If there is one thing Robert Eperu wants more than anything, it is access to clean water, close to his home in the Katine district of Uganda. Only then will members of the family no longer need to walk four miles each day to collect water from a well covered in algae, contaminated with feces and shared with animals.
It is the same for their friend Charles Otuba, 45, who says access to clean water is the ‘single most important thing’ for local people, nowhere more so than in the Katine village of Matali, where there is not a single water source for 500 residents.
Now, because of the Observer/Guardian project in Katine and readers’ pledges – which have reached nearly £700,000 and will be matched by Barclays – the lives of Eperu, Otuba and hundreds of others are about to change dramatically. This month the project moved beyond the planning stages as the first holes were drilled, paving the way for villagers finally to get clean water. At first there will be eight new boreholes costing 17.5m Ugandan shillings (about £5,200) each.
Dozens gathered in the rain at Matali to watch the first huge drilling machine roll in this month. ‘This well will be very good, because it brings good water that has no diseases,’ said Esther Abano, 50. Around her, men stared in awe, mothers stood with their babies in their arms and small children gawped at the colossal yellow contraption.
It was a welcome sight, especially for the women, who traditionally have to make the long trips to collect water. Over the past few weeks Amref, the partner charity in the Katine project, has been carrying out a survey of the 66 villages in the sub-county to identify the areas where the need for water is most acute. In the worst cases they found areas with no water source, while in others the springs or wells were contaminated and unsafe. In the end they highlighted 12 villages most in need and chose eight where work could begin.
Next month attention will turn to the area where Eperu and his wife, Betty Ayito, live. There lies a borehole that has not functioned for more than three years. All that is left of what was once a source of water for 450 people is a protruding rusty brown pipe.
A crowd gathered as Ignatius Epuwat, Amref’s local water and sanitation officer, bent over the contraption and explained plans to repair it. Young children ran across the thorny grass in bare feet, an elderly man dismounted from his bicycle, and men stopped to tell him how difficult life had become.
‘People need clean water,’ said Eperu, 28, passionately gesticulating. ‘It is the number one requirement here.’ Losing the bore hole had been a real blow: ‘We have a problem. The next nearest source is a mile away – an open well, covered in algae, from which cows drink.’
Once the area has a clean water source it will reduce the time taken to fetch water from four hours to 40 minutes.
It is only one strand of Amref’s water plans for this year, which will see two water pump mechanics trained by the end of this month, new boreholes drilled and broken ones fixed by the end of February, and 10,000-liter rainwater tanks installed in schools by Easter.
In April, protected springs will be rehabilitated; in June, water quality testing and surveillance will begin and by July village health teams will start visiting homes to promote hygiene and sanitation. All these things, taken for granted in the UK, will make a huge difference to the lives of the people of Katine.
· Richard Kavuma, a Ugandan journalist, is spending two weeks every month reporting on the Katine project for The Observer and the Guardian.
Health strategy
Long-term goals for water and sanitation:
· Restore to good condition all existing water sources in the sub-county.
· Drill 20 new boreholes to serve 5,000 people.
· Provide rainwater tanks for nine schools.
· Provide water collection jars for 400 households.
· Provide lavatories for 13 schools and 240 households (1,440 people).
· Train voluntary health teams to promote and monitor hygiene in homes and schools.
· Set up 40 water source committees to oversee maintenance and collect user fees from those able to pay.
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