Improving Children's Health Through Access to Clean Water in Uganda

Africare
Thursday, 1 April 2004

The need. The lack of safe water for human use is one of the greatest problems affecting the health of children throughout Africa. Contaminated water results in intestinal infections that increase malnutrition and contribute to the severity of other illnesses. Until their partnership with Africare, many communities in Ntungamo District, Uganda, had been using unsafe water from open wells, ponds, streams, and rivers. Africare is providing materials, supplies, and technical assistance in support of community self-help efforts to construct protected springs and wells that provide safe water for children.

How the program works. The first steps are to identify existing water sources, assess the skills of the community to assist with the project, and explore possible strategies to provide safe water. A joint Ntungamo District and Africare team conducts a water situation analysis in the worst affected locales, particularly those most susceptible to drought. Surveys and planning meetings with local government and community water committee members provide information, define roles, and result in water improvement strategies that are appropriate to each setting. The approach to be taken follows the established water program strategy of the district, not only constructing safe water sources, but also educating community members on proper water storage and handling, spring and well maintenance, community sanitation, and waste disposal.

The results. Recently improved springs and wells in areas of Ntungamo District affected by drought demonstrate what can be accomplished. One site, Nyamonyonyi spring, had been first protected by the community in 1992 long before the presence of Africare's program. But when Africare staff visited the spring they found it in ruined condition. The rate of water flow was very slow (it took 30-40 minutes to fill a four-gallon container), the site was dirty (surrounded by cow dung as cows were watered upstream while human beings obtained water downstream), and the people out of impatience often collected water from the same pool that animals drank from.

The Nyamonyonyi community, with support from the local government and Africare, successfully rehabilitated the spring to provide clean, protected water to an estimated population of 1,200 people. People can now fill a four-gallon container in 3-4 minutes, and cows now obtain water downstream.

Africare also helped communities and the government to construct shallow wells in Kashanda, Ruhega, and Kitondo. The district government supplied pumps and pipes that had been donated by UNICEF, along with the services of a government water engineer. Africare provided materials not locally available such as cement, gravel, and sand to make concrete for lining and capping the well. The community provided the land and unskilled laborers, most of whom were women and children.

Prior to Africare's support, the Kashanda community had been collecting its water from open, contaminated water sources. Taking an approach similar to that of Nyamonyonyi, a shallow protected well was constructed at Kashanda. It serves an estimated 2,225 people who live within a distance of three miles in rugged and rocky terrain. At another site, the Ruhega shallow well serves about 7,000 people, while the Kitondo well serves about 4,000 people. The important role of the Water for Child Health project is highly recognized and appreciated by communities and district authorities, as made poignantly clear in Nyamunyonyi after the completion of the new spring, when a community member collecting water remarked, "The shopkeepers can no longer sell us Ruwenzori [a popular brand of bottled water from another part of Uganda]! We have our own spring!" Another community member observed, "No wonder we have always had these same on and off sicknesses and stomach problems because of dirty water. We will no longer have them!"

This water project in Uganda was sponsored by the African Well Fund, whose fund drive in spring 2003 raised enough money to build 10 wells in Uganda. In 2004, their fundraising efforts will go toward providing water in Ethiopia, which has suffered through several consecutive years of drought and famine.

For more information, or to contact Africare, see their website at: www.africare.org