By George Yap, Program Director
Wakiso District is a hilly, rural area located on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda’s vibrant capital. About three-quarters of Buloba Parish’s 8,700 villagers relied on water obtained from unsafe sources like streams and ponds. As a result, water-related diseases lay a heavy burden on local communities. Villagers, children especially, suffered from a variety of skin, eye, and intestinal health problems that can be linked back to a lack of access to clean water.
To help tackle the water crisis in Uganda, WaterCan began working with an energetic local NGO called Voluntary Action for Development (VAD). As a result of combined WaterCan-VAD efforts, more than 35 community water-points (27 protected springs and 8 hand-dug wells), serving more than 5,000 villagers, have now been built. Water supply coverage rates in Buloba Parish have now more than doubled from a starting point of 28% to a current estimate of 70%. To ensure that water systems are kept in good shape, villagers have formed Water User Committees and receive training in basic operation and management procedures.
Polluted ponds, such as the one shown here, are their main source of drinking water for many in Buloba Parish.
For the 193 residents of Uganda’s rural Kaweesa Village, fetching water used to mean collecting from ponds frequently polluted by wandering livestock. With the advent of community well construction, the time, distance, and energy previously expended by villagers in obtaining water has been dramatically reduced. As one local woman describes the improvements, “There is reduced fear of children falling in the pond or being bitten by snakes”. Another adds, “there is a reduction in diseases…we are therefore saving money.”
Led by field staff and community volunteers, hygiene education outreach activities encourage and help local residents construct sanitary facilities and adopt proper water handling and storage methods in their homes. “Model homes”, run by respected community elders and religious leaders, serve to further demonstrate real-life application practice of water, sanitation, and hygiene education efforts.
At some protected spring sites in Uganda, enterprising villagers now use part of the overflow to feed small adjacent garden plots. The resulting variety of vegetables can be sold for profit at local markets. Hand-washing stations called “tippy-taps” are especially popular with children. As one mother proudly says, “children love the tippy-tap and teach others…before they did not wash hands.” She is keen to further point out the benefits of the new dish-rack built by her husband, attesting that, “because of the rack our containers are no longer licked by pigs, dogs and chickens.”
Due to its proximity to the capital city of Kampala, Wakiso District’s population is growing rapidly. Over-crowding and long line-ups at some community water-points occasionally cause tempers to flare among water collectors. The increasingly diverse ethnic and cultural character of the district makes developing locally appropriate sanitation and hygiene promotion messages an ongoing challenge. It is, however, through the generous support of caring Canadians and the support of major funding organizations like CIDA, that WaterCan and its indigenous partner organizations can commit to extending efforts to reach even more needy communities, in other parishes of Wakiso District and beyond.
It is our hope that through the generous support of our donors we can realize similar advances in many other communities.
