Kaliro’s Reality

The following article was originally published by Lifewater International, Wheels4Water’s non-profit partner that we help support who is on the ground in Uganda and around the world helping vulnerable communities get safe water for life.

The Wheels4Water team joined Justin Narducci, Lifewater’s CEO and President, traveled to Kaliro, Uganda earlier this year to pray about starting work in this area. What he found was a reality where children were sharing water sources with animals and walking long distances for water. Toilets at schools were sickening (if they existed at all), and water-borne diseases were prevalent. Kaliro is far away from any metropolitan areas in Uganda, which means that to get there you have to walk off of the nearest public road for four hours. Because it’s so far away, the government cannot help these communities to get access to clean water.

As I drove up and visited this water source for the first time, there were children and families in here gathering water for their homes for drinking. Now it’s full of animals, it’s contaminated, it’s actually really hard to watch,” says Justin Narducci.

The results are severe, with only half the Kaliro population having access to clean water, and less than 7% of homes utilizing handwashing devices. Those who are most prone to water-borne diseases carried in this area are vulnerable children and families.