Rehabilitation Project
A new well project has begun in the village of Nyakarongo in Uganda.
We're waiting on this initial community profiles from our partner, but
we did receive this video showing their current water source.
As
is obvious from the video, this water is both unclean and unsafe. We're
excited to see that significant progress is already being made on the
new source.
The community of Nyakarongo is located
in a beautiful section of Masindi district which lies along the border
of Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda’s largest game park. The area
is incredibly fertile and the great majority of Nyakarongo's residents
are farmers growing maize, bananas, peanuts and cassava root. As a
farmer, being situated close to a national park is not ideal because
baboons, monkeys and wild pigs tend to help themselves to the any of the
crops available. Although the animals can be a nuisance, they do not
threaten the livelihoods of the farmers and their families. Instead
the people of Nyakarongo have a much more pressing concern, the lack of
access to clean water. There is only one water source in the community,
a shallow well constructed by Busoga Trust in 2008, but it is unable to
serve the entire village. A number of households within the community
live too far away from the protected water source and hence resort to
collecting water from open pools. A plurality of waterborne diseases
can be contracted by consuming the water from these pools. As people
collect the water, they stand on logs which are partly submerged and
unknowingly contaminate the water with fecal matter or other bacteria on
their shoes and feet. Diseases which are preventable are then spread
quickly throughout the area’s population via the consumption of
contaminated water. The need for clean water in Nyakarongo is urgent.
In late March, 2011 our implementing partner, Busoga Trust, began
construction on another protected water source in Nyakarongo. Community
members contributed materials and labor towards the construction of the
source, truly making it their own. The geology of the area proved
difficult for Busoga Trust. 6 weeks and three well sitings later we are
still laboring in Nyakarongo. After reinforcing our latest site with
cement casings and brick lining to hold back collapsing soils, our
technical team believes they are close. We hope to have water flowing
for the people of Nyakarongo before the month is out.
