Water Blogged

Serving over 900 students in Uganda’s Kasengejje community as a government-aided day school for primary and nursery students, Kassenjje Church of Uganda Primary School used to rely on water from a borehole well but continually found its needs unmet. The borehole is shared with a church and multiple households, meaning students often missed class due to the 70-minute round trip. While fetching, students had to traverse a steep slope, cross a busy road, and faced the possibility of mugging or even sexual assault.

The Ugandan Water Project, our implementing partner, recently installed a 10,000-liter polyethylene tank on a base made of brick, hardcore, and cement. Once cured, the crew placed the tank on the base and created an overflow hole in the top of the structure, attaching a pipe to it that extends six inches beyond the perimeter of the base. Crew members also attached face boards to the roof of the building adjacent to the tank to create a suitable surface to which they attached the gutters that allow water to flow from the metal roof to the tank. Just before the outlet pipe reaches the tank, a “T” joint was inserted to create a first flush, a rudimentary filtration system that reduces the amount of debris and contaminants that enter the tank. The crew then constructed a protective wall around the tank and first flush, as well as a tap stand located slightly downhill of the tank. The rainwater collection system will be paired with four Sawyer Point One water filters in order to ensure that all water collected from the tank will be safe for drinking.

Check out your impact!
– You brought clean water to a school with 17 staff, serving 911 students at the time of project installation
– Previously, students and staff fetched from ⁠an off-site borehole well
– By bringing a rainwater collection system to facility grounds, we estimate that you eliminated up to 32.27 miles of walking and 33.33 hours of collection time per day!

Thank you to Medina High School in Ohio for helping bring safe water to Kassenjje Church of Uganda Primary School!

Note: Time and distance calculations are based on the average number of 20 liter jerrycans that UWP rainwater collection systems can provide each day. We assume that every jerrycan fetched from the UWP rainwater collection system replaces one trip to the previous water source. Distance from the facility to the previous water source is calculated for a round trip as the crow flies, using GPS coordinates.