Kinyamurara village is in a hilly part of Uganda with undulating plains covered in sugarcane plantations. The most common livelihood for the 600 people living here is subsistence farming. People mainly grow crops for home consumption, except for a few who do commercial farming, mostly growing sugarcane. A few individuals also have small businesses at the trading centers and other engagements during market days.
The main well in the village, named the Kyoneka Borehole, was built fifteen years ago. Over time, it fell into disrepair. Small problems that were easy to fix were not addressed and eventually turned into much larger and more expensive issues. People here struggled to afford the increasing cost of repairs. Some people do not use the well at all because it is so unreliable.
"In this village, we always wake up by 6:00 am, and the first thing we do is to move around and look for water. Due to our current water source's frequent breakdowns, we are even not sure whether we shall get it functional or not. In a situation where it's not functional, we have to go two to three kilometers away and sometimes even to the neighboring village. It's very tiresome, especially when you don't have a bicycle," said one community member.
This water point is currently not functional, and the environment looks abandoned, observed our team during their recent visit.
Felida used to try to get water from the well but often came home without it. The well's poor state meant that it took a long time to fill up a container, and the caretaker would sometimes turn her away, saying her parents need to contribute to the well's repairs if she wanted to use it. The experience was humiliating and exhausting, she said.
"I feel bad because whenever I delay at the water point, my parents quarrel with me, and yet I have no other options," she said.
Here’s what we’re going to do about it:
Rehabilitated Well
We are going to restore water to the broken-down borehole. Since this water point is located at the center of the village and easily accessible by the majority of people, unlike the springs which are located at the far ends of the village, when this borehole is restored to its original status, it will provide the community with easy access to clean and safe water. We will remove the old pump, clear out the well, reinstall a new stainless steel pump, and build a new well pad to protect the water.
Training
Training’s main objectives are the use of latrines and observing proper hygiene practices since these goals are inherently connected to clean water provision. Open defecation, water storage in unclean containers, and the absence of handwashing are all possible contaminants of a household water supply. Each participating village must achieve Open Defecation Free status (defined by 1 latrine per household) before the pump installation for a shallow hand-dug well.
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, handwashing facility, a separate structure for animals, a rubbish pit, and a 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 individual households' current practices – particularly the practice of open defecation – are unhealthy and 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.
Improved Sanitation
The aim is that all households own an improved latrine. Many households do not use a latrine but use the bush. Due to open defecation, feces are spread all over the village. This leads to waterborne diseases and contamination of groundwater and surface water. Our aim is that the community can live a healthy life free of preventable diseases. We endeavor that people will have both access to sustainable, clean water and access to sanitation at the end of our presence in the community. We have now organized families to form digging groups for latrine construction and empower them with the tools they need.
