Phase 3A done: 12 boreholes, 4 solar towers, 16 fountains for Palma
We have completed the third phase of the Palma Community Water Programme, funded by an international energy company. Phase 3A ran for seven months, from July to December this year, and finished with every target met.
The headline numbers: 12 new boreholes drilled and fitted with Afridev handpumps, at Barabarane, Bagala, Quilaua, Nkumbi, Macala and Incularino. Four new solar water towers, at Incularino, Bagala and Muha. Sixteen public fountains. And a full rehabilitation of Palma's old town system, which dates from colonial times: six submersible pumps, a transformer and a repaired generator.
Numbers alone do not keep a water system alive, so the phase put as much into people as into pipes. Fourteen water committees were re-established and trained, and 84 of their 162 members are women. Twenty young people, 12 men and eight women, earned income on the cash-for-work teams. We held 10 community consultations and 14 WASH talks, and each of the 14 sites was handed over at its own event.
The old town system gave us the hardest time. This year's repairs kept it running, but in our own assessment they were a stop-gap, and a later phase will have to return to it. For now, Palma has more working water points than it has had in years, and local committees in charge of keeping them that way.
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