Access to water resources in rural areas is limited, making borewells an essential source of clean drinking water. In rural Uganda, millions of individuals depend on water wells with hand-operated pumps to meet their daily water needs. However, one in every three borewells is not in working order in rural areas of Uganda because the ...
Bridgit Water Foundation
Ugandan Refurbished Well Program
GOAL
$5,000
International
Field of Interest
- Community and economic development
- International aid and development
Target Population
- General population
Bridgit Water Foundation
Without clean water, millions of people living in rural areas of developing countries cannot meet basic needs to improve their living conditions or escape poverty. Bridgit Water Foundation's main goal is providing cost-effective water infrastructure facilities to rural communities in developing countries living in water crisis so they can climb the development ladder to reduce poverty and improve their living conditions.
Providing a water well to a community desperately in need is vital for economic development and poverty reduction because it sustains the livelihood of vulnerable rural people to meet their rising resource needs.
Our vision is to provide improved drinking water to improve the quality of life for people living in rural areas of developing countries.
Our mission is to provide suitable, accessible and sustainable water solutions to some of the poorest and most marginalised people in rural, peri-urban and small, remote villages in developing countries.
Since 2010, Bridgit has impacted over 1.3 million people providing access to safe water into more than 700 rural communities in Uganda, India, Nepal, Malawi, Ethiopia and Tanzania including dozens of schools and healthcare facilities. All borewell installations are prioritised in remote rural communities because our implementing partner's development officers cooperate with local government departments to ensure that all borewells are located in the most water-scarce remote rural areas.
Project Summary
Access to water resources in rural areas is limited, making borewells an essential source of clean drinking water. In rural Uganda, millions of individuals depend on water wells with hand-operated pumps to meet their daily water needs.
However, one in every three borewells is not in working order in rural areas of Uganda because the pumping equipment installed in the well has failed.
Previously, numerous governmental and non-governmental organisations would send a drilling team to install a borewell and then depart. Often, they failed to provide training in borewell maintenance or training on how to finance upkeep, and there was little focus on developing effective water management strategies.
The main cause of these failures is poor borewell maintenance and in most cases, when the hand pump required repairs, communities were unable to fix it due to lack of resources, proper management or a lack of ownership.
The project seeks to refurbish broken borewells in the Kayunga District of Uganda back to new condition. An integral part of the project is to establish Water User Committees (WUCs) and train them to finance by collecting and handling water user fees, upkeep and oversee the renewed water system.
Once a refurbishment is completed, the well is handed over to the community, and the Water User Committees will take ownership and be fully responsible for the monitoring, maintenance and sustainability of the borewell.
Training also strongly highlights the importance of good hygiene and WASH practices.
Project Outcomes
- Improved access to safe water supplies to community members. Rural village populations range from 500 to 1,000 residents.
- Community health improves. Access to clean water reduces the incidence of water-borne illnesses such as typhoid, diarrhoea, dysentery and cholera, especially among children under 12 years.
- Time saved. The distance to clean, safe water is reduced to an average of 300mtrs instead of many kilometres previously travelled to access unsafe water.
- Household economies improve. Improved water supplies mean reduced expenditure on water costs and less money spent on the treatment of illness.
- Gender equality improves. Water projects help in the reduction of gender-based violence (GBV) when looking for water. Providing water closer to the household has a positive effect on women and children's lives whose job is to collect the household water.
- Increased productivity. Improved water supplies allow communities to participate in home-based subsistence food production e.g. keeping livestock or gardens. Many rural people in developing countries live below the poverty line and with so much time spent on water collection, there is insufficient time to perform productive activities.
Budget Breakdown
TOTAL BUDGET: $75,000
FUNDING
| Funding source | Amount |
|---|---|
| Multiple individual funders | $10,000 |
| Funding gap | $5,000 |
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