Preventing illnesses in the midst of a crisis: "We now have plenty of water"

Up until recently, the situation for 32-year-old Yanfanshije and her village community in Kaniro in conflict-affected Democratic Republic of Congo was very different. The 13,000 people who live there had limited access to clean water. That meant that many of them – including those who had settled there after fleeing violence elsewhere - often fell ill with diarrhoea, sometimes with life-threatening consequences.

Added to that, a serious cholera outbreak across the country, spread by people drinking contaminated water, increased the risk substantially. Last year, more than 52,000 cases were reported in DRC, making it one of the largest outbreaks of cholera in the world.

But now, thanks to a major project by Concern funded by the UK government to provide clean water to communities in North Kivu in the east of DRC, Yanfanshije and families like hers no longer face such a threat. 

In all, 90,000 people, many of them living in temporary homes after fleeing armed groups, now have access to water that is safe to drink as a result of the initiative.

“The water we provide is saving lives and preventing severe illnesses,” says Concern’s DRC Country Director Antoine Sagot-Priez. “Cholera is one of the many illnesses that can and does take lives, especially children, so we have to do everything we can to keep people healthy."

But providing 1.5 million litres of clean drinking water every day – which amounts to 547.5 million litres a year - is a huge and complex undertaking. 

It all begins at a water treatment plant close to Lake Kivu in the east of the country, where water is extracted and treated to make it safe to drink. 

From there, the water is pumped to nine different distribution points and then on to 38 different tap stands in communities supported by Concern, including displacement sites for families fleeing conflict.

As part of the UK government-funded SAFER programme, Concern also has a dedicated 100,000 litre tank that fills water trucks to take clean water to remote areas, and also provides clean toilets and washing facilities at various displacement sites around eastern DRC.

For too long, Yanfanshije and her village were forced to walk more than half a kilometre to collect water from a spring – with no guarantee that it was safe to drink. That was because the communal piped water supply was not functioning as it should and was in desperate need of repair.

“The water pipes wouldn’t work all day,” said Yanfanshije. “We’d open the tank and 30 minutes later the water would run out. Now, with the rehabilitation of the water supply by Concern, we draw water from the water pump, fewer than 10 metres from my house.”

“We now have plenty of water,” she said.

An estimated seven million people have been forced from their homes in the DRC as a result of a number of conflicts in recent years. 

By providing clean drinking water every day for tens of thousands of people, Concern is helping to prevent life-threatening illnesses from spreading in a humanitarian crisis.