Kanjazi Village: From Hand-Dug Wells to Clean Water

Kanjazi Village has clean water for the first time in its history. Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of a single donor, the 470 residents of Kanjazi Village now have safe, clean drinking water in the village, ending their reliance on open holes dug by hand into the ground, where in the dry season a single well would not yield enough to fill one bucket.

From Crisis to Clean Water

Until now, the 470 residents of Kanjazi Village had no safe water source of their own. They drew what they drank from hand-dug wells, open holes cut down into the ground with no lining, no cover and no pump. Some of them were deep.

What lay at the bottom was a shallow pool of muddy brown water, gathered among bare earth and exposed roots, and it was scooped up and carried home in buckets. As Father Petros put it, in the dry season one hole could not fill a 20 litre bucket. The village kept several wells and moved on to the next as each one dried.

The nearest borehole was 1.5 kilometres away, too far to serve as the daily source for most families. The same water was shared with livestock, and this area is at high risk for cholera and other waterborne diseases. A primary school stands close to the village, so the children who learn there depended on this water too.

Before: one of the hand-dug wells at Kanjazi, an open hole with muddy water at the bottom.

Clean Water at Last

The drilling team has finished the new borehole at Kanjazi Village, and struck water. The blue casing pipe arrived by truck, the rig was set up beside the brick buildings of the village, and when the borehole was cleaned out, water rushed up out of the new casing and sprayed across the rig.

After years of moving from one drying hole to the next, the people of Kanjazi now have clean water rising from a well of their own.

Water rushes up from the new borehole at Kanjazi Village as the borehole is cleaned out.

With the borehole finished, the hand pump was set in place and the concrete pad was built up around it, edged in brick, to keep the wellhead clean and carry spilled water away. The finished well now stands ready for the families of Kanjazi.

Father Petros will bless the new well and formally hand it over to the community.

The new hand pump at Kanjazi, with its pad under construction.

The Difference This Well Makes

A properly constructed borehole in Kanjazi Village will serve 470 people. This essential infrastructure provides clean, safe drinking water directly in the village, ending both the 1.5 kilometre journey to the nearest borehole and the daily reliance on open, unlined wells dug by hand. It will dramatically reduce the risk of cholera and other waterborne diseases that threaten this community, fundamentally improving the overall health and well-being of residents. Children at the nearby primary school now have safe water within reach of their classrooms.

A borehole reaches far below the level these hand-dug wells could hold, so a single source will yield enough for the whole village and go on yielding through the dry season, instead of running out one hole at a time. With proper management by a village maintenance committee, this vital resource should serve the community for approximately 75 years.

The Power of Generosity

The Kanjazi Village Well Project is a testament to what a single act of generosity can accomplish. J.W. chose to fully fund this well, transforming the future of 470 people who had never had access to clean water. Because of their gift, the families of Kanjazi will no longer lower a bucket into a hole in the ground and wait for it to fill, nor move from one drying well to the next as the season wears on.

Please keep Father Petros in your prayers as he continues his dedicated work serving the people of Malawi. 🙏

A gallery of photos and video of the drilling and construction at Kanjazi Village is included below.