Rehabilitation Project
Upon completion of the project, our partner in the field reports...
Community Details
Forced to utilize unsafe, unprotected water sources, 30 families suffered for safe water. An open well was the only source available and families were forced to walk several kilometers daily to collect dirty water. Desperate to end their suffering with a sustainable water solution, community leaders sought help from the Living Water Uganda team, and Living Water responded!
Living Water Uganda entered Akanaanasi village, in the Nyabushozi WASH Program Area (WPA), after reviewing their written application letter, requesting help. The team and community signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with 35 people (14 men and 21 women). Upon the team’s initial arrival in Western Kiruhura, the team conducted a baseline survey and discovered that 17% of households in the area draw water from protected sources, leaving the remaining 83% to suffer for safe water. Living Water Uganda is currently working in the area to invest in 202 boreholes to help overcome the overwhelming water needs! Akanaanasi Village is but one of many villages that will be served in the year 2014 with safe drinking water and life-saving lessons on hygiene and sanitation!
Though the local churches supported the team’s construction work, they focused on working with the Living Water Uganda team to share the gospel of Jesus Christ – who alone satisfies the deepest thirst. Living Water Uganda established a partnership with the Akanaanasi Pentecostal Church and will continue to focus on fruitful proclamation – teaching the people the gospel and providing a living demonstration of being a part of God’s kingdom. The team will support the church and help provide them with evangelical tools necessary to meet the community’s spiritual, social, physical and material needs. The church will be empowered to respond to needs in the community and mobilize the community to respond to its’ own needs. Living Water will continue to train church leaders in orality and thematic Bible studies to empower them to engage in total holistic development.
During the well construction, the community set up a Community Based Maintenance System that is responsible for management and maintenance of the improved water facility and will plan and oversee operation and maintenance by collecting a monthly tariff of 1000 Ugandan Shillings ($0.40 USD). The 10-person (5 men and 5 women) Water User Committee will be lead by a community member, Mr. Yoram Rubanja, who will serve as the source caretaker and will manage the administration of the water point with a goal of ensuring safe drinking water flows for this generation and the next!
In addition to day to day well management, Mr. Yoram Rubanja will carry out the following roles:
- Organize the community for orderly water use
- Maintain an accurate list of water users
- Clean the surrounding facility areas
- Undertake minor repairs
- Collect O&M fees
The Living Water Uganda team will carry out the following roles:
- Train the water source caretaker in preventative maintenance
- Provide technical back-up support for the WUC for the next two years
- Mobilize and train up trainers and community leaders to follow-up and monitor the water facility
- Monitor functionality of the water source and provide community water governance
- Equip the WUC with necessary skills to adequately manage and O&M, relationships and draw admiration from the water end userscontributing to O&M
- Institute check and balance systems to ensure transparency and accountability of O&M funds
The local district government will carry out the following roles:
- Provide technical back up and financial support to the sub-Country to monitor operations of the WUC in their constituency
- Responsible for planning and co-financing training of Hand Pump Mechanics (HPMs), plumbers and masons
- Work in close collaboration with Living Water Uganda to conduct periodic water quality analysis to monitor the physical, chemical and bacteriological characteristics of water samples
Hygiene Promotion
The Living Water Hygiene Promotion team conducted a baseline feedback meeting with 54 people (28 men 26 women). The Living Water team focused the hygiene and sanitation lessons on sharing baseline findings, health risks and implications as well as hygiene promotion strategies designed by the Living Water Uganda team, in order to lessen suffering from unsafe hygiene and sanitation practices. The team integrated a hygiene and sanitation approach that incorporates Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) and Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) to trigger the community to take collective actions to improve their own hygiene and sanitation choices and facilities. After the hygiene and sanitation lessons, the community constructed tippy taps, a simple hand-washing device used for single household use and a pit latrine that will also be for single household use.
Community Member Interview
"Previously, when we were fetching water from the hand dug pond, we suffered from diarrhea and typhoid and cholera," shared 29-year-old community member and subsistence farmer, Komuhangi. "But since we started collecting water from this new well, prevalence of such diseases has drastically reduced."
