SDG 12 IN UGANDA

Okar village is in Kole district in Uganda’s Northern Region. It has a population of over 400 people spread across 90 households and is served by the borehole rehabilitated by CO2balance under the Toshiba CarbonZero scheme. Esther Ogume remembers how, prior to the rehabilitation of the borehole in late 2016, community members would travel to an open well over 2km from the village to collect water. In addition to spending many hours every day collecting water, household members would suffer frequent stomach upsets, with countless days of school and work lost due to preventable illnesses.

When the borehole was rehabilitated in the village, CO2balance staff conducted a WASH training to train the community to sustainably manage the borehole to ensure a strong yield of safe, pure water. To ensure effective continued management of the borehole, a 10-member Water Resource Committee (WRC) was created during the training and Esther was elected WRC chairperson. She recounts how the WRC works to engage the community in the sustainable management of the borehole in order to create a sense of ownership and understanding of its value as a source: “The borehole is open each day from 7am until 7pm, when the caretaker locks it for the night. Every month, we make sure that each household using the borehole pays a fee to the committee of 1,000 shillings. These funds are used by the WRC to cover any costs incurred in managing the borehole, especially in constructing and maintaining the protective fencing.”

These measures described by Esther demonstrate very strong management of the borehole by the WRC. Locking the borehole at night is a crucial measure because, given that so many households rely on it as a water source, it needs to be given time to recover and allow the aquifer to refill, thereby ensuring that water flows constantly during its open hours. The collection of user fees is also essential in encouraging responsible use of this vital resource because, although a very small fee amounting to less than 25p per household per month, it ensures that users feel they have a stake in taking care of the borehole and do not take it for granted.

Esther goes on to describe how the WRC arranges for the community to get together each Saturday to look after the area around the source. This entails sweeping the area around the borehole and attending to any damage to the fencing. The WRC also keeps the community informed on the need to prevent their livestock going close to the borehole and on the need to not construct pit latrines in the vicinity. These steps are essential to ensure that the borehole infrastructure itself is kept clean and in good condition, and prevents any polluting materials seeping into the ground around the borehole and thus potentially contaminating the water supply.

Overall, the WRC led by Esther does a crucial job in ensuring that the community appreciates and participates the need to use the water from the borehole in a responsible way and maintains the area around to ensure the sustainability of this resource.

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