Yesterday I was at the market having lunch and chatting with the 20 years old boy who cooks and runs the place. He saw me on my iPhone checking my emails and then he started asking questions about Facebook and internet and emails, confused and thinking they were all the same. I explained to him that the internet was like a library and Facebook one of the books you can look at. He asked me what else we can do on the internet aside from FB and emails. I mentioned that we can do research and read about almost everything, that we can plan a trip, read news, check the weather, that we can search and apply for jobs, that we can buy things and pay our bills online. Then he really got confused. I remembered having a similar discussion with my good friend Memory in Salima about the possibility to use internet to do payments and order things. Just like the boy at the market, she couldn’t really get how that works either. She is bright and educated, waiting to get her exams results to apply to university in South Africa, but like many others here, she never had access to a computer and doesn’t really know what to do with them and she is even more confused by internet. They write their papers by hand, just like we used to 15 years ago. Some people at the District level do use computers for their work but when it comes to sharing the report with others or editing it, they need to sit down altogether on one computer or with a projector to discuss the changes or the report. And when people need to send a report to the client, a contractor or someone else (sometimes in another city that can be many hours away), they need to deliver it in person as the internet is not reliable or the other party doesn't have an email account or a computer.
But there is more to this story than the lack of access to a computer. I realized that over not understanding the possibilities that internet offers really well, they don’t understand credit cards. They don’t have this here. They have bank card, but can only use them to withdraw money at the ATM and most people don’t even have a bank account. Actually, credit cards are hardly accepted anywhere even in the touristic places. It brought me back to the fact that Malawians, like a lot of other people in Africa or developing countries don’t have access to money as easily as we do and their management of money is terrible. Borrowing money is tricky here, loans are rare and credit is practically inexistent. If you go to the tailor and need a zipper or material, you need to provide the money up front or buy it yourself because they won’t have the money to buy your zipper to complete the work. Same for the plumber that came to my place to repair the shower, he had no money to go buy the two pieces of metals he needed to do the repair, he needed money upfront. Most businesses in Malawi work like this, it seems normal and functional to them. Even drillers can’t fixe their equipment if it breaks, it usually takes a long time and they ask you to advance some money to assist them. If you buy something at the market or a small shop and return the next day to exchange it because it doesn’t fit, for example a light bulb or a socket, chances are they won’t have the money and will have to give you a store credit.
So imagine how hard it gets when it comes to asking communities who have boreholes or taps to open a bank account and raise money to do eventual repairs or maintenance. They often fail to do so and end up having a non functional waterpoint and prefer to wait for the next unorganized NGO or nice charity organization to come and fix it for them or install a new borehole right next to the other one. In the meantime, they either withdraw water from a neighbouring village's waterpoint or go to an unprotected water source. Way to go to distort the system, confuse communities and make them dependant of donors instead of learning how to be self sufficient! Once again, Malawi doesn’t just need more boreholes and superheros (ie. random unorganized donors who think that installing a few new boreholes here and there is the key solution), it needs to have follow ups and support to communities to help them raise the money and develop connection to an area mechanic to get their waterpoint fixed. They need to understand the value of having clean and potable water and that they need to contribute money for that to be sustainable because no my friends, boreholes and pumps are not good forever and are far from being invincible. Communities need to stop hoping and thinking that an organisation will come to their rescue all the time. Sometimes good intentions from donors who have a weak understanding of a system or too much money to spend undermine the efficiency and sustainability of this system. This especially happens with charity and religious organizations who can raise a lot of money, but will want to do the work to fast and themselves. If they had a better understanding and if more data on borehole location and functionality was being gathered, those organizations could spend their money in a more sustainable and equitable way to benefit the communities instead of weakening them. There needs to be a better way to organize how donors and organizations do their work here, there needs to be regulations from the National Government and the District Government need to get more involved on what is happening in the district. EWB is trying hard and on many levels to advocate for all this to change and for the water development and sanitation sector to improve. But for this big stormy, corrupted and slow system to face and accept their mistakes and change, there is still a long way to go! Although there is hope…
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