Our partnership with The Water Trust

In rural Uganda, preventable diseases and death due to contaminated water and poor hygiene practices are far too common. And yet many efforts to address these problems fail to have a sustainable impact. More than 1 in 3 wells end up broken and abandoned, wasting millions of dollars in investment and leaving families without clean water. 

Through our partnership with The Water Trust, 3 water points were built or repaired to serve 3 rural communities in Masindi, Uganda, 7 Self-Help Groups were created to manage the 3 water points and 4 neighboring water points, and Water and Sanitation Committees were assembled to oversee the improvement of hygiene and sanitation practice. The Water and Sanitation Committees are sustainable management groups within the communities that raise awareness of sanitation risks and mobilize action to address those risks. The Self-Help Group approach creates a local savings and credit cooperative, which provides a safe place to save and take out loans on a weekly basis. 

The Self-Help Groups and the Water and Sanitation Committees represent sustainable local institutions to take ownership of access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene. This project empowered these groups to sustain and expand the project by investing in the maintenance and provision of water facilities. The success of The Water Trust’s hygiene and sanitation project depended on the community’s participation in the process and ultimately the empowerment of the community to sustain the improvements for years to come.