Impacts of a Well

Nashibiso Primary School, located on the eastern side of Mbale City in Wanale (foothills of Mt. Elgon), was the beneficiary of a borehole, funded by the Jewel Foundation. As of February 2019, the school has 1250 children (680 girls and 580 boys) with 19 teachers. Eight of the teachers live on the campus with their families. In February 2019, Grace Burleson, MAPLE Uganda’s Director of Innovation, interviewed Michael Wekwanya Wangwe, the school’s headmaster (equivalent to school principle in the U.S). The aim was to learn about the technologies the school had access to related to clean water and cooking. Ultimately, the school struggles with the burden. Below is an edited and summarized transcription of the interview:

Burleson: Who are the beneficiaries of the borehole? Who uses it?

Wangwe: There are four types of beneficiaries: (1) Teachers and their families who live at the school. (2) Children who attend the school; they use the water mainly for drinking but also to wash their hands/feet. The kitchen, who cooks for ~100 kids, benefits from collecting water. It is also easier to clean and maintain the sanitation facilities. (3) Community members; about 40-50 people come to the borehole to collect water each day. We open the gates to the community from 6-8am and then 5:30-7pm. I had considered regulating the borehole and charging a small fee to collect, but that would never work here, since borehole water is considered free in Uganda and it would be very selfish to not allow the neighbors to benefit as well. (4) Christian communities who hold conferences at the school. A few times a year, during holidays when kids are home, we open our space to churches to host conferences. We don’t charge these groups to use our space, but they usually donate something in return (painting classrooms, donating furniture, for example). While they are here, they have access to the borehole for drinking, cooking, washing, etc.

GB: Before the borehole was installed, what was the water situation here?

MWW: We have taps connected to the city water, which cost us ~200,000-300,000 shs (~54-82 usd) a month, depending on how much we used (higher during dry seasons, lower during rainy seasons). However, sometimes we couldn’t afford the bill, especially since the cost fluctuated. During the last few years, the city shut off our taps a few different times, since we couldn’t pay. Once we collected enough money, we would pay the bills and get the water back, but it was a huge economic and health burden for us.

GB: How is the school funded? What are your budgets like?

MWW: Nashibiso is considered a government funded school, however, it’s not nearly enough for us to provide education to over 1000 kids. By the time we pay teachers’ salary, security costs, and purchase books or supplies (pens, paper, etc.), we quickly run out of the funds. Because of this, we ask parents to contribute 20,000 shs (~5.25 usd) each term (3 months), which is low compared to other public schools in Mbale. However, almost all our kids come from Mt. Elgon villages, rather than town, which means parents struggle to afford this. Each term, there are many parents that can’t contribute, but we never send kids home because of this. Additionally, there are many orphans; for example, a parent may be sending 10 kids to our school, with half being orphans who stay with them. So we can’t expect them to pay the fee for all the kids. Sometimes churches or NGOs will contribute by sponsoring the kids whose parents can’t pay, but this comes and goes and is not a regular revenue stream for us.

GB: Do you provide lunch for the students? What are the costs of providing meals?

MWW: It is a government policy that schools offer services to provide meals to the students. Schools can either budget meals in the term school fees or charge an additional fee (which means that only kids with parents who can afford this each lunch). Due to our budget concerns, we do the latter and charge 40,000 shs (~10.50 usd) per term. About 100 kids each lunch on our campus (we cook mainly posho and beans). The other kids either go out to buy snacks or chapati, but there are many who don’t each lunch at all and wait for supper when they return home. In addition to the costs of the posho and beans, we spend about 300,000 shs (~82 usd) per month on firewood for the stoves (which are open-fire). We used to have to pay for the water to cook, but now we just collect from the borehole for free.