Daily and WaterAid: Transforming Lives
For the past few years, we’ve been helping WaterAid to bring fresh, clean water to the mountain communities of Tigray, Ethiopia. Together, we’ve built a new gravity-flow water system which channels mountain spring water down into storage tanks situated below, where it’s available ‘on tap’ to villagers.
Eighteen year old Letakiros Hagos from the village of Adiger, Tigray is part of the committee that implemented the project. She told us about the difference a safe, accessible water supply has made.
“In earlier times we had one spring which is one and a half hours walk away but it dries in the dry season,” Letakiros explained. To collect enough water for the whole family, Letakiros had to make two trips – which added up to six hours walking every day. Unsurprisingly, they were left weary. “We hated that activity – it was a real hardship,” she says.
Life has changed dramatically since those days. “We are really happy getting this water. We have got a lot of advantages from it. The children were really suffering due to the lack of water and sometimes they suffered skin diseases because they were not clean, but now we are able to wash them whenever we want.”
Time previously spent walking for water can now be used for much more productive activities. “I manage my animals,” she says. “And I have started growing vegetables. I plant, I cultivate and I have a special market day and sell it. So most of my time I use in vegetable production.”
Letakiros’ family has also benefited. “My four brothers and sisters attended school, but before the water scheme they were suffering as they had a problem washing their clothes regularly. But now they are clean, they are washing their clothes and they can go to school with full confidence because they are clean.”
“Really, I feel happy. We have got clean water, we have started using pit latrines and in addition to this, before the scheme we had no experience of growing vegetables so we have started growing them. Somebody has told me that people are starting to name their children after plants!”
We can’t tell you how proud we are to be helping Letakiros, her family and thousands more like her. If you’d like to help, visit our website and donate what you can today.
