Bringing Lifesaving Water to a Health Post in Zambia

Water makes good health possible. Yet healthcare workers at Magumwi Rural Health Post in Zambia faced a daily struggle to find it. Without access to clean, safe water, they worried how they would deliver the care their patients deserved.
Now, the constant stress has lifted. CMMB, with our affiliate Access to Health Zambia, recently installed a rainwater harvesting system that makes clean water readily available. During World Water Week, we share Magumwi’s story to show how access to clean, safe water uplifts healthcare workers—and delivers hope for healthier lives.
An Impossible Choice for Healthcare Workers
In Magumwi, a rural community located in the eastern reaches of Zambia’s Mwandi District, the dry season is harsh. As the land dries up, efforts to find water underground are mostly futile. Here, the water is saline—so salty that it stains clothing.
The people in Magumwi are persistent. They drill deep holes in the ground, called boreholes, trying to hit water, only to abandon them in frustration, a cycle that repeats itself endlessly. Some open wells exist, but livestock often contaminate the water. And even these dry up in the peak of Zambia’s dry season.
At Magumwi Rural Health Post, a center of care for nearly 5,000 people, the lack of water was a daily challenge. Health workers faced an impossible choice: pay from their own pocket for labor to fetch water from great distances or leave their patients unattended to search for it themselves.
“Imagine needing to give a child medicine and having no water to help them swallow it,” one nurse shared. “Or preparing for a delivery in the maternity ward without water to wash your hands.”
The lack of clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) caused constant stress at the facility. Magumwi’s healthcare workers struggled, trying their best to maintain cleanliness, prevent infection, and deliver adequate care. Understandably, their patients suffered.
Mothers in labor sometimes came with their own water, but this was not always possible. Children suffering from severe diarrhea came to the hospital for care, but did not always receive clean water to drink, because it was not readily available.
At every level, health was compromised.
Rain and Hope Come to Magumwi
Then, hope. In 2024, CMMB installed a 32,000-liter rainwater harvesting system at the health post. Now, Magumwi’s staff can collect and store rain during Zambia’s rainy season so that clean, safe water is available year-round. From Magumwi’s clinic, to its labor and delivery ward, and in its maternity waiting home, where pregnant women await their delivery, there is hope for better health, because every department benefits from the rainwater harvesting system.
The impact has been powerful. Nearly 250 women a year can deliver their newborns in safe conditions. Each week, the 80 or so people who seek outpatient care experience improved hygiene and service.
Staff morale has improved, too. Health workers are no longer forced to make impossible decisions. Instead, with safe water readily available in CMMB-provided tanks, they focus on what they do best—care for their patients, knowing they have the means to do so safely.
“All the tanks are full now, and for once, we’re not worried about running out,” said Lubasi, an environmental health technologist who supported the project at Magumwi. “This system has ended the suffering for staff like me.”
At Magumwi, the new rainwater system is a lifeline—and reflective of the better health that is possible when we increase access to clean, safe water in the world’s most resource-scarce places.