Zambian Children Get Clean Water in Their Village for the First Time

In this short World Vision film from 2014, children in a Zambian village who used to walk long distances for water, often several times a day, watch clean water flow from a new borehole in their own community for the first time. Their faces, and the splashing that follows, show what a nearby, safe water point means: less time carrying heavy containers, fewer stomach illnesses and more time for school and play. You can watch the film below, followed by the background on why water access matters so much and where things stand today.

Watch the moment clean water arrives

The film was produced by World Vision, the Christian humanitarian organisation, to launch a major water campaign in 2014. It follows children who described walking a couple of miles each way to fetch water from sources that were often shared with animals. When the new well starts pumping, the reaction is instant: cupped hands, laughter, and children drinking straight from the spout.

At the time, World Vision's water programme was led by Dr Greg Allgood, a former Procter & Gamble scientist who had worked on household water purification before joining the charity. In the campaign letter that accompanied the video, he argued that the world now has the technology and money to bring clean water to every child, and that the main missing ingredient is commitment. The charity pledged to reach millions more people, promised to work with communities to keep water points running, and asked supporters to donate.

Why a nearby water source changes a child's life

For families without water at home, someone has to fetch it, and that someone is usually a woman or a girl. UNICEF has estimated that women and girls worldwide spend around 200 million hours every day collecting water. A full 20-litre jerrycan weighs about 20 kilograms, and carrying it on the head or back day after day can injure the neck and spine.

Time is the other cost. Hours spent walking to a river or distant pump are hours not spent in class, doing homework or earning money. Girls are often kept home to help, and when schools lack water and toilets, older girls may stay away during menstruation. A water point in the village gives that time back.

Then there is health. Water from open sources such as rivers, ponds and unprotected wells can carry bacteria, viruses and parasites that cause diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid and other diseases. Young children are most at risk, because repeated bouts of diarrhoea lead to dehydration and malnutrition, which in turn make the next infection more dangerous.

The global picture, then and now

The 2014 campaign said that more children died from diseases linked to unsafe water than from HIV/AIDS and malaria combined, and that around 1,600 children a day were dying of diarrhoea. Those figures were in line with estimates used by aid agencies at the time, but numbers have changed since, so it is worth updating them.

According to the World Health Organization, diarrhoeal disease still kills about 443,800 children under five every year, roughly 1,200 a day, and most of those deaths could be prevented with safe water, sanitation, hygiene and simple treatment such as oral rehydration salts and zinc. Malaria remains a comparable killer of young children, so the "combined" comparison no longer holds, but unsafe water is still among the leading causes of child deaths.

WHO and UNICEF monitoring shows that in 2022 about 2.2 billion people still lacked safely managed drinking water, meaning water at home that is available when needed and free from contamination. Of those, around 115 million people drink untreated surface water from rivers, lakes and ponds. The United Nations goal of safe water for everyone by 2030 is far off track; the agencies have said progress would need to speed up several times over to reach it.

Zambia has made progress since the film was made, but the gap between towns and the countryside is wide. National surveys and WHO/UNICEF data suggest that about a third of Zambians still lack even a basic drinking water service, with rural families most likely to depend on unprotected wells, streams or long walks.

What makes a water project last

Drilling a well is the easy part. The hard part is keeping it working. Studies across sub-Saharan Africa have repeatedly found that a sizeable share of rural handpumps, often estimated at a quarter or more, are broken at any given time because spare parts, money or trained mechanics are missing. A celebrated opening day can be followed by a quiet return to the river a few years later.

Projects that last usually have a few things in common:

Community ownership. A local water committee collects small fees and decides how the water point is used and repaired.
Local mechanics and parts. Someone nearby can fix a broken pump within days, not months.
Sanitation and hygiene together with water. Latrines and handwashing with soap multiply the health benefits of a clean source.
Monitoring. Regular checks, sometimes with sensors or mobile reporting, catch breakdowns early.

World Vision says it designs its projects along these lines, and it is now one of the largest non-government providers of clean water in the world. When choosing a water charity, it is reasonable to ask how many of its past water points are still working and how it measures that.

Common myths about clean water

"Clear water is clean water." Many dangerous microbes are invisible, and water that looks perfectly clear can still make people ill. Testing, protected sources and treatment matter more than appearance.

"Boiling fixes everything." Boiling kills most germs, but it does not remove chemical pollution such as arsenic, fluoride or nitrates, and it uses scarce fuel. Safe sources and filters suited to the local problem are often better long-term answers.

"One well solves the problem forever." As noted above, maintenance, money and local skills decide whether water keeps flowing.

"It is only a problem in faraway places." Lack of safe water is concentrated in poorer countries, but contamination incidents happen everywhere, and access gaps exist in rural and marginalised communities in wealthy countries too.

How you can help

The children in the film were lucky: the water came to them. For millions of others, it has not yet arrived. If the video moved you, there are practical ways to respond. You can support established water and sanitation organisations, including World Vision, and ask how they keep projects running. You can share reliable information rather than outdated statistics. And you can take a moment, next time you turn on a tap, to remember that safe water at home is still a privilege for a large part of the world.

Sources: Film by World Vision (2014), campaign letter by Dr Greg Allgood; WHO fact sheet: Drinking-water; WHO fact sheet: Diarrhoeal disease; WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP). Story shared earlier by The Mind Unleashed.

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