Water for ALL

Increasing Water Availability for Rural Communities”

WHY SUCH PROJECTS?

1. Reduces the violence against children and women – where they often get pushed aside by powerful men and skip their turns.
2. Reduces violence at home as well – some parents beat their children when water delays to be delivered at home sooner
3. Results in more time for children to do school homework
4. Reduces the rate of Malaria carrying mosquito bites especially where the queue goes until night
5. Increases the hygiene and sanitation – thus reducing the waterborne diseases
6. The community provides labour during the project establishment- leading owning the project and taking care of it after completion
7. Protects the community from water investors that would establish water points and start charging communities regular fees – water is a natural resource should be provided for free especially in rural areas where water follows by gravity
8. The time spared in long waiting lines can be invested in other activities.


In most parts of Africa, people in rural areas face several livelihood challenges such as access to water, health, nutrition, markets and education. Implementing low-cost but culturally friendly technologies could solve some of these challenges.  

Passionate about the subject matter, I picked up the “water availability challenge” in Uganda –from the village where I grew up. The project was implemented on the same one-spout system water spring from which our family fetched water. I live in Germany since 2005, visiting home 1-2 times a year. I am a forest engineer, working in the area of forest certification, with experience in over 40 countries.

 In the pictures, you'll see the whole community helping out to build the new water system. It used to be a single spout, and we created a four-spout system that makes the waiting time 8 times less per person - from more than an hour and a half to just 12 minutes. With the help of about "50 community members we completed the project in 9 days. The new water system now services over 1000 people. The cost of the project was about 3000 euros from my personal savings of 3 years.

 However, since the project completion in Jan 2013, no similar project has been implemented and yet over 5,000 of such projects are needed in the region. This could also be extended to other areas with similar water availability challenges.

My dream is to scale-up this project to a critical mass level. For the start, I have started the setting up of the organization (including its a website) that will be responsible for running the water project as well being a formal contact for the donors and partners. In the meantime water projects will be initiated completed as donations come in, until the target goal has been reached.

Your contribution would be highly appreciated.
Thank you