A life destined for water
Meet Chizela, the man behind the MaxLife pilot in Zambia
With a name that means “fishing”, Chizela Moonga was destined for a life working with water. He joined Design Outreach (DO) in 2021, but his passion for clean water began long before that.
Chizela grew up in a rural town in southern Zambia, and until the age of 15, his only source of water was a shallow well. He and his six siblings walked 30 minutes each way to collect 20 liters of water. This daily chore made it difficult to attend school, but his mother, a teacher, ensured that he did.
After school, Chizela helped his father tend a garden—another task that depended entirely on water carried from a long distance. And in those moments working in the garden, something else began to take root.
“When I completed my 12th grade, I told my father I needed to change the situation of water in my village and that I should pursue a course related to water and sanitation,” he said. So, his father helped him get there.
Chizela went on to study water engineering in college. The path wasn’t easy, but little in his life had been. He persevered and was one of just 13 of 83 students to graduate. He later earned a bachelor’s degree in development studies from Zambia Open University and a diploma in water engineering from the University of Zambia’s Natural Resources Development College.
After college, Chizela spent 11 years working for the Zambian government, eventually leading a water and sanitation unit at the district level. His work focused on coordinating stakeholders, overseeing well construction, and ensuring communities had access to safe water. And he kept his promise to improve the struggle for water in his community.
“I paid back my village. I made sure they had a well, and they were happy.”
While attending a government training in 2018, Chizela encountered something that would shift his path once again: Design Outreach. He was selected to attend a training where DO was introducing a new technology capable of reaching deeper than any other pump. Chizela had seen many pumps over the years, but he knew this was different.
“I felt there was something different about this technology,” he said. “That got me intrigued and I asked questions. I wanted to learn more.”
That curiosity stayed with him, and in April 2021, he officially joined the DO team. Today, he serves as WASH Technical Manager for the Zambia Field Office, working closely with government partners while also staying deeply involved in the field, ensuring wells are installed efficiently and according to guidelines.
He is also leading a major initiative for DO—the 40-pump MaxLife upgrade project in partnership with the local government and Living Water International. This breakthrough technology is designed to help India Mark 2 (IM2) hand pumps last longer, resist corrosion, and provide reliable access to clean water. Each pump is also equipped with a sensor that tracks functionality and usage, allowing teams and government partners to make smarter decisions without unnecessary travel.
“The sensor helps us know when a pump needs attention,” Chizela explained. “It saves time, it saves money, and it improves service.”
The work is hard and the hours are long, but there is no shortage of inspiring stories to keep him going. He shared one such story with us.
“I met a woman in the village of Chapowa who told me she had not drank water from a well for the past 22 years,” he said. “The village was hard to reach and took us almost a half day driving. The well had not functioned since 2004, and the technologies that exist in the district cannot extract water from 52 meters deep.”
But with LifePump, DO was able to bring water to a generation of young people who had never had clean water from a well. When water flowed for the first time, he said the jubilation was amazing.
“People wanted to surrender everything they had. They offered us chickens and goats. But we said, ‘No, this is what we do.’”
He added, “It strengthens my faith to see how people get connected to Christ through water provision…how they thank God, how they want to pray for you. It nourishes my spiritual journey as an individual.”
Chizela knows that most people will never experience these moments of transformation firsthand, so he shared this message:
“There is a village that is struggling out there. There is a community that doesn’t have clean water. There is a community that has a broken pump, and they don’t know who to call for help. They feel this is their life forever. We need to be our brother’s keeper. We need to lean on Matthew 7:12 and do unto others. If you are capable, please let’s go out and find that village and provide water for them. And that will be true religion.”
