Our Work - Water

Pumping underground water for household use

Access to water is limited for many communities in Swaziland. In the area that AEF works some homes are close to clean water provision, others are far. Currently, the majority of homes obtain water from rivers or water catchments. During the rainy season, seasonal streams and water holes also provide a source. Rivers and water catchments are often contaminated with bacteria (such as cholera) and chemicals leading to illness. In addition, the distance from a community to one of these water sources can be far requiring more than an hour to walk to the water source.

To address water challenges in this region, we are drilling wells and placing hand pumps on the wells (some hand pumps were donated by UNICEF). These are being placed in more remote areas that are distant from rivers and unlikely to benefit from any projects planned by the Government of Swaziland.

The average depth of wells is approximately 60 meters with water found between 30 and 80 meters. We do not drill deeper than 80 meters because hand pumping is very difficult at water depth of greater than 80 meters.