10/06/2026
Cold, wet and misty in the hills of Ntabamhlope.
We were there with ACAT as part of the water and food security project we launched with The Rotary Club of Pietermaritzburg Azalea to mark its centenary. This time, we were taking 19 Hippo Rollers, donated by McMurray Rotary Club and Rotary Club of Palos Verdes Peninsula, and 19 Aquabox Family Filters to farming families in the area. The filters were generously donated by Aquabox in the UK.
It was one of those days in the field that leaves you with very mixed emotions.
You are grateful that you can do something practical to help. At the same time, it is incredibly frustrating to see people working so hard to grow their own food while something as basic as an unreliable water supply keeps making life harder.
We saw taps in the community. Some were at individual homes and others served several households. The problem is that having a tap doesn't mean having water.
We were told that when the system is working, the water generally comes on once a week, usually on a Wednesday, and only for a few hours. If you are at the clinic or away from home when it comes on, you miss it. You wait until the next time. Sometimes that next time doesn't come for weeks.
Inside the building where we gathered to get out of the rain, there were probably 30 to 50 buckets stacked along the walls, waiting to be filled. That sight stayed with us.
When there is no water from the taps, people have to walk up the hill to collect water from a natural spring. Livestock also drink from the same spring. There is nowhere else for the animals to drink, which means there is always a risk of the water becoming contaminated.
We asked how many people frequently experienced stomach problems and gastrointestinal illness. More than half the people in the room said they do. This is why the Aquabox filters are so important here.
The Family Filters are designed to make microbiologically contaminated water safer to drink. They use membrane filtration to remove suspended material and harmful microorganisms, including bacteria and most viruses. They don't need electricity and, if properly looked after, can filter a very large amount of water over their lifetime.
The Hippo Rollers will help families move water from the source to their homes and food gardens without having to carry bucket after bucket.
We later travelled further into the area to Walk in the Light Ministry in Bhekabazayo, Ntabamhlope, where we left several of the Hippo Rollers and Aquabox filters.
There was a lot happening there. The farming is developing, with chickens and crops being grown. They have also built a prototype mill where local people can bring the grain they have grown to be milled. Families drop it off and return to collect their bags on Fridays once the milling has been done.
That mill really caught my attention. It gives people a way to turn what they grow into food for their families, right there in their own community. It is the sort of practical idea I would love to see replicated elsewhere.
We left Ntabamhlope wet, muddy and very glad that 19 families now have a better way to move water and a way to make the water they collect safer to drink. We also left angry that they need them. People who are working this hard to grow food and build something for their families should be able to turn on a tap and get water.
Thank you to the Rotary Club of Pietermaritzburg Azalea for partnering with us on this project, to ACAT for taking us into the communities they work alongside, and to Aquabox in the UK for donating the 19 Family Filters.
There is still a great deal more to do.
