Students promoting safe water sources

There are more than 1.2 billion people relying on unsafe drinking water world over, if United Nations statistics are anything to go by. And the bitter pill of truth is that a great portion of these are actually in position to access a free flowing water source but still consume contaminated water.

The cookie always starts to crumble when the water source is forsaken in a numbing sanitation state. But the unfortunate bit is that some people especially in the urban areas, where there is no luxury of free firewood, are simply too poor that the idea of investing charcoal or an electricity unit in boiling water is perceived as wastage of the already limited resources.

It is with these facts in mind that Ian Waiswa, a second year Population Studies student at Makerere University decided to fine-tune the broad objectives of EUNISCA so as to channel the main focus on the provision and sensitisation of masses on the essence of safe drinking water with urban slums and suburbs as top priority. EUNISCA (Empowering Ugandan Natives in Science, Creativity and Art) is a non-profit making organisation that is made up of 42 registered members, all university students, and several volunteers.

According to Waiswa, founder and director at EUNISCA, it was during his Se nior Six vacation while volunteering with the Office of Relief and Development Support (ORSD) that he picked the inspiration to start up a platform through which youth would reach out to the masses, preaching the gospel of safe water, safer lives.
“By then I was volunteering and working with farmers based in the districts of Jinja, Kaliro, Iganga and Busia. These are not arid areas. They have plenty of free flowing water.

But sadly, people drink from the stream without any boiling or treatment whatsoever! The water sources themselves were in a sorry state—always filled with garbage. Least wonder the cases of diarrhoea and typhoid were rampant in these areas.” Waiswa notes.

It is with this experience that when he entered university, he had his eyes focused on creating a difference in this regard. And it was not long before he found other students of like mind.
Together with 11 others, they formed the EUNISCA umbrella at Makerere University. The organisation’s wider objective was to empower locals in all aspects, especially science, creativity and art by basically sharing knowledge acquired in lecture rooms with locals for application in daily life.

Walking the talk

However, EUNISCA has since zeroed down to the area of public health. They have not only embarked on the task of emphasising the importance of boiling water for drinking purposes, at both school and family level, but have gone an extra mile to clean the sources of water.

Bujilinya Well in Kawala, a Kampala suburb, initially a contaminated water source over-burdened with waste, is now a safe water haven, after Waiswa and his team started cleaning it monthly.

“A clean water source to us always comes as the first step to ensuring the safety of water. But we also brought this development as a way of challenging the locals. Initially they would find us cleaning and just look on. It really poses a challenge when you find outsiders cleaning a water source that you benefit from.

“Usually some locals join us to clean a water sources for the second and third time. But the fourth time it is us who join them,” Bagio Anthony Anyoli, a Makerere University student and EUNISCA member explains, his face beaming with a smile of accomplishment.

Kajebejo Well in Kikoni was also recently added to the list and the response from the locals was so good that the EUNISCA team has simply donated cleaning equipment and thel cleaning has been left to the locals who do it without much supervision.

Introducing the Solvatten unit
The team’s biggest stride into extending safe drinking water to the grass-root citizen has come with the introduction of the Solvatten jerrycan.

This is a portable unit for heating and treating water and comes in form of the usual 20-litre jerrycan. The unit is made up of two separate containers that are both covered with a transparent surface and together hold 10litres of water.

s

The transparent surfaces of the unit are made of plastic that allows high penetration of ultraviolet light. The Solvatten unit is filled with water through its filter-opening and put under the sun. Using solar energy, the jerrycan is able to remove all pathogenic material and in two hours, when the unit’s SVI-10 indicator turns from red to green, the water is safe for drinking in accordance with the standards of safe drinking water set by World Health Programme (WHP). You can purify up to 40litres of water on a good sunny day.

The Solvatten or “Sun Water” unit is Swedish-borne technology. The unit was invented to make safe drinking water available to everyone without having to spend on Charcoal or electricity but only making good use of the sun.

Unfortunately, the unit was a rare phenomenal in Uganda because, as Gerald Kadapawo, a water engineering student at Busitema University and EUNISCA co-ordinator in eastern Uganda, explains, “The major barrier was that majority of Ugandans would look at the little bit of technology incorporated in the unit as too complex. But also, the jerrycan is very expensive going for over Shs180,000.”

Bearing in mind the pinching poverty in most parts of the country, the team has offered to procure and donate Solvatten units to communities. The funds invested in the cause are from students’ savings and other private sponsors.

More than 40 jerrycans have been distributed in Kikoni alone, poor families and primary schools being top priority. On handing out the jerrycan, the team always takes an extra mile to teach the recipients how the unit works, under the slogan “Just Add Sun!.”

“For the case of schools we hold sessions to sensitise pupils on why they need to drink boiled water—Solvatten water. The response from schools has been very uplifting. Obviously the students are very excited with the idea of receiving water from a new kind of jerrycan, which is good as they always insist on drinking Solvatten water instead of drinking off the taps.” Ruth Kashimire, a student at Makerere University Business School Jinja and a EUNISCA member, shares.

Namirembe Prossy, a mother of three and housewife in Kikoni says the arrival of a Solvatten unit has been nothing but a blessing in her home.

“I do not have to waste charcoal to boil water. The jerrycan has also encouraged my two youngest boys to drink safe water as they opt for the Solvatten water out of sheer excitement,” she shares.

Dainah Kakoobwa, a health worker in Kawaala also holds the same feeling of gratitude after EUNISCA donated a Solvatten unit to her dispensery.

Not everyone sees it as a blessing
However, some locals have found the jerrycan to be rather intimidating and a source of insecurity. Elizabeth Mbambu of Kasubi was thankful for the Solvatten unit donated to her small restaurant but opted to return it because in her view, it is very expensive.

“The thieves around here are always looking out for such expensive things. The jerrycan was starting to draw attention and I feared it would be the reason thugs break into my restaurant. And whenever I would put it out for the water to boil I had to tend to it the entire time, so to me it was a bit of a distraction.” She says.

On top of giving the jerrycan in form of handouts to the most needy, EUNISCA has encouraged the financially able folk to buy the unit. They have developed a system where they sell the jerrycan on credit to restaurants and health centres.

Collins Muhumuza of Uganda Christian University and EUNISCA member is nothing but thrilled with their achievement as an organisation. To him, this kind of service comes with a sense of validation. And in his view, “providing safe water to the communities is our way of leaving our footprints in the sands of time.”