Midwives in Tanzania look forward to the coming of water

Water is life. We need to have safe, clean water for the hospital staff and also for the patients. We are supposed to have a very clean environment so that disease is not spread. But water is a challenge, as we only have it for one hour a day. The toilets are also a problem. They are dirty because there is no water.

Another challenge is that by law you are supposed to wash your hands after every procedure, but sometimes there is no water, so you find yourself doing two procedures without washing your hands. The impact of not washing hands is that you transfer infection from one place to another, which is very dangerous.

For three weeks in March we did not have water. We used water that comes from rain. Secondly, we had to send a car to the river. The water was not enough, and that led us to major problems because we could not even wash our equipment properly. The number of cases of sepsis increased and some of the babies died…

Julianna Msoffe and Daniel Paulo are midwives at Kiomboi District hospital in Tanzania, where WaterAid is installing a new system to ensure running water 24 hours a day, and rehabilitating toilets and washing areas. The project is part of WaterAid’s Deliver Life appeal. This winter, WaterAid want to reach 130,000 mums and their families around the world with safe water. During the appeal, every £1 given by the UK public will be doubled by the government. To download resources for your church or make a donation to the appeal, visit www.wateraid.org/uk/deliverlife-church

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This is an extract from the November 2015 edition of Reform.

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