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Make Room: World Water Day

23rd Mar 2024

World Water Day

World Water Day has been held on the 22nd March every year since 1992. It was created to celebrate water and to raise awareness of the 2.2 billion people without access to safe water. It supports the achievement of the UN Development Goal 6 which is “water and sanitation for all by 2030”.

Water in Uganda is generally not safe to drink. This week, Uganda released a news article in their paper New Vision confirming that 30% of their established “safe water supplies” have been found to laced with lead. Many families who do not have access to safe water supplies, collect water using buckets and jerry cans from alternative freshwater sources. These are contaminated with parasites, bacteria and harmful chemicals.

Those of you that have been following our journey over the past year will know that we have been deeply concerned by the lack of access to safe water in Kanyinya and the surrounding areas. People have to walk long distances to collect water from alternative sources such as streams and ponds. These sources are shared with animals, waste, and people carrying out domestic and personal tasks including washing.

Cases of waterborne diseases in the district are therefore understandably high, and most people cannot afford healthcare. Those that often fetch water are children who are left vulnerable to rape and other attacks on their search in the hilly areas. In the last year, five children have died from wild animal attacks as they have been entering the national park to try and access a water supply.

Our Update…

Last June we released our Make Room newsletter detailing the plans for our land development.

Our first priority had been an adequate clean water supply. We wanted to provide safe water for our crops and livestock, along with our sanitation system and to provide the water we needed for domestic chores, cooking, and drinking water for the 1450 individuals who will attend the new premises per month for our programmes and wider support.

The proposed water system was also to provide safe water access to several communities including Marumba B, Marimba C, Kafunjo and Kararuka Villages.

We completed extensive research and have then been raising funds for our planned comprehensive water system. This will cost £12,932 which will cover preliminaries, hydrology survey, borehole construction, pump installation, the tank stands, and transmission and distribution across the land.

We have currently raised £3275 including Gift Aid which is 25% of our total.

We have provisionally been promised a further £2000 this month to our total which would give us £5275.

Just £8 could provide an individual in one of these local communities safe water access for life. That is pretty amazing.

If you want to join us on this journey and invest in a child’s life in this way in honour of World Water Day 2024, just click to give securely via the following link.

Thank You for Standing with us to Believe in the Children of Uganda,

With Love and Blessings Always,

The Biojemmss Team