The queue started forming before sunrise. By the time the district engineer turned the handle for the first time, more than two hundred people had gathered around the concrete apron of Nyakabande’s new borehole. At the very front stood Amani, seven years old, holding a yellow cup she had brought from home.
For as long as she could remember, water had meant a four-kilometre walk to a shared pond — and, too often, stomach cramps and missed school days afterwards.
A village that planned its own pump
The site wasn’t chosen by us. It was chosen at a village meeting in April, where the newly elected water committee — six women and four men — mapped every household and agreed the spot that would bring the most people within 300 metres of safe water.
“We didn’t want a gift that breaks in a year. We wanted something we could look after ourselves.” — Esther, committee treasurer
Each household now contributes 1,000 shillings a month (about 20p) to a savings account for spare parts. Two local mechanics, trained this summer, are on call.
What changes next
- School attendance is already up — the head teacher counted 31 more pupils in the first fortnight.
- The health centre expects fewer cases of typhoid and diarrhoea by the end of the year.
- Women who used to fetch water now have three extra hours a day.
Pump number seven is open. Five more are planned before the end of the year. Follow the Wells for Kisoro project or help fund the next one.
