For quite a long time, the people of Butunduzi Sub County, Kyenjojo District didn’t have an idea of what clean and safe water looked like.

Plagued by bilharzia and other water borne diseases for long, their night mare is a situation of the past, thanks to the Butunduzi NUMA water project courtesy of a partnership between Kyenjojo District Local Government, 4WARD DEVELOPMENT EAST AFRICA and NUMA.

NUMA is a branded, modular, piped water network that’s filtered and treated to always be safe and tasty.

 NUMA and Kyenjojo District Officials at the site, where the water pumping process begins from.

They began by digging a 60metres deep production well, that pumps water from the source. This pushes the water through a piping line that’s dug 3ft in the ground, and goes uphill, to a NANO water treatment facility, that’s situated about 400 meters from the source.

This is where treatment, filtration, and chlorination takes place, and water is pumped to the system that serves the community from here, and part of it goes to a reservoir, which acts as a standby for community use just in case of a rare temporary breakdown. The reservoir also acts as a temporary storage.

 NUMA Officials and Kyenjojo District Officials inspect the NANO water treatment facility

The inside of the NANO water treatment facility

 The reservoir, that acts as a temporary storage for excess safe treated water after water has been pumped into the system. Also serves the system in case of temporary shortages

Being a community project, the land on which the pump and treatment facility was leased to them by individual owners of the land, but monitoring of the equipment is a joint effort of the community and NUMA. This is because it is very much valued having spent quiet a long time suffering with unclean water.

The project so far covers an area of 26.5 kilometers in the Butunduzi sub county area, and will extend to other parts in Kyenjojo district, having been successfully piloted here.

The connection fee of 200,000 Uganda Shillings is an affordable fee for quiet many households with the water shortage that hit them in the years before still on their minds. The project has been positively accepted in the community, with 340 connections so far in Butunduzi Town Council, and Butunduzi Sub county in general.

The system uses prepaid meters; thus a person pays for what they can afford or need. With some situated in the trading centers, and the fact that not everyone can afford this, the owners sell the water, also creating a business venture to some.

 The prepaid NUMA water meter.

This has brought down the cost of accessing water, with a jerry can going for 200shs for those who buy from the connected households, down from 500 shs previously.

The residents and beneficiaries heap praise on this NUMA project, hailing the water as very clean and tasty, compared to the previous water they had, that would always get dirty once it rained, was unreliable, and very many people had contracted water borne diseases from its consumption. For the period they have used this NUMA water, not a single case of bilharzia has been reported at the health centers surrounding, and is always available. It should be noted that the pumping and treatment facility uses both electricity and solar power, thus runs even during electricity down time.

 Previous water source for the people of Butunduzi (L) and the current water source (R), courtesy of NUMA

The NUMA team thanked the district staff and leaders for the good relationship and support rendered to them for the success of this project. They were also grateful for the initiative to come on ground and confirm the progress of the project.

The Water Officer, Kyenjojo, Mr. Anthony Ainomugisha, thanked NUMA for not deviating from the agreed upon concepts, and timely delivery. He promised all the support possible from the district administration for such good projects to extend to the entire district.

The Resident District Commissioner, Kyenjojo, Julian Sarah Ayesiga, thanked NUMA for the wonderful work so far done, and urged them to continue to other parts in Kyenjojo and Uganda, extending clean water to the people, at low cost, and complimenting the work done by the NRM government of extending affordable and reliable services to all Ugandans.

She urged for constant community engagement so as to ease close monitoring, as the people in the community will feel involved, thus will secure, and own the project. She also advised the land on which the pump and treatment facility are be cordoned off, as a security and safety precaution.

 The RDC (3^rd Left) together with a beneficiary, Kyenjojo DLG and NUMA officials in a group photo