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DR Congo

In Kalemie "chlorine cures water!"

In order to put a stop to recurring cholera epidemics in Katanga, ACTED has established several stands where chlorine is sold through a community approach. In this way, the beneficiaries reinforce their response capacities to cholera epidemics without outside help and therefore also significantly increase their resilience to this sort of situation.

It is 7 o’clock in the morning in Kalemie, Katanga, in the South-East of the DRC as Jocelyne sets up her sign at her chlorine stand in front of her house and checks her stock of chlorine. A few months ago, the mothers in charge of raising awareness and promoting these bottles of chlorine presented them to their community. The people living in this community did not hide their shock at seeing this product, rarely found in the community. Ordinarily, chlorine is not available unless provided by the humanitarian community during cholera epidemics at chlorination points and surveillance stands, near potentially contaminated water collection points. Germain, an elderly man, standing in front of Jocelyne’s stand, remembers this, saying that:

“In most cases, chlorine came from NGOs who came to treat water. In fact, they came last year to manage the wave of cholera passing through the region. However today, with the “Uzima Mothers,” we can buy our own chlorine here in Kalemie and we don’t have to rely on anyone else coming from the outside.”

In 2010, ACTED helped the “Uzima Mothers”, a local association, in producing chlorine thanks to WATA technology. This association can now locally produce chlorine at a very low cost. The procedure is relatively easy as it consists of treating contaminated water with a sodium hypochlorite solution. This solution is produced within the community with water and salt and by using WATA electrolytic cells. Today, ACTED is preparing a project with the support of The Pooled Fund through which the “Uzima Mothers” will once again be supported in the establishment of the chlorine stands. Once the solution is ready, the “Uzima Mothers” transfer this liquid into bottles of 20 millilitres which are then dispatched to several different sales points, such as Jocelyne’s.

In this context, ACTED teams trained the chlorine saleswomen with regard to social marketing techniques. Several women were very interested by this new activity in their community and have since multiplied their door to door visits to raise awareness among the community about the possibility of buying chlorine. In addition, radio shows and a television advert have allowed the message to be dispersed on a larger scale. In this regard a slogan has been found in cooperation with the saleswomen: “chlorine cures water!” Upon purchase of the first bottle of chlorine, the consumer pays 0.42 Euro and this bottle will treat 25 cans of 20 litres, that is to say, 500 litres of water. After this first purchase, each refill costs only 0.17 Euro. These prices are reasonable and allow the “Uzima Mothers” and other saleswomen to make a small profit from the sale of this product. In this way they are financially independent as of the fourth month of sales. This is where the real value of the project and its innovative nature can be found. This project allows these chlorine community selling points to be independent, in this way the impact of the project will be felt on a long term scale even after the humanitarian community has left.