Radio programme that dug a new borehole

If you’ve been following the Facebook page of Amplifying Voices Pakistan, you’ll have seen this story unfold over the last few weeks. But we feel it’s a story worth re-telling. It’s the story of a radio programme that dug a new borehole!

Since November last year a new partner organisation, Community Media Power, founded by Amplifying Voices Pakistan, has been making radio programmes based on conversations in two or three isolated communities outside Nowshera. In one of these programmes, community members talked about the efforts they have to go to to fetch water. A listener was moved by the story and decided to help the community do something about it.

The community lives in an informal settlement that was built about 40 years ago by people who had fled from their homes in Afghanistan. The current residents, numbering around 50-60 families, have still not been fully integrated into the wider community. However, at some point several years ago, someone did dig a couple of boreholes to provide clean water. The pipes lining the boreholes have since rusted and one of the pumps has lost its handle. With no fresh water available locally, community members had to cross a railway track and walk to another community to fetch water, where they were not always welcome and sometimes chased away.

Community Media Power created a radio programme with the community voices telling this story and a local FM station in Nowshera aired the programme. A woman, who was looking for a suitable way to give charitably in preparation for Ramadan, heard the story and decided to get in touch. She said that if the community could get the work started before Ramadan, she would pay for a new borehole and repairs to the other two.

The new borehole has been located near the mosque, with a solar powered pump, a 1000-gallon storage tank so that water is always available from the borehole via taps. This has an additional benefit of providing water for worshipers washing before prayers. The broken boreholes have had the metal lining removed and replaced with more durable plastic pipe lining, and the pump mechanism refurbished.

Community volunteers feed plastic lining into new borehole, Nowshera, March 2022

It only took a week to dig the new borehole, drilling down to 150ft to ensure a good supply of clean water. When the new borehole was ready, the community held a celebration event, to which the donor also came. She gave a radio interview via Community Media Power, encouraging others to do something similar, providing communities with means to develop themselves.

We know that a radio programme cannot actually dig a borehole, but we continue to be encouraged by the power of community-centred radio programmes to advocate for communities whilst also mobilising the community members to take action locally.

Installing borehole - Video courtesy of Community Media Power and Amplifying Voices