There was great joy in Maisha Mazuri when the pump brought the first water from the ground in 2017. Finally, there was a reliable water supply; water no longer had to be transported by trucks. And it wasn’t just the children in Maisha Mazuri who benefited, but also the surrounding residents. It was clear, beautiful water from deep underground, not dirty water from the nearby pond where motorcycles were previously cleaned or cows refreshed themselves.
Over time, however, it became clear that the fluoride content was, and remained, so high that it was harmful, especially for the bone and joint development of children and adolescents. Beautiful, clear water for showering, washing, cleaning, and watering, but not for drinking and cooking. That has now changed! Since autumn 2022, drinking and cooking water has been available from extra faucets: new, large sinks in the MCC kitchen and school kitchen are used for filling cooking pots or refilling water bottles. The fact that this also saves many plastic containers is a boost for our plastic footprint.
We owe this to the funding from the W.P. Schmitz Foundation, Düsseldorf (BMI), which enabled us to filter the water using a reverse osmosis system and reduce the fluoride to a healthy level. The filtered residual water is also not wasted; it is collected in a large tank and then used for irrigation. Ultimately, we have a source with three different “waters” – there’s something for every use here.
And this is what our new technical room looks like… how wonderful that the new filter system also works completely uncomplicatedly and reliably on its own.