The demand for food, fodder and biofuels is growing everywhere, and the value of land is rising accordingly; so is the need for clean safe water.
Traversing the Lango sub-region in the Northern part of Uganda made this need louder as many villages still do not have access to clean safe water which promotes environmental sanitation – an integral part of human development.
In the past, in a bid to access water, children and women whose role primarily is to fetch water for the household faced a lot of problems in the process of accessing it. They had to travel miles to distant lonely open wells and ponds where they were faced with dangers of wild animals, kidnappers, assault, and insecurity among others.
Not only was the trip unsafe, the water too was not fit for human consumption pausing challenges of water borne diseases which meant so much money would go into medical bills.
Co2balance with its borehole rehabilitation, annual planned maintenance and reactive repair has gone a long way in improving water accessibility in the Northern Lango sub-region and the Eastern District of Kaliro in Uganda.
Women and children no longer have to travel long distances to collect water. This saves them the extra work that goes into collecting firewood to try and purify this unclean water. They are also saved from the time wasted collecting water and firewood. The extra time now goes into doing other developmental things that helps the families to earn an extra income. The children also now have ample time to stay and concentrate in school.
Co2balance works with local partners (J.O.Y Drilling Ltd in Lira and WAACHA – Women and Children Affairs in Kaliro) to implement their rehabilitation and maintenance program and this ensures that it is well implemented and continuously providing clean water. It also works with district local government leaders in their different capacities to seek solutions to water scarcity. All this is in a bid to promote health and wellbeing, protect the environment while providing clean water.
‘Clean water and access to food are some of the simplest things that we can take for granted each and every day. In places like Africa, these can be some of the hardest resources to attain if you live in a rural area.’ Marcus Samuelson
Clean water should no longer be a far-fetched dream but rather a reality enjoyed by everyone.
The pictures below show a typical open well that is so prone to disease causing vectors and animal contamination while the other shows a well protected hand pump borehole that was rehabilitated and is now being maintained annually by Co2balance.
