Bring clean water to Nsangabwami Village

The Nsangabwami Village is located in Mityana District, Uganda. The community's main source of economic activity is centered around the growth and production of maize. The bright green maize fields are broken up by dusty roads, bushes, and homes (180 households). However, the people in this community struggle with reliable access to safe water. They depend on a water dam, 4 miles away in the neighboring village of Kajoji because there is no water source nearby. The stagnant water in the dam has high salinity levels and discarded waste such as human feces carried by running water when it rains. The state of the water has made residents of Nsangabwami prone to water-borne diseases like typhoid, hence spending the little hard-earned money to get treatment from Kajoji health Center III located distantly away in Kajoji village.

" It takes me at least an hour to walk to the dam to get water and I fetch three or four times a day," shares Odong Edgar (21), a resident of Nsangabwami. This is a common experience for the community residents – walking 2 miles one way to the dam, forcefully waiting for the brown-colored saline in the water to settle before collecting in a 20-liter jerry can, and then walking back carrying the heavy slippery water vessels –only to repeat this activity every day. Besides fetching water, women and children in Nsangabwami village are responsible for cooking, cleaning, and caring for their families and domestic animals. Some homes rear cattle and goats which also share the same water point with people. With no single school or church in the village, residents blame it on a lack of a sufficient water source in the community. The hours lost every day in fetching water miles away mean opportunities lost. “It’s beyond expression to talk about the sufferings we face each day due to water problems,” Edgar painfully concludes, “Having clean water would mean having a healthy and happy life.