionately affects women who often bear the responsibility of water collection in different rural areas,” she explains. “This leads to a loss of time, which could be… for education, for work, family care, and an increase in the risk to their safety.”
The journey to find water is often long and perilous. Fathima Seedat, an AMA volunteer, describes the vast, arid landscapes many Malawians navigate. “You can drive for two, three hours and you won’t see a river or a water [source],” she says. “So can you imagine there’s someone living in a little hut or a little community and the closest water source could be five kilometres away, 20 kilometres away.”
These journeys not only consume valuable time but also expose them to significant dangers. The water sources themselves are often unsafe. “You don’t always find the water source to be a good water source,” Seedat notes. “It could be a river, which is good… but the rivers do have crocodiles. So it’s dangerous. Or you could get to a water source of a little pond, which is infested with mosquitoes and frogs… it’s rather unhygienic.”
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The ripple effect on education and poverty
This daily struggle directly impacts the ability of women and girls to build better lives. The hours spent fetching water are hours stolen from the classroom and the workplace. “When girls miss school or they’re late for school, it’s often because they are tasked with that responsibility of going to collect water,” Saley states.
This reality, coupled with a lack of adequate sanitation facilities, “often forces girls out of school and women into poverty.” The provision of a single borehole can change this narrative, offering more than just a drop of water; it provides a chance at a brighter future.
The economic consequences are just as severe. The time-consuming nature of water collection prevents women from participating in income-generating activities, entrenching them in a cycle of poverty. “This then also… stops women from income-generating activities and traps them into a cycle of poverty and limiting economic independence,” Saley observes.
Despite these immense hardships, the spirit of the Malawian people remains a source of inspiration. Saley recalls her visit to homes with almost no material possessions. “We visited homes that didn’t have anything… they literally had one dish. They had a spoon. They had a small bag of maize. And they have nothing else,” she shares. “And yet, these people are very content. They all were smiling… despite the circumstances.”
This resilience underscores the transformative power of providing access to a basic human right. For these communities, a single, clean drop of water represents health, opportunity, and hope for a life free from the daily struggle for survival.
Image: AMA-sponsored water well in Malawi. Credit: AMA
