Clean water for the refugee camp

After our meetings with the Office of the Prime Minister and the UNHCR, we then visited the water pump funded by a husband-wife team of donors. Their son-in-law also provided great assistance, since he is an experienced water engineer in Africa.

The bore hole was drilled by the UN and the grant from our donors provided the pump. The pump is working very well. The UN hired a pump manager who turns on the pump on alternating days. There is also a hand pump near the pumping station for people in the village nearby to get access to clean water. The pump sends water to three large holding tanks about three kilometers (1.8 miles) away. Each tank can hold up to 10,000 liters (2642 gallons) of water. By gravity, one of the holding tanks sends water to a holding tank at our clinic. The other two holding tanks send water to two villages on either side of the clinic. Each village, with a population of about 1000 people, has four spigots from which to draw fresh, clean water. The local UN representatives stated this is the best water pump they have ever seen. It is functioning very well. There is a water committee in the villages that oversee the pumps. The water committee cleans, protects and regulates the water levels to instruct the pump manager to turn on the pump. The UN provides the funding for any repairs.

After visiting the refugee camp and meeting with UN and government officials, we drove back to Kampala, a 3 hour drive.