Impact Water Have Reached 1,000,000 Children in Uganda With Clean Drinking Water.

Original Story Published by: rubyfrankland for Yunus Social Business
Photo Source: ©YUNUS

(Above) Impact Water provide safe drinking water for schools at scale across Uganda, Kenya, and Nigeria. 

Before Susan Mubiru bought a water purification system for her school, Namutebi Nkata Primary in Uganda, she had to find a way to boil water for all of her 516 students. “When we used to boil it, it was never enough. The children would not always have drinking water regularly”. For Susan, and schools across Africa lack of access to safe drinking water is a huge challenge. It doesn’t just mean that children are regularly off sick from school, but unclean water is responsible for the majority of the 1.8 million annual diarrheal caused deaths. In fact, over 40% of diarrheal disease transmission can be attributed to the school environment.   

In Uganda, it is very common to boil water for purification. However, boiling is time-consuming and costly, and schools struggle to boil sufficient quantities. Many do not treat their water at all. Then there is the environmental impact, wood harvested for cooking and boiling water is one of the major causes of deforestation. The burning of wood in traditional cookstoves not only damages the environment but also negatively impacts human health. 

Impact Water is an innovative social business operating in Uganda, Kenya, and Nigeria that is solving this problem at scale. They install and maintain high-performance, water purification systems which use established technologies (such as ultraviolet, automated chlorine, ceramic, and ultrafiltration) and perform effectively for decades with relatively simple, scheduled preventive maintenance.