Bukwaya Primary School & Bukwaya Health Center II
The Bukwaya Primary School is located about 60 meters from Bukwaya Health Center II. The nearest water point was one kilometer away, so any time someone at the school or health center needed water, it meant a two-kilometer round trip.
“Our students had to walk 2 kilometers to get clean, safe drinking water,” recalls Deputy Head Teacher Nawongobi Zamina.
With so many people using that borehole, the hand pump often broke down. With no active water committee, simple fixes that should have been quick and inexpensive could take days or even weeks. Each repair required a community collection. “The well would break and stay broken until the community had raised the money,” Zamina says. At times, the school fronted the cost and waited to be reimbursed. Occasionally, the students would go to the well, only to find it padlocked—the caretaker also worked as a farmer during the day, so he locked it whenever he had to leave.
Even the walk to the well was risky. It was near a busy road, and cars would speed by, not noticing the children until it was almost too late. The lines at the well caused tensions to flare—there needed to be a better solution. “Some people from the village would see the long line of children waiting for water and push them aside, saying, ‘This is not your borehole—go get your own,’” Zamina adds.
An Urgent Situation at the Bukwaya Health Center
The situation at the health center was even more urgent. The only water source was a rainwater harvesting tank, which provided water during and immediately after the rainy season but ran dry every dry season. “In the dry season we had to ration water, and even then it still ran out,” explains Kaisenashi Martha. “It wasn’t clean either, because the rain was collected off a dirty, rusted metal roof.” It was bad because this was the main facility in the area for expectant mothers to come and deliver their babies. “We needed safe water for handwashing and for cleaning the maternity beds,” Martha says.
Drop in the Bucket drilled a new well between the school and the health center, giving both easy access. “Our lives have changed,” Zamina smiles. “We don’t send students to distant boreholes anymore, porridge is prepared on time, and pupils study in clean classrooms. A lot has changed since the well was drilled.”