15 October 2009
Child-killing diseases, fetid water pools and plastic bags of human waste dumped in streets were all regular features in three Ugandan towns until a European Commission project transformed safe water access for 25,000 people.
Video: improving access to clean water in Uganda
Housewife Sunny Alikiriza stands outside her brick-walled home in the town of Hoima, mid-Western Uganda, filling a can with water from the new-looking pipe in her yard.
Hoima is a place where, until a DFID-supported EC sanitation programme arrived here two years ago, water-borne diseases were a part of everyday life.
In those days acquiring water meant a lengthy wait at one of the few local wells or streams, jostling with other people queuing with their jerry cans for murky and often contaminated water.
Toilet facilities too were thin on the ground.
As a direct result, the local hospital was inundated with cases of water-borne diseases such as diahorrea, typhoid and cholera. The children’s ward in particular was full of patients sick after drinking dirty water or failing to practice decent hygiene.
Healthier lives
Nowadays clean water flows into the yards of Sunny and her neighbours while across the town, decent sewers and public toilets ensure that human waste is safely disposed of. Life in Hoima has changed radically. Not only is there plenty of clean water to drink and wash with, but unwieldy queues at wells and streams are now a thing of the past and, in the local hospital, cases of water-borne diseases are down.
Inside the hospitals the uninterrupted water supply has made a huge difference to hygiene. “Running water has enabled us to do our work more effectively,” says nurse Harriet Akol. “After touching a patient we have to wash our hands, water is required to wash the equipment and the wards need to be washed using water. Without water you can imagine what the situation would be like.”
Without clean water, good health is impossible. With the water now flowing in Hoima and in neighbouring towns, thousands of people have a chance to lead cleaner, healthier lives.
Facts and stats
- The European Commission (EC) provided 14.75 million Euros between 2001 and 2007 to the towns of Hoima, Mubende and Masindi as part of its Mid-Western Towns Water and Sanitation Project, reaching around 25,000 people.
- The UK contributes 17% of the EC's budget. Of our 2006/7 contribution, £964 million went towards fighting poverty.
- In 2008-09, 70% of Ugandan households had access to improved sanitation and 65% had access to safe drinking water.
- Diarrhoeal diseases account for 19% of Uganda's infant deaths, causing around 440 deaths every week (Source: Water and Sanitation Sector Performance Report, 2004).