Clean Drinking Water

Photo credit AGIR RDC

One of the most urgent health crises in Congo is lack of access to clean water. To address this, AGIR RDC provides training, water tanks, and filters to orphanages and schools who serve many displaced children in Goma and Beni, North Kivu.

Water is necessary for life. Filtering and storing water cleanly are essential to prevent the spread of diseases such as cholera, typhoid and dysentery. Handwashing is a way to prevent the spread of other diseases such as Ebola and COVID-19.

Without storage tanks, most people in the area have to walk for miles each day to get the water they need — which is not yet potable. And, they can only have what they can carry. In Goma, some live too far from the lake to have daily water and are often forced to make a choice between washing and drinking. In Beni, many wells are contaminated with fecal matter. Many schools have no water at all. Some have only rain catchment barrels from their roofs. Rainwater is often contaminated from various sources including volcanic ash.

AGIR RDC works with school officials, selected students, and community leaders to address public health issues. They currently provide tanks and filters to ten schools and two orphanages in Goma and four institutions in Beni. They are working toward serving more areas with community wells in Beni fitted with filters and collaborating with local water committees already in place to keep them functioning well. ACT for Congo is working with partner Safe Tap in the US to provide filters, and AGIR is working with the community in Goma and Beni.