Working with Busoga Trust a charity which specialises in providing clean water for rural communities in Africa, we have helped to make a considerable difference to lives in Namalemba and Bumoozi.
The problems were very real.
For years we had all struggled to help provide sources of clean water using hand-dug wells. We provided one borehole at Butongole which is very well-used. But ground conditions meant that these wells were often seasonal.
So this is a story of two Miracles. Namalemba and Bumoozi are divided by a swamp - which is polluted by animals and humans. And much of the area lies over a layer of hard rock which drilling rigs can't penetrate.
 Bitterne has paid for several shallow wells to be constructed, which draw from pools of water collected in small underground hollows in the rock. These wells dry out regularly, so people go back to polluted swamps and natural springs, which they share with mosquitos, cattle and snakes.
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Johnson proposed a scheme to construct 207 Rainwater Harvesting systems, consisting of guttering and tanks to collect rain from existing iron roofs of homes, and which would hold enough water to last a family of ten for five months. Bitterne agreed to fund it.
As the project progressed the price escalated ... but here's the first Miracle. We expected to take several years to raise the cost of £14000. The cost grew to £26000, but all of that was donated within just one year. We must never underestimate people's generosity when they can see a genuine need.But that sum was not just for pipes and tanks. A scheme affecting so many homes could be ruined by poor hygiene 'next door', otherwise the lucky homes would still be infected by flies from neighbouring 'unreconstructed' homes. So a universal hygiene and sanitation education programme was essential, and it also meant that the benefit would stick long after the attention and the engineers had gone.
They ran 'Home Improvement Competitions' with prizes for the best-run homes. Groups of families worked together to uphold hygiene standards.
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From a remote area of Bumoozi came the first signs of a second Miracle.
In just three months, reported symptoms of Malaria were almost halved from a frightening 95% down to 50%. There were only one tenth as many cases of Diarrhoea. Typhoid was almost eradicated. Worms down to one eighth as many occurrences. Skin Infections were halved.And Trachoma, an eye infection which was rife in the UK in Victorian times but now hardly known in this country, was down by almost two thirds. These amazing achievements come from simple things like improved drainage of used water around the house and compound, use of latrines (rather than fields), hand washing, and thoroughly cooking food. That remarkable degree of improvement points to the possibility of a completely new way of life for people in rural Africa. No longer burdened by diseases which sap energy and kill children, they would begin to be able to develop their farming and economy. With tanks in their own compound young children, especially girls, could go to school, rather than walk several kilometres to collect water. Women could spend more time growing crops and producing healthy food. And the men could see a future for their families and their community.Could this be a way forward for the whole of Africa?
 Now that would be a Miracle. |
