Cool irrigation system

We jumped into a mini-bus on Saturday morning, and we were off.  Okay, that's not exactly true.  We waited in the back of the mini-bus for 2 hours before it took off.  You could look at it that everything takes long here, or you could say that we were just too early.  Regardless, you need to overestimate how much time it will take for you to get somewhere.

Enam, Graham and I got off the bus in Ntcheu, where our friend Megan lives.  We walked around and found ourselves at her house, with her not there.  Her roommate, Loti, let us in.  Megan would be another couple of hours, he told us.  She was stuck in Blantyre.  No big deal.  We made ourselves at home, and though we wanted to take a nap, we couldn't because Megan's bedroom was locked.  We went for a walk instead.  We looked at the stunning scenery.  A path meanders through the village, passing houses and broken down structures.  It descended down in the distance, where we could see a green forest.  Beyond the forest was a lot of bare dry land.  As you followed it with your eyes, you could see it touch the foothill of a mountain.  The mountain then rose high creating a horizon.  It was a stunning view.

Graham suggested that we walk to the forest because there was probably a river or stream there, as the greenery stood out from the dusty parched background.  We walked along and we did indeed find a stream.  At the stream, very low at this time of year, some women were washing some clothes.  We said our hellos and crossed.  As we crossed, we found ourselves in a football field beside a school.  We walked beyond and were surprised to see some greenery, although this was an agricultural plot, at the foot of the mountain.  It is strange to see plants at this time of year, so there had to be some irrigation system.  

We walked along the fields and thought that perhaps people watered the fields with buckets.  This seemed unlikely as the distance to the stream was too great and the fields were quite large.  We did notice an old aqueduct system, but it seemed to be in disuse.  However as we followed the system, up the mountain, we noticed that it was not quite as ancient as we thought.  We saw evidence of use, in little puddles in the aqueduct system that hadn't quite evaporated.  People must be using this system.

As we walked further up, we saw a large tank that had a valve at its base so watering the aqueducts could be done in a controlled fashion.  This was a pretty complicated system with the ability for changes in water direction throughout the system.  Impressive.  But what was feeding the basin?  As we walked up further, we found our answer.  An underground spring feeds the basin through a series of pipes.  

The villagers share the land as a co-op and use the water to grow vegetables in the dry season.  Irrigation is one of the major impediments to relieving poverty in Malawi.  Good nutrient filled soil is another, but that is a story for another day.  This story is about a cool irrigation water system.  I wish I had taken my camera with me.