“The Democratic Republic of the Congo is suffering from a severe drinking water crisis.”
Those stark words came in July from Lucien Beele, executive director of one of our newest WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) partners located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), who we have been working with since 2023 to provide clean water to thousands of students and villagers in the impoverished country formerly known as Zaire.
More disturbing facts regarding WASH in the DRC from Lucien:
The country has the lowest rate of access to safe drinking water in the world.
Only 46 percent of the population has access to an improved drinking water source that is protected from external contamination, especially fecal contamination.
In addition, sanitation coverage is estimated at only 31 percent.
As a result of inadequate water and sanitation services, many people suffer from waterborne diseases, including diarrhea, typhoid, cholera, and Ebola.
This water crisis is the result of deteriorating water infrastructure due to underinvestment in the water sector and conflict-related destruction of facilities, as well as rapid population growth.
To address this life-threatening issue in his country, in 2018, Lucien founded Technologies Appropriées pour le Congo, Association Sans but Lucrative (TAC Asbl) to “help the poorest communities access clean water close to their homes, eliminating the need for women and children to walk long distances to fetch water, sometimes from unprotected sources.”
And it was in early 2023 when following a Google search for nonprofit organizations in the U.S. which might be able to provide grant support for his efforts that he came across Bread and Water for Africa® and reached out to Executive Director Beth Tessema for help.
Since then, we have drilled a well for 1,500 students attending a school on the shore of Lake Tumba who had been drinking untreated water directly from the lake, and followed up that successful pilot project with two more wells at schools that benefit the 1,400 students as well as an additional 1,200 residents of the surrounding communities.
In 2024, thanks to the supporters of Bread and Water for Africa®, we were able to fund the construction of two more wells – as well as funding for a hygiene education – for two primary schools with a total of approximately 700 students and nearly 1,000 residents in the surrounding communities.
And to date, we have provided grant funding for wells at 11 schools in the DRC serving a total of 11,000 individuals including students and members of the surrounding communities.
Today, we are working together with Lucien and TAC to construct six more wells in the villages of Debonhomme, Mahenge, Ngomba, Nkake, Quartier Ikalanganya and Quartier Plateau, each with populations ranging from approximately 600 to 800 whose current sole access to water is from nearby rivers and pond which is generally known to be contaminated.
We are told that the villagers are well aware of the hazards of drinking contaminated water and try to mitigate the risks by filtering water through a cloth (which is usually not clean to begin with) or sometimes boiling it (but fuel for boiling is expensive for people living on less than $2 per day) to no avail.
Each of the six villages will benefit from the construction of a well equipped with a hand pump at a location determined to suitable in consultation with community members, who will be trained in appropriate hygiene and sanitation practices, to ensure optimal use and sustainable maintenance.
And this from Lucien to the supporters of Bread and Water for Africa®:
“We look forward to continuing this fruitful collaboration in order to consolidate the achievements of previous projects, extend our impact to more needy rural communities, and with your help to continue to improve the living conditions of vulnerable populations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
