Mabereng Mokhopi is the Vice Chairperson of the Mohonyeling WASH Committee. Mohonyeling is a remote, rural village of 20 farming households (population 165) in Mokhotlong District. Mabereng lives here with her husband, children and grandchildren.

Located in the Lesotho Highlands, this area is mountainous, with limited road access. Communities are highly vulnerable to extreme weather variations and food insecurity, and water supply and sanitation coverage is low. Water is generally accessed from seasonal springs that are not covered; herd animals regularly contaminate the water.

Through support from Lesotho Red Cross Society’s (LRCS) WASH Promotion Interventions for Rural Communities, funded by CS-WASH, household latrines and a community water system have been constructed in Mohonyeling.

The Mohonyeling WASH Committee supported the change in number of ways, working closely with LRCS, the community and other groups to ensure that new practices would be widely adopted and sustainable in the long term.

The Lesotho Government required a two-year water feasibility assessment for all proposed systems, and participatory design before implementation. The WASH Committee worked with the Department of Rural Water Supply (DRWS) and LRCS to consult with the local community on the system design and location of the taps, which included identifying households where people had restricted access due to disabilities or other mobility issues.

To encourage uptake, they persuaded households to contribute building materials and labour for the construction of latrines.

Through her role on the WASH Committee, Mabereng also worked with the local Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) Group to help promote hygienic behaviours and, in particular, encourage households to build and use tippy taps. As part of the push to encourage handwashing, households that had constructed tippy taps received first access to the newly constructed water system. While in the past the community had received messages that they should wash their hands and maintain other hygienic behaviours Mabereng noted that, “given the remote location and limited access to education and health services in the past the community had little information on why this was important.” 

Through the training provided to the WASH Committee by LRCS, the Committee work with the Village Chief and PHAST Group to promote and motivate behaviour change. The Village Chief takes the opportunity at community gatherings to discuss the value and benefits to individuals and the community as a whole to stopping open defecation, using latrines, washing hands and managing animal and other waste in their local environment.  

To protect the water system, the Committee has established a tariff system where households contribute to the ongoing management and maintenance of the water system: this will include buying spare parts when required. The Committee worked with the Village Chief and in consultation with the community to establish bylaws that protect the water system from over-use, damage and exposure to animals, and to ensure that everyone is using latrines. Failure to follows these rules will result in household visits from the Chief/Committee, formal warnings and then, if behaviour continues, fines.  

Mabereng said, “Now that the construction of the water system has been completed, the whole community is benefitting. Community members have improved in terms of personal hygiene, my husband who has TB is recovering rapidly and the nurses were impressed at the clinic. The diarrhoea that was affecting the whole village has diminished."