Water Changes Everything
Daniel WolfFor as long as she can remember, Jennifer Angom, a Ugandan mother of three and resident of the Acungi “A” community, lived a life dictated by water scarcity. Every night she went to sleep, knowing that if she didn’t wake by 4:30 a.m., she would end up having to wait in an hours-long queue at the village borehole. Then, after tending to her garden, she would have to rush back there again, lest she get stuck in the late afternoon crowd.
At the school where the borehole was located, students faced similar problems. One of them, Achola Lucky, recounts how she would either have to miss class waiting her turn at the pump or leave her jerry can there to secure her place in line. But an unattended jerry can is an invitation for theft and Achola recalls a time when “I left my can there and by the time I got back, it was gone.”
With the borehole site so congested and the wait so long, tensions ran high and, on occasion, fights would break out. Opio Nixon, the school’s headmaster, recalls one incident, in which “a man knocked out a boy’s teeth in a fight for water."
From time to time, the borehole would break down, forcing students and villagers to walk for miles to collect water from unprotected springs and carry back the 20-kilo loads on their head. Dysentery and other water-borne diseases were rife.
All of this came to an end earlier this year, however, when Lifeline constructed a piped water system with separate tap stands for the school and the community at large. As one resident notes, “now, there is no waiting – you just open the tap and water flows”. Mothers have gained control over their lives, students no longer miss classes, and, in the words of headmaster Opio, “we are all at peace."
Water really does change everything!
