Rehabilitation Project
This spring protection system will be installed in Ekarakaveni, Uganda. At this stage of the project, GPS coordinates are a rough estimate.
Ekarakaveni is home to an estimated 60 households that add up to a population of 300, all who will soon benefit from hygiene and sanitation training and clean water.
A normal day starts at 6AM, when farmers wake up to beat the hot Ugandan sun. By noontime at lunch, it is much too hot to continue working in the fields. Most farmers specialize in sugarcane, since it can be sold to the local Kinyara Sugar Factory at a decent price. They also grow crops such as cassava, maize, and beans to feed their families.
Women are in charge of getting home first to prepare lunch. For the rest of the afternoon, women are focused on getting household chores done for their families (washing clothes and dishes or sweeping floors). Some of the men head over to the trading center to keep earning money other ways: repairing bicycles, radios, or selling extra crops.
In the evening, women sometimes join their husbands at the trading center to continue selling crops. When this wraps up, the adults start to relax and socialize with their friends. As for the children, most are in school for the majority of the day. Otherwise, they help their parents on the farm and at home.
Water Situation
These 300 people rely on a nearby water source, an unprotected spring that is reliable even through the driest weather. A log is suspended over the deepest part of the spring so that women and children can balance as they fill their water containers.
This water sits open in a field, subject to a myriad of different contaminants. Animals sate their thirst, children play and bathe at the spring, and rainwater washes things like feces and fertilizers into the water. Families are subject to waterborne disease, with children and the elderly often suffering from diarrhea.
Sanitation Situation
A handful of households here do not have their own latrines. Instead, families either share with their neighbor or practice open defecation. As we begin construction, we will encourage and help each family have their own latrine. With the proper facilities, water will be clean and safe not only at the water source, but at home too.
Dirty water doesn't only result in diarrhea, typhoid, and cholera, but affects the skin too. Mr. Okech Jackson is one of the many who must rely on water from the spring. He told us that "people within this area suffer from scabies because of bathing in dirty water."
Plans: Hygiene and Sanitation Training
Training’s main objectives are the use of latrines and observing proper hygiene practices, since these goals are inherently connected to the provision of clean water. Open defecation, water storage in unclean containers and the absence of hand-washing are all possible contaminants of a household water supply. Each participating village must achieve Open Defecation Free status (defined by one latrine per household), prior to the project installation.
This social program includes the assignment of one Community Development Officer (CDO) to each village. The CDO encourages each household to build an ideal homestead that includes: a latrine, hand-washing facility, a separate structure for animals, rubbish pit and drying rack for dishes.
We also implement the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) approach with each of our village partners. This aims to improve the sanitation and hygiene practices and behaviors of a village. During these sessions, village leaders naturally emerge and push the community to realize that current practices of individual households – particularly the practice of open defecation– are not only unhealthy, but affect the entire village. CLTS facilitates a process in which community members realize the negative consequences of their current water, sanitation and hygiene behaviors and are inspired to take action. Group interactions are frequent motivators for individual households to: build latrines, use the latrines and demand that other households do the same.
Plans: Spring Protection
Over continued visits to the community, the viability of a hand-dug well diminished. We just couldn’t find a good construction site for a well that would yield safe, clean water. The terrain here is very hilly; a great place for flowing springs but a difficult place to dig a well.
Considering the convenience, reliability, and long history of this spring, the community has decided to unite with us to build a spring protection system for their current source. Once construction is completed, the spring will begin yielding clean drinking water.
Locals have already begun to gather the materials necessary for construction, such as sand and stone. There’s a lot of work to be done: They will have to help our team clear the land around the spring, diverge the water, build a catchment area with walls allowing for discharge pipes and steps in and out, and dig drainage. Local families will host our spring protection artisans while they begin the sanitation improvements needed for a successful partnership. We all look forward to making these improvements together!
