Water Project: Helping the Sisters of Notre Dame in Tanzania

Simanjiro district is in Manyara region of Tanzania. The district is one of the remotest districts of the region and almost semi-arid area mainly inhabited by the indigenous Masaai people. Wild animals are seen from every corner as you drive through Simanjiro region.

The sisters reside among the people of Lobosiret ward which is at the northern part of Simanjiro. It has a population of 13,569 according to 2012 census. They serve the people through pastoral, social and  formal education of the young people. They serve a population of more than 1200 people in this village. The entire district has experienced the scarcity of water for years now. The villagers of various village depend on check dams from rains that comes once in a while, and this too is not sustainable throughout the year.

Being a nomadic community, this is a great challenge since they have to move miles and miles to get water for domestic use and for the animals. People have suffered several diseases due to poor sanitation because of lack of water both safe and clean for drinking and domestic uses.

This past year 2022 has witnessed thousands of cows, goats, donkeys and other wild animals die of hunger and thirst. The drought was extreme, no water, no grass for the animals.

Most of the time people take water from the same source as the animals for their domestic use. They also fetch from stagnant waters when there is no alternative.

The Notre Dame Sisters were supported by the congregation three years back to make a borehole and construct for it so that the villagers and animals may get enough water to drink and people may have access to safe and drinking water and for other domestic use. This too proved insufficient since other villagers too come for it. With your supportive donations we were able to make yet another borehole this time close to sister’s residents so that it may still serve the families around the convent, the school population and the sisters.

The money was just enough to drill the borehole but the sisters were not able to install the solar pump that is so economical in the area since the weather is hot and dry most of the time, and the pipes and the storage tanks for the water after harvest as well as the supplying connections from the tanks to the convent, boarding for boys and girls, boarding vegetable farm and the teacher’s quarter. The water supply too will serve all the village activities that takes place in school as it is the Centre for many village social activities.

Sisters Mary Phillis, Mary Edna Joseph, and Mary Moreen are working there currently. Sisters Mary Phillis is in-charge of the project there and the ground contact sister assisted by Sr Therese Marie our treasurer.