Water reaches Lengasti - the Maasai
village
By Express Reporter
In a sunny-dusty day in a very remote village in the Northern part of Tanzania,
voices of girls are heard. These voices are of desperate young girls, who since
their birth have been living in an extremely difficult condition … without
water.
Just imagine, you are in a very remote village surrounded by cows, donkeys and
goats, but with no water. Not only water for the cattle or for washing clothes,
but even water to drink. If you need some, you have to walk for a distance of 24
kilometres.
That is exactly how the Maasai people of Lengasti village in Simanjiro District,
Manyara Region, live their daily lives. They spend 10 hours each day to draw
water 24 kilometres away on a hilly, rocky and forested area, leaving very
little time for other daily chores. Women and girls, regardless of their age,
are the principal water drawers and carriers, sometimes with the help of donkeys
as carriers.
“We are in a terrible situation. We start our day at 3a.m. and arrive at the
well at 7a.m.,” says Mama Nanoto. “We don’t go alone, but have a herd of up to
six donkeys that also need to drink from the same well, and so we have to serve
them with water up to something like 11a.m. We start our journey back home,
arrive at 2pm, start serving the goats with water, and we are left with almost
nothing. As soon as we get home and finish serving the goats, we rush to the
kitchen and use all the water left for cooking.”
Like any other woman in Lengasti, Mama Nanoto does not have time to rest. She
has to collect firewood and make sure that everything is okay in the house. “It
is very painful, but we just have to live with it,” she laments, adding: “Just
imagine what will happen if you’re pregnant and go climbing up the hills in
search for water? You might lose the baby because of carrying the heavy jerry
cans,” says the strong woman.
And what about the men? Do they help?
“Not at all. Searching for water is a woman’s job here in Lengasti, and it will
stay that way,” says Mzee Waitesai Lembese. “Why should we help them? We have
other better things to do that include taking care of the cattle, farming, and
taking care of the whole family, while women here have only three jobs: fetching
water, cooking, and giving birth.”
Another villager, Mzee Lethema Lempese agrees that the water situation in
Lengasti is terrible, and women and children are the ones who suffer more;
because they are the one who have the duty to make sure that there is water in
the family households.
Koini is an 11 year-old girl, who is a standard six pupil at Lengasti Primary
School. She too, as any other child of her age, plays a great role nearly each
day when it comes to the issue of water.
“Yes, I too go to Kambi ya Chokaa with the donkeys so that I could serve them
water. Because I have to go to school, I have to wake up as early as 3a.m.,
serve the donkeys quickly, and rush back home so that I could attend classes.
But there are times when I get tired and decide not to go to the well, so I just
have to rush to school without even washing my face.”
Mzee Maningo Kutatoi is the Lengasti Village Chairman. He too admits that water
has been a lifetime problem to them, and the situation has become so bad that
their only saviour could be donors – and nothing else.
“You would have found this village on a greater stage of development. But how
could we be developed without water?” he queries. “The fact is, when you have
water, you have development, and we are sure that in a few years to come,
Lengsati will be as developed as any other village in the country, and even more
advanced. We just need help.”
The US government, through the Department of Defense, Humanitarian Assistance
Programme, has brought hope to the Lengasti villagers. Recently, it has launched
a project that will supply water to the 6,000 villagers and 16,000 of their
livestock. A pump house will be built and two pumps installed as well as a
90,000 litres storage tank constructed to supply water to the villagers through
a 20km pipeline and six domestic points. Three long cattle troughs will be built
for livestock and one pump attendant’s office and quarters will be constructed.
World Vision Tanzania (WVT) is the project-implementing organisation in
partnership with the Lengasti local community members. The community will
contribute locally available material; stones, sand, course aggregates and
timber for scaffolding. Members will dig trenches for water pipes, haul material
to sites and take care of the project.
Dr. Moinget Ole Kuney hails from Lengasti, and he is the person who came up with
the whole idea of looking for donors in order to help his fellow tribesmen
forget about the problem they have been facing for so long.
Art Lopez, a US Embassy official who represented his country at the signing
ceremony of the water project, assured the Lengasti people that the friendship
that developed a few years ago with the US government is regarded as a very,
very valuable one.
World Vision Tanzania Northern Zone Manager, Chawewe Emmanuel, says that they
too had seen the water problem faced by the Lengasti people, but due to their
tiny budget, failed to intervene. “And by February or March next year, water
will be flowing from the taps of Lengasti.
World Vision Tanzania’s National Director George Mkanza, has also made one
promise: “Two days ago I met the US Embassy’s Chargé d’Affaires Michael Owen and
told him that we will meet after six months at the ceremony to launch the water
flowing out of the taps of Lengasti.”
But there is another happy man among the people of Simanjiro district. This is
the Member of Parliament for Simanjiro, Parseko Ole Kone. He is so happy that he
goes on to explain the history of the Lengasti village that started in 1975 when
it was only a small place that was invaded by people, and later had to be given
the status of a village, due to its increased population.
According to the MP, the government did try some efforts to make sure that the
people get water, all which failed due to lack of funds. And even the
Evangelical Lutheran Church tried to save the situation, but water was nowhere
to be found. That has all changed now.