The village of Rweje in Tanzania had the most number of buckets and jerry cans lined up at a water well that our Water for LIfe Initiative team had ever seen.
In fact, they lost count after 200!
It turns out that four villages were getting clean water from this one well.
Because there were so many people depending on this well, the borehole committee set certain days for each village to come to get water to try to reduce the pressure on the well.
Before this water well was provided, women had to spend the whole day walking as far as five kilometers and waiting in a long lineup for their turn to get one bucket of water.
The borehole committee was very organized. They issued receipts for each bucket of water sold so they could account for all the funds collected. Plus, they even had a sign posted with all the policies such as
- opening and closing times,
- everyone must get a receipt,
- villagers must take good care of the pump and wait their turn in line, and
- each village must come on their designated day to get water.
The committee has collected 6,000,000 Tsh ($3700 CA) in five months of operation, so it has become a big revenue generator for the village. The village decided to use some of the funds to complete the roof on a school that the local government started but did not finish.
With the extra money from the well, they also had plans to complete the classrooms, one at a time as they have the funds.
This one water well has transformed the lives of these villagers and is enabling better education and encouraging development.
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