For years Estelle Demba Phiri has had the same agonizing routine – waking up at dawn to walk a 2 kilometre distance in search of safe water for her household use.  Mostly, she needed to make at least three trips to meet her households needs for the day.

“At the end, I was always tired to do anything more productive for myself. I had to solely rely on my husband for support,” she laments.

According to Phiri,  this exercise drained the energy and time for her to venture into any meaningful small scale business and farming to support her family.

And that was not all.

“This daily disappearance at dawn always led to quarrels with my husband who thought I was using the search for water as an excuse. He thought I had an affair and it always affected our marriage,” she adds.

As she grew older, with age slowly catching up, she could not cope with the daily routine and started bringing on her children to the chore.

“At times, we could find long queues at the borehole if we did not wake up very early, and my children would be late for school and sometimes would go tired. At the end of the day, their performance in school was being negatively affected,” Phiri recounts.

Phiri was not alone. Most women of Maula in Traditional Authority Fukamalaza’s  area in Nkhata Bay, Malawi have lived in quiet resignation for years.  Just like Phiri, their lives revolved around a daily trek to the distant borehole, often murky and unreliable, for water. Every drop was a hard-fought battle—children, their eyes weary, carried heavy buckets instead of books, while mothers prayed for relief. The dream of clean, safe water seemed distant, buried beneath the demands of everyday survival.

“I could feel for my people. It was tough. The irony though was that most of my fellow leaders in the district had benefited under the Nkhata Bay (Town water supply and sanitation) project. I was one of the few left out. Actually, during area development meetings, fellow chiefs would laugh at us that we were still living in ancient times without a water stand pipe in our homes. And with cholera heavily affecting our district, this was a wake up call.

“So we took an initiative to contact the Board on the challenge. Luckily, the Board was already a step ahead – moving with another project to connect us with water supply,” recalls Fukamalaza though he confirms, he accepted the narrative with skepticism

But soon hope arrived to the chief’s area with the Board bringing the Maula water supply extension project. The success of the Nkhata Bay Water Supply and Sanitation Project financed by the African Development Bank, OPEC Fund and Malawi Government had brought with it savings, and those savings, along with additional funding from the Malawi Government, were redirected toward this project.

“Under the Nkhata Bay project, we had a saving of $1.4 million. We discussed with the Bank to utilize these resources to reach more people  with potable water supply by extending the system to Maula in Chief Fukamalaza’s area. With the designs we had, we needed additional financing and Government allocated around K2 billion to ensure that we make water more accessible to many communities,” explains Catherine Mbewe-Mwafulirwa,the Board’s Director of Infrastructure Development.

Shortly after, the area started receiving teams from the Board to engage the leaders and local communities on the upcoming project.

“This started giving me and my subjects hope. We were engaged on the scope of the project, issues of land acquisition and our role including compensations. With this, our skepticism vanished,” explains Fukamalaza.

As the contractor arrived, community members watched with growing anticipation. Local communities were recruited for manual labor which included excavations among others. Pipes were laid, a booster station and a water storage tank built with communal water taps sprouting in places where only dust had been before. A sense of possibility began to flow alongside the construction.

“We installed a total of 170 kilometers of distribution pipelines, a booster station, a 300 000 litre tank and 10 communal water taps spread across the area,” adds Mwafulirwa.

Soon, the day came when clean, safe water surged through the taps at Maula for the first time.

“The first day clean water flowed was one of celebration. Children were so happy as if discovering joy itself, while women, for the first time, filled their buckets

without the burden of exhaustion. The smiles on my people’s  faces told the story—a long-held dream had finally come true,” says Fukamalaza with a smile.

During a recent mission visit by the African Development Bank to Maula, cheers erupted, children danced, and the tired faces of the mothers lit up with joy confirming the chiefs assertions.

For the people of Maula and surrounding areas, finally the hope had come like a whispered promise, carried by the wind, that the area had not been forgotten.

Their smiles told a story of transformation, not just of water but of hope.

“This water has brought with it health, opportunity, and the freedom to dream of a brighter future.

“I am grown now. I can’t manage the long distances. With the water on the doorstep, I can age gracefully,” says Phiri with a glow of gratitude.

During an interface at the Chiefs headquarters, it  was clear, that the water is not only a women’s issue as it also affects men greatly.

“We can now live in peace and focus on developing our families and our areas. This is why men are also actively involved in managing these taps to ensure that we do not run out of units and water keeps flowing. We want this peace that this water has brought to continue. I believe this water will help bring families together, improve our productivity and children school performance,” said Fukamalaza at his headquarters.

Chief Executive Officer for Northern Region Water Board Francis Munthali  explained that the Board’s vision is to ensure that all people within its supply area have access to potable water and sanitation.

“We are moving with Government’s vision to ensure that we meet sustainable development goal number 6 which calls for potable water and sanitation for all by year 2030. This is why, in our projects, we are going the last mile  to ensure that water is accessible even in remote areas such as Maula where women and children are the most affected when it comes to fetching water. We are bringing safe drinking water to the door step,” Munthali said.

For Phiri and other women at Maula, the coming of safe drinking water is key to securing the future of younger ones.

“We are living the younger generation in safe hands because water is life. We have laid a good foundation to spur development in our area,” reminisces Phiri.

Children at Maula are also happy that when  they wake up, the first faces to see will be those of their mothers unlike previously when they found mothers always out in search for water.