Projects are not sustainable if maintenance of systems is not guaranteed. And since the church is not, and should not be, the main actor responsible for providing and protecting access to water, it is important to share experiences and do advocacy with state authorities and services.
Over the past 20 years, the Trust has constructed and rehabilitated 1800 water sources - including shallow wells, traditional wells, rainwater harvesting structures, springs, and ponds - for nearly 1,530,000 people in communities in the Busoga region. Community members contribute materials, labour and other resources to the projects.
"We ask the community to contribute about 1,200 bricks, several tonnes of gravel, stones and sand," explains Kiiza. "They do the excavation work, provide their own food during the period of the work as well as accommodation for the technicians. The project contributes what is not available, like cement, iron bars and fuel for generators that drain the water," Kiiza says.Such participation is vital if people are to feel that they really own and are responsible for a project, rather than being dependent on outside institutions. Projects that do not involve the local people in this way often suffer from neglect after completion, not just because the necessary maintenance skills are scarce, but also because the local community feels neither motivated nor empowered to take care of them. Participation should also ensure that local people's needs are adequately reflected in the project right from the start and during the construction.
Near Buwosobi in Nkombe Village, where the water-table will not allow any more wells to be sunk, a 25-member women's group is making Ferro cement tanks to harvest rainwater. In January this year, the Busoga Trust started training the women to construct the tanks themselves.
With climate change aggravating water scarcity and water resources being depleted, it becomes increasingly important to preserve and make best use of the available water resources. Where water tables are already so low that drilling of more wells is either impossible or at least unsustainable, alternatives must be found. Water harvesting is one such alternative; reforestation, watershed management and adjusting agricultural techniques can also improve water availability and quality, contribute to its efficient and sustainable use and lessen drought vulnerability.
In Nkome, each woman contributes a bag of cement, 200 bricks for the foundations, six wheelbarrows of sand and stones, and their labour. Candidates must have a good roof on their houses, and sanitation components including a toilet, a kitchen utensils rack, a hand-washing facility and a rubbish pit.
"The kitchen must also have an energy-saving stove," explains Kiiza. Such stoves help slow down the deforestation that results from firewood collection, and also frees up money, time, and effort that otherwise go into collecting or buying the wood or other fuels.
For many families, meeting these conditions is not easy, given the poverty prevailing in Busoga villages. Community members told the EWN conference participants that they would like more partnerships and more wells. They also dream of venturing into commercial agriculture and small businesses. But water remains their first priority. Participating in the water campaign is thus a way to satisfy this basic need, and to take their destinies into their own hands.
