Rehabilitation Project
Upon completion of the project, our partner in the field reports...
Community Details
Living Water International Uganda (LWIU) selected 2014 program beneficiaries from Nyabushozi WPA through a demand-driven approach. Prospective water beneficiaries expressed interest through application letter and entered in to formal agreement with LWIU. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed clearly details the roles and responsibilities of each entity. Kyitagi community located in Kenshunga WASH Program Area (WPA) was recruited based on demand and need. All of the 100 households in this village were previously gathering water from a hand-dug pond located approximately two kilometers away from the community that was used to support their immediate water needs. This posed an extreme burden on women and children who had to walk long distances searching for unsafe water. This unsafe water equally posed health risks to the community and inevitably the prevalence of water-borne related diseases like dysentery, typhoid, malaria and cholera were high. Living Water Uganda successfully installed a hand pump deep borehole reaching approximately 300 beneficiaries with clean, safe drinking water. The well was dedicated and handed over to the community. The Kyitagi water end users are responsible for management and maintenance of these water facilities. They are doing this through participation in planning and contribution of Operation & Maintenance (O&M) fund. A Water User Committee consisting of 10 people, including 5 men and 5 women were elected to take care of day-to-day management of O&M, setting tariffs with water users and administration of water point. Dictated by the type and socio- economic status of this community, periodical cash contribution of one thousand shillings (1000UGX/$0.4) monthly was agreed on with community water end users. Living Water Uganda provide technical back-up support to the WUCs to empower them to manage the water point. Training in community mobilization and action planning was conducted by Nyabushozi Community Engagement Coordinator attended by 55 people (35men and 20 women). Living Water Uganda will continue providing technical back stopping support to community management structures for two years to equip them with necessary skills to adequately manage the O&M, relationships and draws admiration from the water end users to continue contributing to O&M. Continuous follow-up visits will by conducted by Living Water Uganda's Community Engagement team to institute check and balance and ensures transparency and accountability of O&M funds. Kiruhura District local government is currently being engaged by LWIU to provide technical back up and financial support to the Sub-County staff to monitor operations of the community water governance structures in their constituency. They will also be responsible for planning and co-financing training of Hand Pump Mechanics (HPMs), plumbers and mansion. They will work in close collaboration with the LWIU conduct periodic water quality analysis to monitor the physical, chemical and bacteriological characteristic of the water sample. This is important because fluctuation in water quality is detrimental to community financing of O&M. Water source caretaker for this well has been identified. He is responsible for day-to-day management and administration of water point. He will specifically carry out the following roles: organize community for orderly use, maintain accurate list of water users, clean the surrounding of the facilities, undertake minor repairs and collect O&M fees. The WUC will train the water source caretakers in preventive maintenance as well as empower them to check against vandalism.
Hygiene Promotion
The Living Water Hygiene Promotion team conducted baseline feedback meeting in this community. Thirty-four people, including 24 men and 20 female, attended the community meeting. The meetings were meant to share findings from the survey, explain implications of the findings on household health and prompt formulation of a community sanitation improvement action plan. The plan was formulated and continues to be implemented. Joint home improvement monitoring visits were also done with local leaders to assess sanitation improvement progress and advise accordingly on what needs to be done, with emphasis on first establishing the basic sanitation facilities. A community triggering session is to be conducted to elicit emergence of natural leaders. These will later be trained as cluster heads with the task of spearheading hygiene and sanitation improvements among up to 10 households in their closest neighborhood. A number of new sanitation facilities have been established since the beginning of the program intervention.
Community Member Interview
"We are grateful for the well in our village," shared 36-year-old community member and subsistence farmer, Ms. Twimukye. "Before, we solely depended on hand dug wells owned by an individual and he would sometimes chase us away to preserve water for his animals. Fecal matter from the animals inevitably contaminated the water. This resulted into disease related to poor sanitation and became too common. Now we will be using safe, clean water!"
