The people of Mele Gagula suffer greatly due to a lack of clean water, which presently only 18% of the community have access to. Everyone else travels 3-4 hours to fetch possibly contaminated water from ponds, rivers, and unprotected springs. Dirty water means sickness, wasted time, missed school and lost hope. This makes it impossible for the remaining 3,057 people of Mele Gagula to meet their full potential and locks them in a cycle of poverty. With your help, clean water can end this.
Since 2010 HOPE has provided clean water to 69,000 people in the Bonke district of southern Ethiopia, bringing safe water access up to 53%. But much more remains to be done. Helping families access clean, local water is a simple solution to many of their problems. Improved health, access to education, ability to grow more food, time for pursing income generating activities, are all possibilities when one does not need to spend hours each day sourcing essential water that often makes you ill.
There are four nearby springs that will be capped to provide more than enough water for the daily use of the families in Mela Gagula – enough even for the community as it grows in the future. In addition to piping the safe, protected water 6 km to people’s doorsteps, building 2 water reservoirs, 10 water points, 9 wash basins and 200 pit latrines, HOPE will provide hygiene education so that the community can make necessary steps to improve their health.
HOPE will work alongside the community for 2 years to ensure that the whole village is fully supported as they begin to change their lives. Ulitimately, 3,057 people will directly benefit, as well as children attending school and families visiting the local health centre, both of which will also be served by the water system.
In addition to forming a local water management committee and training water system caretakers, 240 women will also have the opportunity learn new business skills, including saving and lending money to one another, to ensure all are empowered to take full advantage of what a life with access to clean water can bring.