Campus-wide Water Distribution Project Complete!
We are very excited to announce that the JPSS water project is now complete! Access to clean water has been an ongoing journey since the beginning of John Paul Secondary School in 2007. Initially our students and teachers would walk long distances to reach the community well in order to fill their Jerry cans of water needed for drinking and bathing.
After several attempts, we were successful in digging a functioning well on campus in 2015 which made the journey to retrieve much shorter for students and the local community alike. The hand pump served the campus well for a long time, but as the school community continued to grow, accessing water at just one point on campus became a large bottleneck.
This year in 2023, we contracted with the Ugandan Water Project to build a water distribution system. UWP initially performed pressure testing and water quality analysis and found that our existing well could produce enough water for the full campus as projected, while also providing for the primary school and access by the local community. They then designed a system replacing the hand pump with a solar power pump to continuously feed water up to two 10,000 liter tanks resting on a 6 meter high platform.
A grid of underground pipes were dug and placed throughout campus and extend to all the essential buildings on campus. The water will flow from the large storage tanks using gravity to take it to its destination.
Access points throughout campus now include:
- A 4 faucet tap stand near the current well
- Boys dormitory
- Girls dormitory
- Kitchen
- Science Center
- Rectory
- Handwashing station at Berrigan Hall
- Tap stand located just off campus for the local community to access
Imagine the impact for our students now that they can fill a basin of water for washing right from the tap to their dorm! They can now easily wash their hands before meals in Berrigan Hall. Water is available in the Biology and Chemistry labs for experiments and safety. Our cooks no longer have to carry water across campus for the preparation of each meal. And no more waiting in long lines to get water.
You have truly changed the lives of everyone on the campus of John Paul Secondary School and local Chelekura by giving them this gift of water!
