By Chisomo Livason, contributor :

It is 4am in Nsaliva Village, in Traditional Authority Chapananga in Chikwawa District.

Evelece Lasten joins a group of women on their daily routine in search of clean and potable water.

For years, Nsaliva Village has had no access to clean water. Despite numerous boreholes being drilled, they only produced saline water, which was undrinkable.

Like many women in the area, Lasten used to walk long distances in search of clean water, but to no avail.

The scarcity of clean water forced the community to rely on water from the dambo, which was also used by cattle and dogs.

This water, according to Lasten, led to frequent cases of diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases in her family and the community.

“Our lives were full of disturbances due to the dirty water we were consuming every day,” she laments.

Lasten adds that this also disrupted their daily economic activities, as they spent a lot of time nursing illnesses, which affected productivity.

She recounts a terrifying experience when she almost got swept away by raging currents while searching for water near Mwanza River.

The river swelled and her two-year-old baby’s leg was broken in the process.

“It rained that day while I was searching for water. Mwanza River swelled and while I was running, I fell and my baby was injured,” Lasten narrates.

These challenges prompted the community to mobilise and lobby for solutions.

Non-govenrmental organisation Water Witness Malawi, with financial assistance from DAI Global UK and the Scottish Government, is implementing the Climate Just Communities Project in the district.

During the project’s early phase, a water point assessment revealed that the area had significant salinity issues, leading the community to rely on unsafe water sources.

However, with the construction of a water reticulation system, a new dawn has emerged for the people of Nsaliva Village.

This game-changing solution has brought smiles to households whose lives were previously threatened by the consumption of unsafe water.

Lasten can now smile, knowing her family will no longer suffer from life-threatening waterborne diseases.

The state-of-the-art solar-powered reticulation system was made possible by exploring water sources in the neighbouring village of Tombondera.

Water was tapped from one of the boreholes to supply clean and potable water to Nsaliva Village.

Meanwhile, Group Village Head Tombondera says they were aware of the struggles the people of Nsaliva faced i