“We are happy that finally there is drinkable water.” Gloriose, a woman from the Batwa community in the Rwamvura sub-hills of Ruyigi province, Burundi, knows that this has been a radical change for her village . Previously, women had to walk an hour to reach the nearby hill, carrying cans that, when they returned, were full of water and became very heavy. And many were the diseases that struck the community.
How community life has changed with clean water
Now that drinking water is within reach, in the village fountain, the life of the community has improved. Not only for the convenience of not having to walk as far as it used to before the AMU project Water source of life and development in Ruyig i was launched. But also from the health point of view. Drinking water is in fact an essential resource for health and quality of life. Drinking, cooking, washing clothes and watering with uncontaminated water means preventing many diseases. Gloriose herself had said a year ago: “We drink water from streams, dirty and full of worms. And this results in a life that is not the best. But it would not be like this if we had drinkable water.”
The fountain has become a meeting point
Access to drinking water seemed like a dream then. Now, however, at the entrance to the village there is a fountain . It has become a meeting point: mothers are often seen there queue to fill containers. While men can finally water their gardens with water that does not cause harm to health. These are scenes that until a year ago would not have been possible to see here. And it seemed difficult to involve the Batwa community – who live in isolation – in the project, make her an active part. But things slowly changed.
A collective work
In fact, the entire community worked together to achieve this result. The men of the village They participated in the excavations and transportation of materials. It was a collective work that introduced the awareness that drinking water, like health, is a common good . The community has formed a management committee to take care of the infrastructure. Joseph, one of the members, says: “We organized ourselves, we put up the fence to protect the pipes and we often clean around to remove dirt and debris.”
