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Mnarani Water Pipeline Project

The Kwanini Foundation is pleased to report the completion of the Mnarani Water Pipeline Project at the end of last year

Many of the staff at The Manta Resort (the home of the Kwanini Foundation) live in the nearby Mnarani village, which as of mid-2019 had no access to a regular supply of running water. Many of the residents relied on walking up to two kilometres with jerrycans in order to obtain fresh water for drinking, cooking and washing. Following a request to the Foundation for assistance, our team in collaboration with the staff from Manta and their fellow villagers in the Autumn of 2019 facilitated a project involving the provision of a water pipeline to supply fresh running water to Mnarani.

This was a truly collaborative project between the Foundation and the local community, with the labour being carried out by the villagers and Kwanini supplying the pipeline and financing any connection fees. The works were supervised by members of the Kwanini team, and inspected and signed off by the chief engineer of the Zanzibar Water Authority so we are confident that the works were carried out with the full co-operation and authorisation of the relevant authorities. As illustrated in the photographs in this article the work was difficult and hard due to the unfavourable terrain, largely comprising coral rock which required breaking up without the benefit of power tools before the trench could be completed. Furthermore, the pipeline route crossed the road in several locations, adding the difficulty of safely maintaining the traffic flow without inhibiting the work progress. Nevertheless, it took less than two weeks to dig the trench, lay the pipework and get the water flowing.

The pipeline extends the previous water line, which unfortunately did not reach Mnarani village. The new extension now supplies the village with a water source. Whilst the pipeline is unable to supply villagers with water during the day due to pressure and supply restrictions lower down the line, the people in Mnarani village are now able to gather water at night. This is not ideal, but it is better (and cheaper for the villagers) than if there was no pipeline at all. In total, 40 households benefit from this new pipeline.

The Mnarani Water Pipeline project was completed using funds provided from The Kwanini Foundation's Snorkelling for Conservation excursion, hosted by The Manta Resort. This excursion takes guests from the hotel on a trip along the nearby Kwanini Marine Protected Area, where sights include octopus, moray eels, many different fish species and, sometimes, the resident nurse shark. Guests from The Manta Resort pay a small fee to take part in this guided excursion, and the funds raised go towards local community projects in North Pemba such as the Mnarani Water Project.

Many of you will have taken part in the Snorkelling For Conservation programme when you visited Manta; we thank you kindly for your support and interest, and we hope that you appreciate seeing the benefits that such a small donation can bring.
This was the first project to be completed by the Kwanini Foundation using the Manta Resort’s Snorkelling for Conservation programme.

For our next project, work is currently being undertaken on the construction of two classrooms for a local school, to expand the school capacity for local school children.

If you are interested in seeing more regular updates of what the Kwanini Foundation is working on, you will soon be able to sign up to a regular, monthly newsletter directly from our website; the newsletter brings you a roundup of the latest updates on Kwanini projects, personnel and news from the last month straight to your inbox!
 
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