To save 5000 - Bujaga Water System

November of 1994 I started off to Uganda, East Africa, to a little village
called, "Bujaga."

My trip started at Pearson International Airport. From there I flew to London Heathrow. After a 14hr. stopover I flew into Nirobe, Kenya. From there onto Uganda, Entebee where I was to meet up with my parents.

We spent a night in Kampela, the capital city. What a wild place! The next day we travelled by truck to just outside of Mbarara, a village called Ruharo. Mom and Dad had been building a small aid clinic there.

Some Simple Statistics:

Location: Eastern Africa between Kenya and Zaire
Area: 236,040 sq. km
Climate: Tropical.
Terrian: Mostly plateau with rimed by mountains

Population of Uganda as of 1993 - 19,344,181
Male 48% - Female 62%
Growth rate - 2.69%
Birth rate - 49.86 per 1,000
Death rate - 22.98 per 1,000
Infant mortality rate - 112.1 deaths per 1,000
Life expectancy - 38.4 yrs.
Ethnic division - African 99%, Other1%1%Relgions - RC 33%, Protestant 33%,
Muslim 16%, indigenous beliefs 18%
Language - English(official), Lugnads, Swahili, Bantu, Nilotic, Ancole
Literacy - age 15 and over can read and wright.
Labour force 4.5 million - Agriculture 80%
Industries - sugar, brewing, tobacco, cotton textiles, cement

Five thousand people living in rural southwestern Uganda no longer depend on contaminated swamp water for their domestic needs, nor walk for kilometers in search of fresh water. Hopefully no more childre will be lost going for water by falling into the bottomless swamps.
Water from a clean source in the hills now serves the community along a 10.5 km. plastic pvc pipe line.
800 people recently came out to celebrate the completion of this project, which will now be kept in good working order by a water committee of Bujaga residents, trained in pipeline maintenance by ACTS volunteers.

ACTS would like to thank the Canadian International Developement Agency (CIDA) whom matched at 2:1 funds donated by Rotary Clubs of Calgary Alberta, Canada, Nanaimo Day break, supporting churchs and individuals.
The total cost of the project was $143,095 CDN.

CIDA has written to ACTS to commend them of a job well done and to as permission to send information about this project to other organinzations in the field of international development.

There is water In Bujaga!

As the trenching and pipe-laying proceeded the project was visited by 8 delegations from different communities who came to learn the scope of the work required and how they might put forward their own water system proposal. It was planned to have a single stand-pipe pass by each mud hut, aprox. 27. The owner of the hut would look after that stand-pipe, section of pipe, and dig the trench. The owner of the hut did not own the stand-pipe.

All digging was done by hand. The pipe was burried 3' below ground. Each section of trench was dug by the residences that the pipe passed by. In this way, the whole community takes ownership of the project. The water would be brought down the mountain and into Bujaga passing a church, a school, Kyehunde, and many individual huts.

Kyehunde is an island in the middle of a papyrus swamp with a population of 3oo. They live a very isolated existance. During the rainy seasons they are completely cut off from the Bujaga community. Kyehunde was at the extreme end of the Bujaga pipeline. They were amoung the most toughest trench diggers we had the delight of working with and won the admiration of all the ACTS team.

Finally after months of labourous work and many overcomed challenges the water was to be turned on! Remember that no one in the affected villages have ever seen water run from a pipe before. Many were sceptical and did not believe it would happen.

When we arrived at the stand-pipe location a large crowd of Kyehunde residents had gathered. Men, Women, and children had received the word that today the water would run! Dad gave the word for the valve to be open. As we waited, someone turned to us and said, "the childre have not slept all night, they are so excited! This is truely a historic moment for all of us here in Kyehunde!"

Another turned to us and said, "You are not an engineer, you are an explorer. You found an island which even the politicians had forgotten about!"

After a long time of waiting for the water some of the crowd started to leave. A small dribble of water finally came out... We turned off the valve to let pressure build. Word of the water is coming spread again through the people and all of a sudden they started coming back. We opend the valve again. This time a plume of water gushed out the tap 10' into the air! The people stood in amazement and then burst into praise!
Even after the catchments are full the overflow fills a 20liter jerry can in just 3 seconds!

Success! Thanks be to God!

Special thanks to the following for their prayers, dedication, and donations:

CIDA
Battersea Pentecostal Church,(Battersea, Ontario)
Churchill Baptist Church,(Ballantrae, Ontario)
Little Trinity Anglican Church,(Toronto, Ontario)
St. Peter's Anglican Church,(Comox, B.C.)
Mr. & Mrs. J. Lapointe
Mr. & Mrs. T Sorenson
Jim & Joan Doble - Project Co-ordinators

Today, 10 years later, the water still runs in Bujaga...