Water of Mercy
Kaluluma Village Well Project
Kaluluma Village Well Project
Location: Kaluluma Village, Malawi Africa
Population: 750
Current Water Situation: The Kaluluma Village Well Project is complete. Thanks to the generosity of 13 donors, including St. John Cantius Parish in the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Knights of Columbus, Kaluluma Village was fully funded on October 3, 2026. The well was drilled on October 13, 2026, and Father Petros reports plenty of water. When the borehole was cleaned out, water and mud burst up in a towering column beside the rig. The hand pump has been installed and the concrete pad built around it. Drilling and construction took three days in all, and a formal blessing with Father Petros is still to come. This is the first time Kaluluma has ever had access to fresh, clean water. More than 750 residents, and the rural hospital that serves them, now have access to clean, safe drinking water. A local water committee will be established for maintenance and management of the well. With proper care, the well should serve the community for approximately 75 years.
Project Impact: Before this well was installed, the 750 residents of Kaluluma Village had no access to safe drinking water and depended entirely on a dambo, a marshy hollow in open grassland where water collects below the surface. There was no pool to draw from, only a shallow hole scooped into the wet ground, barely wider than a washing basin. Residents crouched over it and lifted the dark, still water out a small dish at a time, waiting their turn as buckets and basins lined the grass around them, then carried the full containers home on their heads across open ground. The dambo was shared with livestock and wild animals, and the same contaminated water reached the rural hospital where people go to be treated. This area was at high risk for cholera and other waterborne diseases, presenting severe health risks to the entire community. Today, more than 750 people have access to clean, safe drinking water directly in their village, along with the rural hospital that serves them. Families no longer wait their turn at a scooped hollow in the dambo or lift water out a dish at a time, and the women and children who carried every container home across open ground are freed from that daily journey. The risk of cholera and other waterborne diseases that threatened this community has been dramatically reduced, and a hospital treating those illnesses no longer depends on the water that spreads them. With proper maintenance and management by the community water committee, this vital resource should serve Kaluluma Village for approximately 75 years.
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