The Madzi Alipo programme is an expanding project for us at Fisherman’s Rest as we seek to ensure that people living in rural communities have access to quality fresh water. Water is one of the most important needs for life and yet there are thousands of borehole pumps across Malawi that are currently unable to pump water.

Unlike many water projects, our focus is not on drilling new boreholes. Instead, we aim to empower communities by helping them to fix the equipment that they already have and by training them to be able to continue to do this for themselves.

Fisherman’s Rest is very grateful for our partners and in particular the One Foundation who are at the forefront of this project in partnership with ourselves and  enable us to make an astounding difference and contribution to community life. Over the last year, well over 100 pumps have been repaired in the area around Fisherman’s Rest and we are seeking to rapidly increase the number of pumps we help communities repair, with a vision to see water flowing freely across the whole of Malawi.

The Madzi Alipo project focuses on long-term sustainability with the aim that communities will be equipped to maintain their own water supplies in the future. For each borehole, we survey the location and meet with the community. The community are asked to form a borehole committee of people who will then take responsibility for the pump. The committee contributes to the repair costs of the borehole and are involved in the repair. During the repair, training is provided and data is recorded in our Madzi Alipo monitoring system. After the initial repair, we carry out periodic survey visits to ensure the pump continues to operate. Support and training  is provided where necessary. The committee starts to build a repair fund by collecting contributions from the community who use the pump to enable future repairs.

Drilling a borehole in Malawi can be very expensive but a repair is often much less than 10% of the cost. If you would like to be involved in the project or would like more information about what we do, please contact us by e-mailing madzialipo@fishermansrest.net. Be part of something great and help bring water to the people living in rural communities here in Malawi.