J1110 SHINE Project

The Situation

8 million Ugandans don’t have access to clean and safe water. The situation is made worse in communities with low natural ground water sources meaning that the alternatives of springs and boreholes is further restricted. This means that such water stressed communities walk long distances to access water, and also have to contend with other challenges such as overcrowding, sharing water sources with animals, and having to deal with pollution including from human and animal excrement.

The Objectives

1. To increase access to safe clean water, improved sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in 4 water stressed sub counties in Kanungu and Rukungiri districts - Uganda. 
2. In partnership with InPact Uganda, the project will procure and install rainwater harvesting tanks (1,000 litre capacity) to selected vulnerable households and schools (5000 litre capacity)

Alice Ampurire’s Story:

Alice Ampurire, 38 years, and her family were a beneficiary of the 1000 litre rain water harvesting tank. She lives with her family of nine members in the west of Kanungu District. Alice shares that her village experiences the longest dry spell with water scarcity between the months of April and November and this affects many households. She adds that it used to take her about one hour to reach the open water source which at times runs dry in the dry seasons. Additionally, fetching water from natural water sources like ponds expose children to drowning, sexual abuse (because these locations are mostly isolated), and loss of school time spent fetching water. The closest water source they had is shared both by the local community for their own consumption, but also by domestic animals, and also for fishing which makes it very unsanitary for human consumption.

Alices rainwater tank of is now the main source of water for her family, and livestock. She also often shares with her neighbours when they are in need of clean water. Alice also mentioned that she has saved time she used to spend queueing and fetching water. She is now able to use this extra time for other productive activities including running her business and house chores. Her family no longer has issues of water scarcity and are now able to keep livestock which contribute to the household income.

Alice is thankful for this project, she says “one thing that has made me so happy is this water tank and this is because I needed water. Thank you for supporting me. Now the people in my community are always asking how they can benefit from the project too.”