This project will help: 330 children and their families
Completion date: July 2025
Country: Tanzania
Executive summary
Access to safe, clean water is essential to children’s well-being and the development of their communities. But in Tanzania, many people still lack access to this vital service. Village communities typically rely on distant water sources that are often also contaminated, leading to the rampant spread of chronic and sometimes fatal waterborne illnesses like cholera and dysentery.
Compassion works with local churches in under-resourced rural parts of Tanzania to improve the quality of life for children in need. In the village of Marwa, where our local church partner serves 130 boys and girls, families must walk 10 to 12 kilometres each way just to collect enough water for their daily needs. Children are often expected to assist in this labourious and time-consuming task, leading to frequent absences from school. As a result, many of these children struggle to complete basic academic tasks, such as reading simple words or solving simple math problems. Lack of clean water has also contributed to poor hygiene practices, exacerbating health issues like gastrointestinal diseases and skin infections among children.
The local church is struggling, too. Safe water plays an essential role in their activities for children, enabling staff to provide meals, drinking water and a clean environment for beneficiaries to enjoy on centre days. However, the cost of purchasing filtered water is absorbing a large portion of their budget, limiting their ability to invest in other critical areas of programming. Many children attend the program sporadically, and staff are discouraged. A borehole well at the parent church in the neighbouring Ruvu village was installed earlier this year with great success. Now, they want to bring safe water to Marwa, so that children can truly thrive in the way they deserve.
This initiative will see the installation of a rainwater harvesting system for Compassion’s church partner in Marwa, Tanzania. A company experienced in borehole drilling will be hired to install a 10,000-litre water storage tank and access point at the Marwa site. Local sanitation and public health officers will provide hygiene training to staff, caregivers and children so users know how to use the facilities properly. Easy access to safe water will keep families healthy and allow children to regularly attend school and their Compassion centre where they can receive the support from caring Christian adults they need to grow and develop and discover their God-given talents.
Summary
Did you know?
Just 11 per cent of Tanzania’s 65.5 million inhabitants are using safely managed drinking water services.
Background
The Ruvu Child and Youth Development Centre has been partnering with Compassion since 2019. Based in Ruvu village, the local church has launched a second development program in the neighbouring village of Marwa that is serving 320 children hailing from Marwa and Muungano, another nearby village. One-hundred-thirty of these children live in Marwa. Earlier this year, the church partnered with Compassion to install a borehole at its parent site in Ruvu. However, Ruvu is a 10-kilometre walk one-way from Marwa and Muungano. The Ruvu River is a similar distance from the two villages, but the water is unsafe due to contamination from animal use. Crocodiles roam the river, further heightening the danger. Some families have tried digging their own boreholes by hand, but the shallow wells quickly dry up. When they can, caregivers will scrape together money to purchase water—often at the cost of other necessities. The church has also been purchasing water for centre days, but the high cost is simply not sustainable and is hampering their ability to further develop programming for children.
Implementing a rainwater harvesting system in Marwa is a crucial next step toward establishing safe water access across the broader community. Alongside education in proper water treatment and hygiene practices like hand washing, the new water storage tank will improve overall public health, ensure that children can stay in school and resource the local church so that they can strengthen and expand their programs for families in need.
The need
Children in Marwa, Tanzania currently make the long 10-kilometre trek to Ruvu to access water from the Compassion centre’s borehole or travel 12 kilometres to the nearest river to collect often contaminated water. As a result, many children suffer from skin and gastrointestinal diseases and their attendance at school and their Compassion centre is not consistent. When they attend, they are often too tired to concentrate, causing them to fall further behind. Without assistance, children and their families will continue to struggle to find water each day and have no hope of breaking the cycle of poverty.
Your support of this project will provide safe water for at least 130 Compassion-assisted children and their families in Marwa, Tanzania, through the installation of a 100,000-litre rainwater harvesting storage tank. Having easy access to water will also make it possible for our partner to implement a complementary tree planting and vegetable gardening initiative, bolstering local food security. While the tank will be installed in Marwa, families in Muungano will also benefit.
The local church partner will engage professional engineers and a qualified borehole drilling company to oversee this project from start to finish, ensuring that the water tank is properly installed and meets all regulatory requirements and safety standards. Compassion staff will work alongside public health officers to train children and their families on proper water hygiene. Based on the success of previous initiatives, our church partner expects to see both a significant decline in waterborne diseases and infections among children and a corresponding increase in the numbers of children regularly attending school and Compassion centre activities.
What your gift will do
Your support will provide safe water for 130 children and their families in Marwa, Tanzania, through the installation of a rainwater harvesting system:
- Cement
- Stone and aggregates
- Binding wire and wire mesh
- Nails
- Timber
- PVC pipe, gutters and gutter holders
- Water pump installation
- 10-litre water tank
- Iron bars
- Transportation
- Administrative fees and water purchase
- Hygiene training
- Labour
Logistics
- Local contribution: US$1,158.71
- Handling of funds: Compassion Tanzania will distribute funds and will work with the local church partner to ensure this intervention remains within budget.
- Monitoring and follow-up: The Partnership Facilitator, health specialists and the Complimentary Intervention Specialist will ensure that each stage of the intervention goes as planned. The church will engage local health workers to provide children and their families with hygiene training. The church will monitor hygiene behaviour changes among beneficiaries. In addition to the water tank provided through this intervention, the church will purchase a second 5,000-litre tank to further support water distribution.