Borehole Well and Hand Pump
Rehabilitation Project
The Kichandi Community is home to 300 residents who have lived without a safe, reliable water source for a decade. Among them is Beatrice Nyamaizi, a 36-year-old farmer and mother who knows better than most what it costs — in time, in health, and in sheer physical endurance — to keep a household running without clean water close to home. Every day, Beatrice makes the grueling journey to the community's only water source, a protected spring surrounded by overgrown bush, reached only by navigating steep, uneven hillsides that exhaust the body long before the day's work has even begun.
For Beatrice, the journey alone takes a full hour — and she makes it twice a day. "Carrying water in that hilly area," she says, "is extremely strenuous and challenging." The terrain doesn't soften with familiarity. Every trip up and down those slopes, jerrycan in hand, drains energy that Beatrice needs for her farm, her family, and herself. On a typical day, she waits 15 minutes in the queue once she arrives. At its worst, that wait has stretched to forty minutes — forty minutes spent standing at a spring whose surroundings are unkempt, whose water turns murky and discolored every time it rains.
That discoloration is not merely an inconvenience — it is a warning sign that Beatrice has learned, painfully, to take seriously. During the rainy season, runoff overtakes the spring's spout, compromising everything flowing from it. She has fallen ill because of it. "I fell ill after using that water," she recalls, describing a bout of sickness that sent her to Kichandi Health Center and left her bedridden with both illness and skin rashes. She recovered, and was grateful to receive treatment at no personal cost — but the toll was never only financial. "When I fall sick," she says, "I am unable to carry out my work and daily responsibilities effectively." For a farmer whose family depends on what she grows and earns, every day lost to illness is a day that cannot be recovered.
Beatrice's dreams are quite practical: "I will be able to use the time saved for other activities, such as tending to my garden — this will help improve my food production and overall household productivity." She is not dreaming of ease. She is simply asking for the chance to work without her body being broken down before she starts.
A new water point would change the equation entirely: shorter distances, safer water, and relief from the physical punishment that Beatrice and her neighbors absorb every single day just to meet the most basic of human needs.
"Water is essential," Beatrice says, "as life and all daily activities depend on it." In Kichandi, that truth is not a saying. It is something Beatrice carries on her back, up a hill, twice a day.
Steps Toward a Solution
Our technical experts worked with the local community to identify the most effective solution to their water crisis. They decided to drill a borehole well, construct a platform for the well, and attach a hand pump.
Well
Abundant water often lies just beneath our feet. Aquifers—natural underground rivers—flow through layers of sediment and rock, offering a constant supply of safe water. A borehole well is drilled deep into the earth to access this naturally filtered and protected water. We penetrate meters, sometimes even hundreds of meters, of soil, silt, rock, and more to reach the water underground. Once found, we construct a platform for the well and attach a hand pump. The community gains a safe, enclosed water source capable of providing approximately five gallons of water per minute. Learn more here!
Community Education & Ownership
Hygiene and sanitation training are integral to our water projects. Training is tailored to each community's specific needs and includes key topics such as proper water handling, improved hygiene practices, disease transmission prevention, and care of the new water point. Safe water and improved hygiene habits foster a healthier future for everyone in the community.
A Community-Wide Approach
In Uganda, we use a Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach, which involves several meetings where community members evaluate their own hygiene and sanitation practices to encourage lasting change. During these sessions, natural leaders emerge, motivating the community to recognize and change unhealthy behaviors that affect everyone.
Communities then commit to ending open defecation before we install the water project. Every household builds a latrine to prevent disease and improve hygiene and sanitation in anticipation of their new water source. To support this effort, a Community Development Officer (CDO) is assigned. The CDO encourages each household to set up handwashing stations, animal pens, garbage pits, and dish-drying racks. These additions are crucial in preventing the spread of common diseases.
