New toilet, sewerage and water facilities for Zimbabwe Village

One of the biggest problems in southern Africa is intestinal worms.

These worms infest the body and basically eat much of what little food an individual receives.

These worms can be picked up in a variety of ways, but the main cause is through people needing to collect and drink water from areas near where humans and animals defecate.

People drink water which is then infected by the parasitic worms, or eat meat from animals which are infected by worms. Either way the effects are not nice. To deal with the problem you can administer drugs to kill the worms, but before that can be undertaken you have to make sure reinfection will not occur by ensuring that people have proper toilet and sewerage facilities, and clean water.

Gill Browne, who we mentioned earlier, lives near a village in eastern Zimbabwe called Petrunella. She estimated that £2,500 was needed to cleanse the village and instal new facilities. She writes;

"There are now 20 new shiny taps in the village,with the correct drains all cemented around them and taps that will not drip and cannot be left on. Everyone is so proud of them, and they have already slowed the steady traffic to and from the deadly reservoir (where water was collected previously). The reservoir is now surrounded by long grass,and is difficult to get to, so I know the main water supply is from the taps now. What a relief! The toilet septic tanks are dug and building should commence this week while I am in Harare. The bricks are ready and, hooray, we now have the cement to at least make a start."

This work was made possible through a single donation from Land Aid. We still have enough money for another, similar project to be carried out once Gill is able to start working once again.

Life is not easy in Zimbabwe and Gill has to plan her moves very carefully to avoid confrontation with the authorities. We are pleased to say that there are a number of small groups in the south west of England currently working to raise £2,500 for another village to have clean water and sewerage facilities.