Clean Water for Schools in Mubende, Uganda | 2017
Impact Projects

Clean Water for Schools in Mubende, Uganda | 2017

World Centric + SPOUTS of Water

$20,508.00 from profits from fiscal year 2017

In Uganda, 60% of people do not have access to clean water. According to the World Health Organization, contaminated water contributes to the pervasiveness of diarrheal diseases, such as cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery. Waterborne illness is the leading cause of death for children.

Children especially struggle with accessing clean water outside the home, where they cannot rely on their parents to boil water for them. School can be an especially large issue as children must walk home if they are thirsty in many districts, losing valuable instruction time. Illness from waterborne diseases also cuts out critical learning time for children.

SPOUTS produces the Purifaaya ceramic water filter as an affordable, effective, sustainable, and easy to use solution for providing safe, pure water to Ugandans. This project adopts two schools in Uganda's Mubende district.


The Impact

  • 470 household water filters installed(1 per household).
  • 41 large-scale community filters installed in schools and community centers.
  • 3 trainings - 1 with community leaders, 1 with teachers, and 1 with parents and children.

Indirect Impacts:

  • Increase in household savings from money no longer needed to purchase fuel to boil water (saving roughly $680 per household).
  • Ecological benefit from shifting from charcoal/wood burning to ceramic filtration. Carbon emission reduction estimated at 1,250 metric tons.
  • Increase in health due to access to clean water, leading to better school attendance.

The Approach

SPOUTS uses a "whole community" model for schools in Uganda's poorest districts, where most do not have clean water access. SPOUTS adopts schools to provide filters in each classroom, play areas, and also the households of every student and the major town centers (religious centers, shops, etc). This guarantees students can access clean water anywhere in their village, dramatically reducing disease risk.


Purifaaya water filters are produced with clay locally sourced in Uganda. It is mixed with water before being pressed to form a pot that is the filter. It is then placed in a bucket with a spicket. The Purifaaya lasts 2 years and costs 25 USD, making it the most affordable solution to safe water access in Uganda households.



About SPOUTS of Water

A World Centric partner since 2017.

When Kathy Ku spent a summer in Uganda she was struck by the lack of access to safe water. Convinced change was necessary, she teamed up with fellow Harvard student John Kye to form SPOUTS of Water in 2012. SPOUTS aims to provide 5 million Ugandans, or 14% of the population, with access to safe water by 2025, 10 years after their first Purifaaya sale. This would represent a fundamental shift in the way Ugandans approach water purification and would save thousands of lives, primarily of children.

More projects with SPOUTS:

Updates


December 2018
SPOUTS completed this project and installed filters in schools and communities in Gomba, St. Charles Lwanga, and Kkunga. With the community focused model, children will have access to clean drinking water at all times of the day whether they are at home or school.


 

Written by

World Centric

 

Read time

4 minutes

 

Published on

May 16, 2018

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