Turkish Red Crescent donates solar-powered water wells to district in Uganda

The Turkish Red Crescent (TRC) has donated 20 solar-powered water wells to the people of Kayunga district in central Uganda.

The wells will benefit more than 100 households and their suffering will be alleviated, Selçuk Öztürk, the head of international projects and programs at the TRC, said Monday.

"In cooperation with the Uganda Red Cross Society, we have opened 20 water wells -- this is in addition to the others we opened in 2021 -- to address the challenges of access to safe, clean water," said Öztürk.

"Each water well has a 10-cubic-meter water storage tank and 15 taps with the capacity to supply 3,500 every day," he added.

Uganda's Minister for Water and Environment, Sam Cheptoris, said recently that water stress due to scarcity and poor water quality negatively affects public health, food security, livelihood choices and educational opportunities for poor families. He added that an integrated approach is necessary to address these challenges and to ensure sustainable and safe water access for more resilient societies.

A spatial map developed by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) indicates that almost a quarter of the Ugandan population still lacks access to safe and clean water.

The water crisis affects people in rural areas more than it does those in urban areas. People in some rural areas travel more than 30 minutes to access safe drinking water. The excessive amount of time people spend on water collection hinders their ability to work and affects the economy.