Happy World Water Day 2021! An update on EVC's Water Projects
March 2021
Today (22 March 2021) marks (UN) World Water Day 2021. In celebration, we wanted to provide an update on our current water projects that have seen significant developments since we started them in 2016.
Before we started our water project, St Matia Mulumba school had no water supply and had only 3 toilet cubicles for the whole school of 360 children and 15 staff.
Through a water audit we found that the school requires approximately 13,000 litres of water per day for washing and showering, regular hand washing, drinking water, cooking and laundry services.
This equates to 35 litres of water per child per day. In the UK, some households can use up to 200 litres per person per day.
In November 2018 a water borehole was drilled in the grounds of the school and a solar powered submersible pump installed. Water is delivered to 2 X 5000 litre storage tanks. From there the children and staff draw fresh clean water. A generous donation for this project was made through fundraising in St Joseph’s Church Bedford.
The pump is operating well but is insufficient to meet the needs of the whole school throughout the year.
Our next project, which is underway, is to install rainwater collection tanks beside each of the school buildings to collect the abundant rainfall that occurs for 8 months of the year in this region of Uganda.
With careful management, the borehole pump and rainwater collection facilities should make St Matia Mulumba School self sufficient in water usage.
By August of this year, the final phase of our water project will be complete. We will have installed toilets and shower facilities for the boys’ dormitory and the school classroom buildings.
All of these improvements have had a major positive impact for the children and staff in the school.
Being able to access water from the pump, has meant that time from lessons is no longer lost on collecting water from the pond.
Water needed for cooking and that needed by the school matrons for washing of clothes and bedding, is now readily available and with the provision of washrooms connected to the dormitories, the children have greater privacy as well as more hygienic facilities in which to wash regularly.
Hand washing stations have now been positioned around the school site and the children are learning how essential regular handwashing is, particularly during the pandemic, as well as the need for this each time they have used the toilet and before every meal.
With constant reinforcement of these habits it is hoped that these hygiene rules will become ‘rules for life’.
