Tap water gives new life to villagers

MAFETENG — While some rural parts of the country are in the grip of hunger some villagers in Ha-Paki and Ha-Shale in Mafeteng have a completely different story to tell.
For these villagers in Mafeteng, about 80 kilometres south of the capital Maseru, hunger and poverty are now a thing of the past, thanks to the help they received from international aid agencies since 2006.
The villagers say the intervention by the United States Agency International Development (USAID), Catholic Relief Services (CRS), World Vision and Care International have dramatically improved their lives.
The four international relief agencies pooled their resources and installed taps for the villagers in Ha-Paki and Ha-Shale.
In that way the villagers could have clean drinking water and also use the water to irrigate their small vegetable gardens.
Three years after the project began villagers say the decision to start the vegetable gardens had significantly improved their lives.
The villagers say they will forever be thankful for the help they received.
Two weeks ago, the aid agencies toured the two villages to assess how the farmers were coping three years after the project began.
And they were not disappointed.
The gardens were bubbling with life.
And the villagers were only