69% of Uganda’s population is rural based. Nearly all those communities rely on drilled water sources that are accessed by a community hand pump. On occasion, we find large communities of people that have no access to clean water at all – they draw water from nearby swamps and shallow wells. Deep water wells are classified as water sources 30+ meters (90ft+) which access clean water underground aquifers – any water source less than 30 meters in depth is at risk of contamination and needs to be treated. Often, we encounter communities that have deep water wells, but they have broken down because they have exceeded their functional life.

In water scarcity situations, we witness humans drawing their water from shallow sources where they are subject to contamination from local fertilizers (non-regulated), from livestock, and leaching from nearby pit latrines. When a deep-water source fails, or doesn’t even exist, it often affects several hundred people – on a daily basis.