{"id":7643,"date":"2025-05-29T09:45:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T09:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/?p=7643"},"modified":"2025-05-29T11:24:45","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T11:24:45","slug":"empowering-rural-communities-through-local-borehole-mechanics-the-story-of-davie-mwangosi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/empowering-rural-communities-through-local-borehole-mechanics-the-story-of-davie-mwangosi\/","title":{"rendered":"EMPOWERING RURAL COMMUNITIES THROUGH BOREHOLE AREA MECHANICS: THE STORY OF DAVIE MWANGOSI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Noel Chatepa<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many rural communities across Malawi, access to clean water is a daily struggle\u00a0especially\u00a0in situations where a borehole, which is\u00a0the primary water source, breaks down. In such situations,\u00a0communities have to wait for government employed borehole mechanics to travel long distances to perform repairs\u00a0on the borehole. These government technicians are often overwhelmed by the wide\u00a0regions they cover, leading to delays\u00a0and increased financial costs for the community. During such times, families are forced to revert to unsafe water sources, exposing them to waterborne diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To address this gap, the Karonga Diocese, through the Cross Catholic Outreach funded Community Transformation WASH Project trained\u00a0community-based\u00a0borehole\u00a0area mechanics. The training of the area mechanics was\u00a0implemented in collaboration with government\u00a0and aimed\u00a0to ensure that boreholes are repaired quickly and maintained properly by local\u00a0borehole\u00a0area mechanics\u00a0who live within the same communities they serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Davie Mwangosi<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One such area mechanic is Davie Mwangosi (48), from Mulyabweka village in GVH Chankholombe, Karonga. He is one of four area mechanics from Chankholombe who received training in borehole maintenance and repair under the Community Transformation WASH project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen the Diocese was drilling the boreholes, water-point committees were formed. I was a member of one of those committees, and from there, I was selected to be trained as a borehole mechanic,\u201d Mwangosi shares. \u201cThe training was very thorough. We were taught how to maintain and repair the entire borehole system, from the bottom cylinder to the top hand pump.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since completing his training in November 2022, Mwangosi has successfully repaired five boreholes and installed a complete hand pump on a newly drilled borehole. \u201cI installed the pipes, rods, and hand pump myself. The borehole had been drilled but left incomplete. To this day, the pump is still working perfectly,\u201d he says with pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A young boy uses one of the boreholes that Mwangosi is responsible for maintaining. <\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Beyond the technical benefits, being an area mechanic has also provided Mwangosi with an opportunity to earn an income for his family. \u201cI don\u2019t have a fixed charge for my services. People just give me a token of appreciation. The most I\u2019ve received so far is MK20,000,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mwangosi\u2019s story highlights the power of community-led development and the importance of investing in improving local capacity. By empowering individuals like Mwangosi with practical skills, the Karonga Diocese has not only ensured the sustainability of\u00a0the Community Transformation WASH project but has also empowered Mwangosis’ life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Karonga Diocese Community Transformation program funded by Cross Catholic Outreach is implementing projects in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Nutrition, Spiritual Evangelism, Health, Agriculture, Education and economic empowerment in the three program sites of Jalawe (Rumphi), Chankholombe (Karonga) and Kopakopa (Chitipa)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Noel Chatepa In many rural communities across Malawi, access to clean water is a daily struggle\u00a0especially\u00a0in situations where a borehole, which is\u00a0the primary water source, breaks down. In such situations,\u00a0communities have to wait for government employed borehole mechanics to travel long distances to perform repairs\u00a0on the borehole. These government technicians are often overwhelmed by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"iawp_total_views":54,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-caritas-commission","category-development-desk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7643"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7654,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7643\/revisions\/7654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}