WOMEN AND WATER IN MALAWI. An Ill-suited Couple

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Sifa Kado, Village Head of Sifa Kado Village, as he stands beside the grave of Stelia Nkumba, a 28 years old woman dead in 2006 attacked by a crocodile while fetching water in the river.
Very close to the Shire River, the longest one in Malawi with 402 Km, women in the area use it as a source of water to fetch it and use for domestic purposes. Even though NGO Water Aid has a project of Gravity-Fed Pipped Water to provide the area with safe water from Chikara Hills, 34 taps are not enough for the 16.000 to 20.000 people living in the area. Specially because the supply depends on pressure of the water, on the rains blocking the pipes and on other factors. The result is that many taps are not working or work with intermitent flow and women have, anyway, to go to the river. The Shire is as well the most important source of incomes for people in the area (fishermen, traders, farmers), but is also a home to killer crocodiles. Ten people were attacked by crocodiles in 2006 in Chinduzi area, according to Mr. Alayanga, member of the Main Committee of The Gravity Fed Pipped Water Supply Skim and a villager in the area. They are mostly women and girls who, obliged by tradition, go to the river every day to fetch water, wash the clothes or have a bath.