19 May 2009
Access to clean, affordable water improves health, helps small business development and opens up educational opportunities for girls.
Joyce Namutebi, a mother who owns a juice-making business in Mubende Town, Uganda, has seen a big improvement to her family’s quality of life as a result of a new clean water connection. She says that because of this new water connection, “I've been able to make more juice for my customers; this has increased my income and I am now able to pay school fees for my children. Our water is safe to drink, so my family no longer suffers from diarrhoea.”
Joyce's clean water was made possible by the European Commission's Mid-western Towns Water & Sanitation Project in Mubende, Hoima and Masindi, Uganda. As a consequence of the Project, residents have a shorter walking distance to safe water sources; girls, who were previously responsible for journeying to distant sources to obtain clean water, now have time to attend school.
Also, there has been a notable decrease in child mortality rates and incidences of waterborne diseases in the region. It has been successful in securing safe, undisrupted, and affordable water to around 25,000 people in the region.
The European Commission provided €14.75 million between 2001 and 2007 for the Project. It aimed to improve and increase water supply and hygienic sanitation infrastructure for residents in mid-western Uganda. Before it was put in place, residents of mid-western Uganda constantly faced water scarcity, high water tariffs, hygienic and health risks due to inadequate water treatment and sanitation, flooding, soil erosion and high incidences of waterborne diseases.
Key facts:
- The European Commission spends 6 per cent of its €114 billion budget on development assistance for poorer countries outside Europe.
- The UK contributes 17 per cent of the European Commission’s budget. Of our 2006/7 contribution, £964 million went towards international development.
- DFID is the UK department responsible for working with other EU member states and the European Commission to make sure our contribution is well used in the fight against world poverty.
- Uganda is unlikely to meet the Millennium Development Goal targets for water and sanitation. While in 2005-06, 89% of households had access to a toilet facility, an increase of 2% from 2002-03, only 68% of households had access to safe drinking water during the same period.
- Other examples of working through the European Commission: women's literacy in Pakistan, improving primary education in Bangladesh and immunisation in Nigeria.
