Katu Koli ist sechzig Jahre alt und Witwe. Sie lebt mit ihren drei Söhnen und weiteren Verwandten in Koli Para, einem Dorf in der pakistanischen Provinz Sindh. Das Dorf ist für Katu Heimat und Namensgeber zugleich. Einen Familiennamen gibt es hier nicht. Katu Koli reicht völlig aus, damit jeder in der Umgebung weiß, wer gemeint ist. Seit langer Zeit schon arbeitet die Familie in der Landwirtschaft auf den Feldern um Koli Para.
Each day anew, obtaining clean water is a challenge for the inhabitants of the village. Katu and the other women get water for their daily needs from a small reservoir fed by surrounding irrigation trenches. However, the cattle drinks from it as well, so the water is actually not suitable for the people to drink it.
“But we have no other option but to drink this water”, Katu says. “That is why we have health problems. Not just the children often suffer from diarrhea, scabies and typhoid. When we fall ill, we can’t work in the fields and have to spend the majority of our money on medical treatment.”
The situation is especially precarious in the region of Sindh. More than 80% of the inhabitants have no access to clean drinking water. The report of the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) depicts the dramatic consequences: among one thousand children under the age of five one hundred die due to diseases caused by contaminated drinking water.
To improve the situation of the people in Sindh, arche noVa currently supports 65 communities in the fields of water and sanitary supply, disaster prevention, improvement of hygiene and food security.
In the following weeks, arche noVa will improve the water supply of Koli Para as well. Katu and the other inhabitants are waiting eagerly.
