Working towards sustainability

22 Aug Working towards sustainability

BUVAD UPDATE: Working towards sustainability

In 2012, Minga began a partnership with the Butakoola Village Association for Development (BUVAD), building borehole water wells to provide clean and accessible water to hundreds of people in rural Kayunga County, Uganda. Construction on the most recent Minga-supported well in Kyambogo village was completed in April 2014. Governance of the well was handed over to the locally organized well-user management committee that same month. Minga, BUVAD, and the residents of Kyambogo celebrated the achievement together!

In addition to simply building wells, we helped hire and train a local well mechanic to make sure that all wells remain fully functional and that repairs happen without delay. Also, this summer we secured a full toolkit for the mechanic via a generous donation from the non-profit Workaid. These developments will ensure that the Kayunga wells continue to improve lives for years to come.

In that spirit, this July Minga and BUVAD began collaboration on a rigorous monitoring and evaluation process, designed to precisely assess the impact of borehole wells on the lives of beneficiary communities. By gathering both qualitative and quantitative information on health, sanitation, crime, and domestic life, we aim to not only document the wells’ positive consequences; but also, and perhaps more importantly, to identify areas for improvement in the way borehole wells are used, maintained, and managed. With this information in hand, BUVAD will be equipped to solicit support from larger international organizations and the Ugandan public sector. As with all of our projects, the aim is not only to provide a one-time resource, but to enable our partner organizations to continue the work themselves.