rwenzori solidarity trust

About us

Rwenzori Solidarity Trust is a local NGO that was formed in 2007 and registered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. S5914/7622. Its main roles are to train the local community in the Sub Counties of Karambi and Bukuuku on improved living standards, income generation, environment protection, water and sanitation, HIV/AIDS awareness etc.
Now RST has come up with the idea of tapping Rain water from its member’s houses. The technologies that the communities use include the use of banana leaves or stem as gutters, reeds placed in Jerycans and attached to gutters etc. However, with the increasing availability of corrugated iron roofing, people often place a small container under their eaves to collect rain water. One 20 – Litre container of clean water captured from the roof can save a walk of many kilometers to the nearest water source.
Rwenkuba Village is located some 04 Kilometers from Fort Portal town in Kabarole District. This village has a population of about 1134 people. It is a hilly area formed as a result of volcanic activity. The soils are fertile and a number of food crops are grown.
The area is served by one river Mpanga that originates from the Rwenzori Mountains. The area is neither connected to the main water grid nor to the gravity water flow.
The community mostly women, young boys and girls have to walk downhill to collect water from River Mpanga. It is a common practice to find these people playing, washing clothes, defecating and feeding their animals on this spacious water source.

The local people often use the water collected from the river in its raw form which has led to the outbreak of water borne diseases such as dysentery, cholera, typhoid etc.
After realizing that there is need for clean water, the management of Rwenzori Solidarity Trust in consultation with the local leaders and the community has resolved to pool resources and contact well-wishers who include you as its partners to start a programme of Constructing Rain water tanks and start tapping rain water from our roofs.
The community has found out that the benefits of rain water harvesting are considerable and will offer plenty of return on investment.

We have seen that if we invest in rain water harvesting, we shall be able to collect most of the rain that falls on our roofs if it is connected to the gutters and down pipes. For example, if 10mm2 of rain falls onto about 100m2 of one’s roof, one will collect about 1000 Litre of rain water into ones water tank. Just imagine, after 4 days of light rain one could easily harvest around 4000 Litres of rain water.
We would like to Construct 6 Rainwater harvesting Tanks for our population so that the neighbors can come and collect safe water from these tanks for free. This water will be used for drinking and for other domestic uses.

Due to lack of sufficient amounts of water it is a common practice to find someone eating without washing his/her hands. This practice has led to the outbreak of diseases. If we construct Rain water tanks then we shall reduce on the incidence of disease outbreak.
We are targeting rural households that are at risk of contracting water, sanitation and hygiene related diseases in the two Sub Counties of Karambi and Bukuuku. These Sub Counties` among other things are to benefit in increased sanitation facilities and capacity building to improve our sanitation and hygiene situations.

Each household shall be required to have a Tippy Tap on its toilet in order for the members to wash hands after using the latrine. We cannot achieve real development if our people continue to live in unhealthy and unclean surroundings lacking to adequate sanitation and hygiene. To achieve our Millennium Development Goal targets by 2015 we must make supreme efforts to ensure that every household has access to safe, hygienic latrine and hand washing facility.75% of the disease burden in Uganda is preventable and mostly sanitation and hygiene related.

Access to improved sanitation services contributes to attainment of other development goals. “A dollar invested in sanitation equals nine dollars in return. Let us all work together promoting good sanitation because this is a source of peoples dignity, self esteem, good health, equality and development for all”

The community shall have access to the water collected in these water Tanks. We shall have to set up Water User Committees to oversee the maintenance of these Rainwater Tanks and to report to the Executive Committee of anything that requires repair.