This project will build nine 2,500 litre roof water storage tanks at primary schools with 1750 pupils in the area surrounding Kikandwa, Uganda, none of which have access to piped water or electricity. Currently, children are required to make a daily journey averaging 1.5 hours to collect sufficient water for drinking, making school dinners and washing. This project continues work started in April 2012 with a tank built at Kikandwa Primary school which has proven to be extremely successful.
None of the area schools are served by piped water (or electricity). Water must be collected by children from open sources, many of which are polluted. In addition to the health risk, the average of 1.5 hours per trip taken to collect water reduces the amount of time available for learning by an estimated 165 hours per year per child. Water is critical; for most area school children the school dinner made with the water collected is their largest and most nutritious meal of the day.
The success of Phase 1 of the project, which installed a single tank at an area school & provided the frame for building future tanks, confirmed that collection of rainwater into storage tanks is a viable way to meet the need of providing clean drinking water to schools. By eliminating the need to travel to collect water, it frees up an estimated 165 hours annually which can be used for children to focus on their education & ensures that students are provided with water which is safe to drink.
Each installed tank will directly contribute to an extension of classroom learning time providing them more skills to help carry them forward to secondary school and beyond. UN Resolution 64/292 asserts that safe and clean drinking water is a human right essential to the full enjoyment of life and all other human rights. This project helps children attending these schools to attain this fundamental right, break out of their life of poverty & achieve better health.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
