Nyembuye village lies in a very remote part of Burundi. The nearest large town is Rutana which is about 20 miles away. Nyembuye’s population is predominantly made up of refugee returnees that have returned to the country after having spent many years in refugee camps in D.R. Congo and Tanzania. The challenges that these people face are enormous as they try to make a simple living from the land.
Mission International partners with a local organisation Rema Burundi, themselves refugees, exiled in Kenya and there formed Rema to help their people in exile and now as they return to Burundi. Rema with the help of overseas partners has set up a clinic in Nyembuye which has now been extended from a simple health centre to provide small hospital wards, a bloods lab and maternity facilities (this too is an ongoing project requiring external funding). This simple, yet growing and developing facility was the first project implemented to improve the lives of the people living in the area.
The need for water:
The only clean water available to this community was a spring which emerged about 1.5km away up the mountain side. Local people would travel to the spring and carry water to their homes. Due to the high levels of clean water required by the Nyembuye Clinic a better solution was required.
For those villages unable to reach the mountain spring another source of water is the Muyovosi River. The water here is polluted with bacteria, parasites and viruses; this combined with the dangers of drowning during the rainy season, with children falling into the deep fast moving waters and the risk of injury from carrying large, heavy containers of water back home makes it unsuitable for human consumption. The Kibonobono project phases 1 & 2 removes these health and injury risks and will bring clean safe water to these villages.
Mission International, with the involvement of a Scottish mission team that had recently visited Burundi, sought to help Rema Burundi and the Nyembuye Clinic to find a solution to the problem. Christian Engineers in Development agreed to survey the site and discovered that it would be possible to pipe water from the mountain spring to the clinic. It was clear from the survey that there would be enough water to provide the clinic’s needs as well as provide a more accessible supply for local residents along the route of the pipe. The first phase was completed providing water for the clinic’s surgeries, the system was also able to provide water for the nearby school and standpipes for the use of the local community.
An abundance of water:
Thanks to the hilly terrain in the area around Nyembuye the water supply was sufficient to extend the pipe to other local villages in the area. Since then a new source has been discovered which will allow the system to be extended even further, in phase 1 to the villages of Kibonobono, Mutara, and in phase 2 towards Kariba and Verundi.
In order to extend available funds as far as possible, local people have responded to the call to help dig the trench in which the water pipe will be laid.
Funding to completion:
Currently Mission International is fundraising to complete phase 1 and phase 2 of the Kibonobono water project nearby Nyembuye, bringing clean safe, abundant and accessible water to many more people.
To donate!
To donate to the £7000 required for the final phases of this project please follow this link to our on-line giving page: Mission International Water projects.
Kibonobono Water Project
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A huge thank you to everyone who has donated to this project – the funds are complete!
If you would like to donate to another Burundi project you can find The Hope Centre Burundi Project here!
