Safe water, healthy children!
Abdol Faroq, 38, lives in Qasab, one of the villages in the Karokh district located about 25 km from Herat. He is an active man with creative mind and works on a cotton farm to help support his children: Mobin, 10, and Saba, 6.
“Our village is located in a hot and dry region,” says Abdol. “Unfortunately, we don’t have enough agriculture water to use on our farm. Before, about 85 families lived in this village, but [now] due to lack of water [many families have] migrated to other villages or [nearby] cities. Today, there are only 43 families living here.”
In the past, most of the village residents used the water flume for their daily water needs: such as drinking, cooking, and washing. Community members made the 2 km trek to gather water two or three times a day.
Stuck between rocks and a hard place
“Many times my family and other people in village tried to dig wells but we couldn’t [find water],” says Abdol. “Our village has rocky ground and after 12 km [of] digging, we [only] reached [more] rock… so all people have to use the flume.”
“My son, Mobin, most of the time became [sick with] diarrhoea and [he] didn’t eat enough,” remembers Abdol.
“My son, Mobin, most of the time became [sick with] diarrhoea and [he] didn’t eat enough,” remembers Abdol. “I didn’t know the reason. He was so weak. I thought [his condition] was congenital, so always I treated him with herbs, but I didn’t get result." he says, as his son’s condition never did really improve.
Clean water, a community-wide concern.
“About two years ago we had 12 case of diarrhoea in one day,” remembers Abdol. “My girl [Saba] was one of them. The community health worker in our village transferred [the sick] to [the] clinic immediately. Some children’s diarrhoea was so sever they were kept in [the] hospital for three days.”
Concern grew in the community and after community prayer that week, the parents decided to check the water flume. “We found two big, dead lizards in the water,” he remembers.
Seeking a solution
A week later, the village was visited by the Director of Public Health and a group from World Vision. They came to show the community about a solution to their problem of unclean water. They brought with them a product that purified the water, called PUR. Although their water clearly had problems, the community was sceptical about this solution.
“I remembered that Director of Public Health [Qolam Saeed Rashid] said a loud that refined water with PUR isn’t a killer. He was the first person in our village to drink two glass of refined water,” remembers Abdol, recalling the event and its impact on the participants. “After that, people believed that PUR isn’t dangerous,” he remembers.
Once the community was convinced this product could help, they still needed some basic training on how to use it properly, which was provided in the form of day-long training sessions, conducted by the community health workers.
Life changing results
“So whenever we wanted to use the water flume, we redefined [the water] with PUR and all [the] people was satisfied with it.
“So whenever we wanted to use the water flume, we redefined [the water] with PUR and all [the] people was satisfied with it.The rate of [cases of] diarrhoea decreased in our village,” says Abdol. “Even my son became better and found [his] appetite.”
The PUR water refining process is just one piece in the larger water and sanitation work World Vision Afghanistan is carrying out in this community. About a month after they received PUR, World Vision led another community-wide training about how to construct a latrine and distributed the necessary materials necessary, especially to those families in greatest financial need.
No going back
“Let me to be honest, before we didn’t think that the location and existence of a door was important for a latrine,” admits Abdol. “But, after participating in this training all of us understood that our latrines are not in [the] proper locations. So, when I received [the] latrine materials from World Vision, [I] immediately started to construct a latrine in my home.” He says. “Our old latrine was not washable and it was so dark with a big hole in the middle, even my children avoided to go to toilet.”
“I proud [to have participated] in such as program,” says Abdol. “And, I hope other families in my village who received latrine [materials were also able] to stop diarrhoea and sickness among [their] children.”