The strap-line of The Africa Trust is ‘Sustainable Solutions to Poverty’ and this normally involves long-term approaches. There are however times when the situation is so desperate that emergency relief must come first, before planning for development can happen.
In Malawi floods devastated vast areas killing hundreds and leaving thousands homeless. The Africa Trust responded quickly with emergency relief including maize, soya, plastic sheets for temporary tents and buckets to carry water.
The flooding also extended into parts of Mozambique but less so in Sofala Province where The Africa Trust is working.
Here a new adaptation of the Elephant Pump design has been developed, which allows for extraction of water from drilled boreholes instead of only from deep hand dug wells. The need for this was recognised as many types of piston pumps installed on drilled boreholes had been broken down for years (they are not as easy to maintain as the Elephant Pump). With an Elephant Pump on an enclosed deep protected well there is always the option to lower a bucket to get water if the pump is not operational for any reason. With a drilled borehole there is no way to access the water source if a pump breaks down. Thousands of boreholes have been drilled, but cannot be used due to broken pumps, so The Africa Trust is planning to assist with the adapted Elephant Pump design, which can be used to extract water from drilled boreholes. The design is cheaper and has been developed for individual homesteads rather schools or villages.
In Liberia there is finally some good news following the worst ever outbreak of Ebola. In the last week, no new cases of Ebola were reported for the first time since the outbreak started.
The Africa Trust has now resumed its programme of establishing sustainable supplies of clean water and decent sanitation in Liberia as water borne disease accounts for many times more deaths than Ebola. Having clean water and decent sanitation sounds basic, but is an essential part of helping people to escape the extreme poverty caused by water borne disease including ill health due to dysentery.
The most recent Elephant Pump to be built near Monrovia in Liberia.
