Humble Beginnings: Government Relations Officer (Alfred Namaasa)

Transcribed from Video/Audio by: Michał Matejczuk

In our district we are experiencing a serious water crisis. When you look at the Mt. Elgon region, you witness a lot of water during the rainy season. In the same extent, some of our people are dying because of landslides caused by too much water [hitting] the ground. People are not harvesting during the rainy season, so when it becomes the dry season no one has water for domestic and community purposes.

With trying at places such as schools, health centers and community spaces to bring-in large plastic drums, they are still of little capacity and very costly for us. From that investment, we have also experienced the challenges of local vandalism. This happens when [institutions] do not permit the local communities to come and collect any water. Eventually a small group sets out to destroy to retaliate so that all will not have any. This is not a solution in any shape or form.

The Ichupa Upcycle Project has helped us construct rainwater tanks in some of our more susceptible area health centers including Busiu Health Center IV, Bufumbo Health Center IV, Busano Health Center III, and Namawanga Health Center III. These types of tanks were actually unheard of. When one community member approached us when we were assembling the project, he expressed out loud, “why are these people heaping this rubbish from town, which is littered all over, and bringing it here.” Now he is a changed man. The project went above to explain how the communities could disinfect their water (using the sun) to reduce the consumption of contaminated water, and the diseases that increase during the rainy season such as cholera, dysyntery, and giardia.

During the dry season, our people, because they have not harvested the rain water, have to walk long distances, sometimes 4km away to a river where there is more contaminated waters. This river is frequented by livestock, and it is the same water that is taken up for their household use.

Although the government has tried to put up a number of boreholes and protect some springs, these addition are quite far apart. You can have a borehole that is four kilometers from the homestay, and some even ten kilometers. You can only imagine what happens to a mother or a child that has to walk these long ways everyday, maybe even twice a day.

Another thing, this water is potentially unsafe where as communities believe that what they are pulling up from the borehole can only be clean. When you go to the borehole you find long queues of people with jerrycans and odd containers to access water. So I believe, once rainwater harvesting is implemented, [we] will reduce greater pressures on the land and the distance that will need to be traveled for water. If given the opportunity, we still have a long way to go (especially in the upper hills) but at least we started. That’s most important.