Kingdom Drilling Field Report, July 2011
Issue: Water source is the river, which is infested with crocodiles and hippos. 9 people died this year. Need a water well right away.
Location: Muvuwa Village, Siavonga District, Zambia, Africa
Video about hippo and crocodile problem
Coordinates: S 15 57.746’ E 028 44.577’
Governing Body: Local Chief, Sikoongo
Population of village: 214 of which around 140 are children
Current water source: Kafue River, this is a year round river about 200m from the village.
Status of water: According to the villagers the water is safe to drink during the dry season, during the rainy season (November – April) the water is brown from runoff and causes sickness most of the time. However, the water is teeming with Crocodiles and Hippos.
Distance to clinic: 40 Kilometers
Distance to school: 16 Kilometers
Distance to church: 20 Kilometers (Catholic)
Overview and assessment: I believe this to be a valid project for FTK. While these people have plenty of water and could probably use it safely by boiling it that is not the real problem. The real problem lies in the fact that in the last year alone nine people, most of them women and children have been killed by either Hippos or Crocs while fetching water. That being said, during the rainy season the runoff into the Kafue River includes two copper mines and one large city upstream that is probably also contaminating the river.
Only about 20% of the children in this village attend school and we could only find one person in the whole village that had finished high school. One of the reasons for this low attendance is that in order to reach the school the children must cross the Kafue River in canoes. Not a safe proposition in the dry season and suicide in the wet season. The problems here are much deeper than water, early marriage, alcohol abuse and other problems are rampant due to the lack of education and opportunity. If we accepted this as a project, this would be one that would need to be total community development. There is no church here, the only exposure to Christianity is a local Catholic Priest that used to visit but has not been to the village in over two years. There is great need for the Gospel as well as a permanent church for discipleship.
This project would definitely need to be one that was connected to or adopted by a local church in the States. This will be an ongoing project that should start with a well, then a church and school. The people of this community have very little as far as wealth but do have fundis that can help with construction as well as one man who is certified to teach grades 1 – 4.
Well Cost: about $10,000 and that is inclusive of an Indian Mark II hand pump.
More research will have to be done on construction costs of a school, clinic and church. This is a very remote area that is about 10 kilometers off the main road (if you can call it that) on a bush road. The area is so secluded that they do not even have a bus service into that area at all. To catch a bus to get to the nearest clinic they have to walk to the main road.
Thanks and God bless,
Bobby Roberts
Feed The Kingdom, Inc.
100 Commons Road
Suite 7 #102
Dripping Springs, Texas 78620
