Water and Sanitation interventions
Rotary Focus Area: Water and Sanitation, and Disease Prevention and Control
Clean water and sanitation is a human right. When people, especially children, have access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene, they lead healthier and more successful lives. Rotary has issued a global challenge to its members, asking them to work collectively to improve education quality and access — particularly for girls — by working with communities to improve teacher training, curriculum, and water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities.
The Rotary Club of Kampala-Naalya has been involved in a number of activities to extend safe and clean water to communities in Northern Uganda. The first project was the construction of rock catchment reservoirs in Akwang village, an area with a rocky topography and with limited access to water.
Here more than 1,500 residents shared one borehole and an open well with domestic animals; a problem that needed an urgent and multifaceted solution to provide safe water and protect the community from diseases. The Club’s needs assessment established that with several rocks characterizing the topography of Agago, even low and erratic showers could supply large volumes of water provided the rock area is sufficiently large enough to compensate for the low rainfall.
A system was therefore designed and built such that run-off water from the surface of a rock outcrop is channeled through gutters to a 100,000 liters ferrocement tank. Before it reaches the tank, the water is passed through a filtration chamber filled with sand and stones of varying sizes. The tank is connected to a tap stand, which lies about 400 meters from where water is made available to the community. Three tap stands have been installed in the community, including one at Akwang Senior Secondary School. Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a second tank was signed last Rotary Year (2021-2022).
The second intervention is the RI-USAID partnership which works to enhance access to safe water, improve hygiene behaviors in 44 schools and 18 health care facilities and strengthen district water and sanitation governance for sustainable services. The project is anticipated to benefit a total of 17,600 learners and 27,000 people from the nearby trading centers to the health centers.
The WASH interventions by Rotary Club of Kampala-Naalya included the construction of a 5 Stance Boys Drainable Latrine Block at Atenge Primary School, A 5-Stance Girls Drainable Latrine Block at Atenge and Agelech Primary Schools, a Group Handwashing Facility at Atenge, Agelech, Arum, Ayika, and Acholpii Lapono Primary Schools. The Club also supported the construction of Incinerator’s at Arum, Ayika and Acholpii Lapono Primary Schools, all in Agago District.