Meet Antony: The Farmer-Mechanic Who Repairs Handpumps in Malawi

Antony Kachingwe Mbewe used to be a farmer in Madziabango. Now he's the person his community calls to repair handpumps (water pumps) in Malawi.

*translated from Chichewa

"Before I trained as a mechanic, I depended on safe water every day, just like everyone else here. Whenever a handpump stopped working, life got hard fast. Families went back to rivers and unprotected wells, knowing the water wasn't safe but having no other choice. I watched this happen again and again. I wanted to help, but I didn't know how.

Everything changed when I got the chance to train through Madzi Alipo. The training was hands-on from day one. At first I struggled, I couldn't always tell which part was damaged, or remember the right order to take the pump apart and put it back together. But every repair taught me something new, and slowly my confidence grew. Before long I could diagnose a fault, replace the damaged part, and get the pump working again.

It used to take weeks to fix a broken handpump here. A community member would tell the village chief, the chief would report it to the Traditional Authority, and it would work its way up through the District Commissioner's office before a mechanic was finally sent out. That could take one or two weeks, sometimes longer. In that time, families were back at the rivers and the unprotected wells, and the risk of illness went up with every day the pump stayed broken.

Now, when a handpump breaks, people call me directly. I go out, inspect it, explain the problem to the Water Point Committee, work out what parts we need, and repair it together with them. Before I leave, we test it to make sure clean water is flowing. That first stream of water never gets old, no matter how many times I see it.

Not every repair ends well, and I think it's worth saying that too. At one community, the Water Point Committee had already tried fixing the pump themselves before I arrived. During their repair, the rods and rising pipes slipped down into the borehole. We tried everything to get them back out. When we couldn't, we called in Concern Universal for extra technical support, but even they weren't able to retrieve the equipment. That pump was lost for good. It was hard for everyone involved, but it taught us something important: some handpump repairs need specialist skills, and reporting a fault early can be the difference between a small fix and a pump that never works again.

People often assume I get paid to repair handpumps. I don't. I still support my family through farming and casual work, and the repairs are voluntary. But the reward isn't money. It's knowing my neighbours trust me to fix what's broken. Every call I get is someone believing I can make a difference, and that trust means more to me than I can properly explain.

My hope isn't to be the one who fixes every pump myself. It's to help communities get to a place where they don't need to wait on anyone, including me. I'm not always free when a pump breaks, farming and other work get in the way, so I want to train Water Point Committee members to handle the simple repairs themselves. The more people who know how to do that, the less time any community spends without safe water.

What I wish people outside Malawi understood is this. Across our communities, there are ordinary people quietly giving their time and skill to make things better for their neighbours. I'm proud to be one of them. Fixing a handpump was never just about pipes and parts to me. It means children get to school on time instead of walking for water. It means mothers have a few more hours in the day for their families. It means my community can drink safe water again, and that's worth more to me than any wage."