Providing safe drinking water to the most vulnerable

Program start 2008
Impacted population 265,000

FXB provides access to clean water to vulnerable communities every year.

Context

Uganda has a population of 46 million people, more than a third of whom live below the poverty line. It ranks 166 out of 191 on the UNDP Human Development Index. Children are the first victims of this situation, as their families are unable to ensure their health and well-being, especially in remote areas of the country.

The impurity of the water that households use leads to acute diarrhoeal diseases, which are often fatal. Every year, 1.5 million children die from diarrhea worldwide.

In Uganda, 40% of families boil water to disinfect it, but even more do not treat it at all. Collecting and consuming wood for water treatment or cooking, which is also one of the main causes of deforestation in the world, not only harms the environment but also the health of families and represents a considerable workload for women and children.

Our action

Coordination: FXB International 
Implementation: FXB Uganda
Financial Partner: P&G Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation

Committed to a long-term partnership with the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Fund program of the P&G Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, FXB is working to provide hundreds of thousands of liters of safe drinking water to health centers, schools and vulnerable families in the Wakiso district.

FXB also conducts awareness-raising activities whose overall objective is to change the behaviors and practices of communities, teachers and school principals as well as local authorities regarding water, sanitation and hygiene. It also aims to adapt sanitary standards in schools.

A new phase – 2022-2024 – will strengthen our intervention by rehabilitating and constructing 50 water sources in 40 villages in the Wakiso district, as well as establishing Water Management Committees to ensure their sustainability.

This development will provide nearly 60 million liters of water to 30,000 people. In addition, 12,500 students from 50 schools in the intervention zone will be sensitized on proper water use, hand washing and best hygiene practices.

OUR INTERVENTION AREAS:

  • Organize and conduct WASH (Water, Hygiene and Sanitation) awareness sessions with selected targets to induce improved behaviors and practices.
  • Rehabilitate and construct improved water sources.
  • Establish Water Management Committees (WMC) to ensure sustainability of the facilities.
  • Provide water purification equipment to targeted communities.
  • Bringing schools up to WASH standards.
 

 

Program impact

After one year of implementation in March 2023, the new phase of the project has already provided 25 communities with access to clean water through the construction water sources. In addition, while waiting to have access to improved water sources, the communities targeted by the entire project have received more than 200,000 packages of water purification materials.

Since the start of WASH activities in Uganda, our combined interventions have already enabled more than 265,000 children and adults to access purified water and adopt appropriate behaviors and practices, thereby reducing the incidence of diarrheal diseases.

Testimonial

I now understand that the water we drink can be the source of many illnesses and, thanks to FXB, I have learned how to treat it properly.

Dorothy