Afua is a village in the North-West region of Cameroon. The village belongs to the Fuli-Kom parish which is part of the Bamenda Diocese. There is a local OFS fraternity of St. Clare and several YouFra members in Afua. The population of 25,000 people consists of Christians and Muslims.
Afua is a typical farming community cultivating crops mainly for consumption. The majority of local people are farmers and cattle owners, who make a living by selling their farm produce. Some of the villagers work in the nearby tea plantation and receive a monthly income of EUR 16. People of Afua used to collect water for drinking and cooking from the main river Mugoilum which is polluted by a ranch upstream. What made this river peculiar is that the villagers drank downstream, while cattle of this ranch drank upstream. Worst of all is that dead horses are disposed of in the same river.
Afua has 4 main quarters: Mbieh, Centre, Nkfum and Achiantoh. Mbieh quarter has developed a water project with the aim to collect water which comes from the rocks and to supply it to the other three quarters. The villagers have constructed a small catchment (4x4 m) with a constant flow of water which could only supply water to the distance of up to half a kilometre. “Well4Africa” water project involved the construction of a bigger catchment (9x7 m) which would allow supplying water to all 4 quarters of the village. Main pipe stands were built in different locations separated by at least 3 km (St. Francis of Assisi Church, Catholic School, the central junction of the main road and the centres of all 4 quarters) where all villagers are able to fetch water now.
Over 25,000 people benefit from Afua water project. Using water in their farms for agricultural products will improve their standard of living. But the most important factor is that the villagers will not suffer from water-related diseases anymore, since now they are provided with fresh clean drinking water. All users of the water supply will be asked for a monthly contribution which may be replaced by working in community land or cultivating and selling crops in order to raise funds for the maintenance of the water project. Teenagers have been trained to work with water supply in order to fix small connection problems after installation. OFS National Council and Capuchin Custody of Cameroon are in charge of the maintenance of this project.
The works were implemented by Woin Awoh Building and Supply Enterprise from October to December 2021. The amount donated to the project was EUR 12,450.
The aim of “Well4Africa” social initiative is to ensure human right to water and to drill boreholes in poor African areas where the Franciscan Family is present. For possible ways of donation, please refer to https://well4africa.eu/index.php/donate
