Day 4 - Solar powered water treatment and water kiosks

Solar powered water treatment

Today we visited the town of Chisekeshi, which was the first project to be completed through WaterAid's partners Southern Water and Sewerage Company (SWSC) and the local authority.  As with many towns, Chisekeshi has grown up around a junction on the main road through the Southern Province.  Approximately 2,500 people live within the urban catchment served by SWSC.

The solar powered water supply installed here was a pilot project. A borehole was drilled and a submersible pump was installed to supply two water kiosks. The project has been successful, however, there is still an issue of cloud cover - there isn't a battery back-up and therefore when it is cloudy the pump does not work.

The initial installation cost was higher than a conventional supply, however the ongoing running costs are lower.  As with the tank we saw earlier in the week, the supporting structure could take a larger tank when demand is higher.

We visited one of the water kiosks serving the town.  Alice is the local operator and she has received training to ensure the kiosk is run effectively.  She works on a commission basis - 40% of all water sales, which in a typical month may be 10,000 Zambian Kwacha (£1.20).  When it is cloudy, no water is available and therefore the kiosk remains closed.

The water kiosk

Local residents have a pre-payment arrangement for water - each household has a book that records payments and the amount of water taken.

Since the water kiosks have been installed the health of the residents has improved, as before they would collect water from shallow, open wells, which wasn't very hygienic.

Later in the morning we visited Muzoka, a peri-urban area where there is currently no presence from the utility company SWSC.  We met with some local representatives ask questions about the current water supply situation.  It was an information sharing exercise only at this stage.

They currently have two boreholes, but these have to serve a growing population, which is currently around 2,500 people.  In the dry season demand is too high and as a result many people have to queue for a long time to collect water (we were told that the queue would often be 30-40 metres by 05.00) and quarrels often break out.  The other options are to dig shallow wells or walk 4km to collect water from another area.


One of the hand pumps was broken - it had been installed by another organisation about 6 years ago and although committees were set-up, they were not provided with appropriate trainging to maintain and repair it.  As a consequence no one has been able to use the pump for about three months.

An open well

The residents seemed to understand that there was a link between the quality of the water they drink and the illnesses that people suffer - they knew that the water from wells and streams makes them ill, but they have no choice.

We were taken to see an open well that people use to collect drinking water.  The well in the photo was in a field about 200 metres from the main road.  You can't see it in the photo, but it was difficult to access (the ground around it was water-logged) and it also looked as though it was contaminated with run-off from the road (there was an oily sheen on the surface of the water).