Report from ACLUP on Water Project in Fendula / Kalonge

Recent Events

Introduction

ACLUP thanks the Lord Almighty who made this day exist. It is since last year that Paulin and Kevin met in Rwanda on 2nd August 2022, in Kamembe. Before this meeting, Paulin had gone to Kalonge, where he had experienced a deplorable situation with no drinking water and people using dirty water. This is how he brought a water engineer to Kalonge to assess the water needs. He reported that in the whole of Kalonge, there are more than 80 sources (springs) which require rehabilitation and he mentioned that these sources can be captured and make a water supply in the 7 villages of Kalonge. The population of Kalonge is estimated at more than 225,000 inhabitants.

The project proposal for this area was sent to BHW in October 2022. This April 2023 ACLUP got the first lot of funds for five water projects in this area and we chose Fendula as the first beneficiary.

The Fendula municipality of Kalonge has a total of 9,745 inhabitants (children and teenagers are not considered); with 1,340 households. The major problem for the inhabitants of Fendula is water. ACLUP has started the project since April and today the population is delighted to have a major partner who has just put an end to their ordeal. Fendula is now supplied with water, the health centres, schools, and population thanks very much the realization done by ACLUP DRC. 

Course of Activities

When we began the clearing and cleaning activities, the population did not believe and remained close to the workers to see if it was a truth or a dream. The materials had to come from Bukavu to Fendula which took us three days due to the state of the road. From Cifunzi, where vehicles can easily reach, we were able to use the community who walked 18 kilometres on foot, some with bags of cement weighing 50 kg on their backs and others on their heads; others transported reinforcing bars, and others hydraulic materials which were transported in this way to Fendula. 100 bags of cement took a whole week to arrive at the site!

We started by capturing the sources. At Fendula, we had collected water from three different springs, which were centred in an 8 cubic meter tank as planned.

In Fendula, before, people used to collect water from the ground and drunk it like that. The consequence was the dirty hands disease and that caused death.

The work consisted of digging to follow the origin of the water, which was then collected in a basin, then directed in the pipe towards the tank.

We had done the catchment in a professional way so that this water remained clean. We filtered with lime, rubble, gravel, coal, and sand. At the end, the water that comes out is tested fit for consumption.

An 8 cubic metre tank was built, and to build it, we used bricks, rubble, rebar, cement, sand, etc. The base has been well prepared with a form concrete; and very well dosed cement.

From the tank, we had adducted on two sides (two cities of Fendula). The first pipe stretched over 1.5 kilometres and went to supply the Fendula Centre. At this centre, there concentrated a big number of this population in this area of Fendula.

At each moment, we had tested the water pressure and we realized that the pressure is 20 litres per 3 minutes. It was a joy, given the pressure of this water.

According to this lady you see drinking, she told us that since she was born, and she has already turned 57, but she had never drawn clean water from Fendula. She is glad that ACLUP has done miracles according to her.

The second pipe was extended to 1.4 kilometres to serve the population of the south part of Fendula. Three taps have been installed there. The entire population of this part of Fendula had in the past a problem of diarrheic disease, Cholera, and typhoid fever. The health centre, schools (secondary and primary) and churches rub their hands and thank ACLUP and BHW for this beautiful gift. Students, teachers and church leaders were all very happy to see for the first time a tap with water in this part of the world.

As you can see in the photo below, this tap is installed in the area of schools, church and health centre. The population of this area testified that they have never seen water in the tap from the beginning of the world. It was amazing in this area. Behind this tap, you can see the school, and church is the same place.

Comments

ACLUP warmly thanks Bright Hope World for having thought of this population of Kalonge who was in difficulty to find water to drink. The start of works in Fendula woke up all the other villages; so local authorities keep calling us, including state water offices. All want ACLUP to not only stop at Fendula, but to spread the project to other villages in Kalonge. I promised them that we initially targeted Fendula, but that the villages of Mule, Cifunzi, Mamba and Rambo are also in need. People expressed their thanks to the funder (Bright Hope World) and ACLUP and said the only thing they can do is pray that God bless the hands that gave. The need for water remains enormous and the population is still waiting.