Uganda

Lifeline's clean water projects are designed with the objective of making a direct impact on the commercial market for borehole drilling in Uganda by reducing the cost of drilling a borehole to the point where clean water becomes affordable to all who need it.

Employing a highly specialized drilling rig, Lifeline has completed over 111 boreholes at less than $1,500 a piece - about one fifth the amount that most international agencies currently budget for the task.

With each well serving a population of between 500 and 1,500, Lifeline's water program is filling the clean water needs of more than 100,000 individuals at a cost of roughly $1.50 a person.

Lifeline remains committed to the long-term objective of lowering borehole costs to the point where individual villages will be able to directly finance projects themselves through further innovations in technology and project design, completing the final step in establishing true ownership over the water they drink.

Most of Uganda's IDP population comes from remote communities in Northern Uganda that were abandoned years ago. As virtually nothing has been done to rehabilitate those communities, the returnees must begin the process of rebuilding their lives without the benefit of health clinics, schools or any other basic services. But of the myriad challenges facing these returnees none is more pressing than the need for clean drinking water. Throughout Northern Uganda, less that 40% of the population has access to any protected water source and is forced to drink from stagnant pools and contaminated springs. The consequences for human health are well documented and extremely severe. Water-borne diseases (including dysentery, giardia, bilharzia, typhoid fever, hepatitis and cholera) account for 70% of all hospital visits in East Africa, are the second leading cause of mortality in that region, and claim the lives of more than 22,000 Ugandan children every year. As clean water is generally unavailable in their home villages, returnees face a greater risk of illness and death than they did when they were living in IDP camps. Indeed, on a recent visit to one remote village in Lira District, Lifeline learned that 10 of its inhabitants had died from stomach-related ailments in the space of just 6 months. Since the summer of 2006, Lifeline has addressed the scarcity of clean water in Northern Uganda by constructing more than 80 boreholes at less than $1,500 a piece about one fifth the amount that most international agencies budget for that task. With each of these wells serving a population of between 500 and 2,000, Lifeline's water program is filling the clean water needs of some 100,000 individuals and will continue to do so for years to come at a cost of a little over $1.00 a person.

cont'd...

Since 1990, Uganda has lost more than 25% of its forest cover. At current rates of deforestation and population growth, the remaining forest will be lost in another 30 years. The use of fuel wood for cooking accounts for approximately half of Uganda's forest loss, with the average family consuming some three tons of wood for that purpose each year. As in other parts of Africa, cooking on an open fire is hazardous to the health of the population in Northern Uganda, where 24% of all hospital visits are related to respiratory disease, making it the second most common form of illness in the region. And, as elsewhere, this traditional form of cooking has seriously retarded the personal incomes of the population, with most of Uganda's poor spending 15% or more of their earnings on charcoal or between one and two hours a day collecting firewood. During the past two years, Lifeline has addressed these problems with a fuel-efficient stove program that has produced some 30,000 energy-saving stoves at a cost of approximately $1.00 per stove. In an effort to accelerate the spread of those stoves and encourage greater self-sufficiency, Lifeline has recently perfected a "commercial" version of its stove and is in the process of stimulating a market for that stove, which will create jobs for hundreds of brick-makers, metal fabricators, and independent salespersons at the same time that it helps improve the health and livelihoods of their customers.