Uganda is in sub-Saharan Africa and is one of the poorest nations in one of the poorest parts of the world.

"Children pass away every minute because they don't have access to clean water." — Maria Mutagamba, Minister of Water, Republic of Uganda

One of the UN's Millennium Goals is to increase the number of people having access to clean water by the year 2015. The latest statistics show that not only is Africa failing to achieve this increase, it is in fact falling further and further behind and unless drastic steps are taken, no significant improvement can be expected before 2050!

The water crisis and the accompanying health crisis in Uganda is caused as much by cultural as physical reasons. In the past ten years the Ugandan government and various major charities have drilled literally hundreds of wells throughout the rural regions, and yet the people are still without clean water, and the children are still dying. The Well-Health project of CEED is taking a new approach to this problem with a long-term in-depth study, innovative engineering solutions, and pilot projects that encourage communities to be pro-active in solving their own water problems.

The Well Health Project

CEED’s Well Health project is centered in the town of Hoima, which is in the Bunyoro-Kitara region of Uganda in the Great Rift Valley geological system. 

CEED has been working in this region since 1999 and has made an in-depth study of the many factors that have resulted in a water and health crisis for this rural population.

In rural Uganda village populations have outgrown their initial water sources, and the fetching and purifying of water has become a burdensome task that takes up many precious hours every day. Village women and children walk miles to find water for their families to drink. Often they draw polluted surface water from a stream or pond that they share with cattle and wild animals. After a long day at school, with homework still ahead of them, children, some as young as 4 or 5, drag jerry cans of water and risk their lives as they scurry along the dirt roads amidst speeding trucks, and impatient taxi drivers.

Although the people know that water should be boiled for at least fifteen minutes, as night draws in they become impatient. Often they have had nothing to drink all day, and they no longer have the energy to gather firewood to boil the water, or the patience to wait for it to cool down. And so they drink the polluted water or they continue in a state of dehydration. Whichever way they choose, the cycle of sickness continues.

Amazingly, even while the women and children are walking miles to collect water, there may be a government bore hole just a few hundred yards from their village. 

One of the first initiatives of the Well Health project was to find out why these bore holes are not being used.

The answer is that in most locations the water tastes nasty!

They are not maintained because the people have no interest in the water from them. It tastes bad and stains clothes. Although Encounter Uganda has succeeded in its initial program, which was to create a way to reduce the cost of drilling a new well from $10,000 to $1000. It is obvious that simply drilling new wells is not the solution. If the taste and color of the water are not changed, these wells will also be abandoned, and the sickness will continue.

The Well Health Solution

CEED’s objective is to teach people that clean drinking water is essential to life, health, and prosperity, and that the way to provide it is to fix their existing wells, drill new wells, and treat their water in a very simple, inexpensive and non-burdensome way.

The water tastes bad! The problem stems from low pH (high acidity) and high dissolved iron. The solution is to raise the ph of the water by having it pass over locally obtained limestone contained in a simply designed wooden tray.

The pumps and pipes rust after just a short time! This is another effect of the water being acidic. CEED has researched pump and pipe materials and is replacing metal pipes and pumps with imported urethane pumps and locally obtained pvc pipes that will not corrode and will last many years without maintenance.

Some villages have no well, or the well is broken beyond repair! Our main drilling objective is to continue to demonstrate how to dig and finish water wells for under $1000 each. Ugandan volunteers are beginning to dig new wells on their own with no cost for labor. We are able to finish a well for about $1500.

The villagers have failed to maintain their well! This is a common problem and is usually caused by the water tasting bad, and therefore having no perceived value, or the riser pipes being broken, or the people simply not understanding the value of clean water. CEED has prepared and distributed an education aid for village water committees that teaches the value of clean water and reinforces the need to have a strong water committee resolved to collecting a small fee for pump maintenance.

We need a year-round presence! CEED has employed a full time Ugandan associate, Mr. Herbert Asiimwe to oversee the program year-round. He oversees all new drilling, all repairs, and all resulting maintenance committees.