WfK's largest ever project is completed in Kamaila, Zambia

Kamaila Village

Kamaila is situated 50 kilometres from Lusaka (the capital city) and 11 kilometres of the journey is on a rough track. Charcoal burners established the village in 1963. Since then the population has risen to over 4,000 and has spread over a wide area, the village is 4km long. Most of the villagers live in traditional houses made of mud bricks, with grass roofs.
There is no health facility in the area; the nearest clinic is 18 kilometres away.

Kamaila village
Kamila village

Why WfK got involved

When WfK trustees Natasha Franklin and Barrie Whitehead first visited Kamaila in September 2003, they were told that diarrhoea ranked number three in the top ten causes of morbidity and mortality in the district. This was because of poor access to clean and safe water supply.

At that time most people in Kamaila drew their water from unprotected shallow wells situated throughout the village. There was a long queue of women with buckets waiting to draw water from a well next to the site of the first meeting with the villagers to discuss the WfK project. One of the very few houses with a pit latrine was less than ten metres from this well, so the water was at risk of contamination by human pathogens. In addition the well was only covered by a few logs, so was open to contamination from animals and insects.

What WfK has provided

In July 2005 two new boreholes were drilled in Kamaila village and fitted with hand pumps providing the first constant supply of clean water. Even then villagers often had to queue at the pumps and many still had to walk a long way to fetch clean water, a few continued to use the shallow wells. So a water tower was built in 2007 and solar panels installed to power the pump. This enabled water to be distributed to taps within 250 metres of every home.

Natasha Franklin, Chair of the board of trustees, visited Kamaila in March 2010. during the rainy season. She found that there have been no cases of cholera in Kamaila. Before WfK installed the water system, members of the community suffered regularly from cholera during the rainy season.
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