Water is flowing
The children of St. Bonaventure Primary School in Mulajje are closer to having a water source on school grounds.
The weather in Mulajje cooperated this past weekend, making it possible to begin drilling the borehole on schedule. On Saturday morning, the 10-person crew began the process of drilling while the kids of the village stood by to watch. And five hours later, water started to seep to the surface. A small eruption of liquid sprayed everyone in close proximity. That moment not only provided relief from the heat, but also a deep satisfaction that the project is finally being realized.
“It was such a wonderful moment,” says Erin Huber, director of Drink Local Drink Tap. “Everyone was so excited.”
Later, the drilling crew’s supervisor delivered the good news: “It has been a blessing that we got over 4,000 cubic meters per hour, which is enough to serve more than 100,000 people,” Hamza Bega said, adding that additional funds could be raised in the future to install holding tanks and piping to deliver the water directly to the school and other homes in the community.
In the meantime, the borehole will operate with a pump handle. Before that is installed, testing is required to see if the water is safe to drink. In order to get the sample, the crew spent a few hours on Sunday pumping out the mud and debris from the borehole. When the water began to run clear, they were able to take a sample, which will be sent to Kampala for testing. The results are due back in five days.
If all goes well, the handle for the borehole will be installed next Saturday morning and the students and their families will have a new water supply, closer to home and safe to drink.
“We are so happy that you’re saving lives,” says Bega. “Communities are always in need of water. Contaminated water has a lot of germs and these water conditions affect our people.”
Drink Local Drink Tap’s efforts are not done. Please consider donating to the project at https://www.drinklocaldrinktap.org. And to stay up to date with current activities and see videos of the project in progress, visit http://www.youtube.com/drinklocaldrinktap.