Temwa water filters help to reduce waterborne diseases for families

Success Story: Rosemary Gondwe talks to Temwa Malawi Communications Officer, Sera Mtambo, about simple and effective benefits of Temwa’s water filter.

Rosemary Gondwe, along with her father and two nieces who she lives with, used to frequently suffer from waterborne diseases. The family was drinking untreated water from the lake, and they did not have a latrine or proper rubbish disposal. Every month, at least one family member would fall sick from a waterborne disease, preventing them from keeping up with their fishing business. 

Through community meetings, Rosemary learned how Temwa was assisting other communities who were having similar problems. Temwa began working with the community in December. Since then Rosemary has noticed a huge change. Particularly due to the training provided by the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) committee, assisted by Temwa.  

Rosemary demonstrates using a Temwa water filter

“Through the training that the WASH committee is giving us, we are now able to treat our water before drinking, we are making sure that we are using latrines properly, and we are also taking care during food preparation. We have all the WASH facilities required in our household which we did not see as relevant at first”.

Rosemary

Rosemary says the water filters provided by Temwa are hugely important to ensure community members are drinking safe water. The training provided has enabled the community to mobilise to dig latrines in their households, notably reducing open defecation.

In only the first two months of the project, Rosemary noticed that her household had not experienced any waterborne illness. The project’s senior health surveillance assistant also told them that waterborne diseases had reduced in their village. In particular, they noted that cholera cases were reduced from 17 before the project, to zero. 

Now, Rosemary plans to encourage other people to start adopting WASH best practices now that she has experienced the benefit. 

“I would like to thank Temwa very much for extending the project to our area. Because of the project, our community has reduced the occurrence of waterborne diseases. We will now be able to do our economic activities more freely and develop our village.”

Rosemary

Read more on how Temwa helps communities with WASH in our latest report.

More News

This site uses cookies. By using this site you are agreeing to the use of cookies.