The Ugandan Water Crisis
Stephanie Stinnett
Clean water is something than many people take for granted, and it is one topic that I have a very special connection with is clean water in Uganda. My husband and I traveled to Uganda a little over three years ago to visit our sister parish, located in Southern Uganda, of our church. It was an eye-opening and amazing experience and I am so lucky to have gone.
One thing that was evident upon visiting was the clean water crises. 61 percent of Ugandan’s do not have access to clean water, and 80 percent lack adequate sanitation. And many have to walk miles carrying 40lb. jerrycans filled with water that is filled with viruses and bacteria. Several of the children in one of the villages that we visited got up in the early hours of the morning, walked a mile or more to get water, and then back home to go to school. Every year 4,500 children in Uganda die due to lack of clean water and sanitation because their only option is to drink unsafe water.
Our parish partnered with the Ugandan Water Project to help fund and install water storage tanks in our sister parish and surrounding villages. The Ugandan Water Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing many communities in Uganda with safe, accessible drinking water. They also provide solutions to help sustainability for helping get Ugandans out of poverty, and to stay out of poverty. Through their hard work and dedication, they not only bring clean water, but they bring hope as well.
Another organization that dedicates itself to providing clean water is Water for People. A branch of the American Water Works Association, Water for People was founded in 1991. Their company vision is we will one day live in a world we’re everyone has clean, accessible water and sanitation. Additionally, they also go in and repair the broken pumps to keep the water flowing in rural areas of Uganda.
Lifewater focuses on the rural areas of Uganda aiming to keep children safe from water-born illnesses. With access to clean water girls will be able to stay in school because they won’t be walking to collect clean water for their families. Lifewater’s goal is to help 160,000 people in rural Uganda have access to clean water and improved sanitation. Lifewater has an option on their page to sponsor a village. You can pick and see the houses and get to know the community a little.
All of these organizations are doing amazing work to ensure that no one has to go without clean water and clean sanitation. With their hard work and dedication, they can save countless lives of people, especially children and the elderly, who are dying of water-born illness and diseases. If children don’t have to worry about fetching water for their families, they can focus on school. Bringing awareness to the problem is one of the first steps to solving it.
Sources:
https://lifewater.org/blog/uganda-water-crisis/
