"Surely I could not understand what he meant because in Nakyerongosa village, community members had grown up using the pond and we were well aware that pond water was not safe but we had nothing to do. This is because ponds are so open that they are also used by cows and they collect lots of dirt like runoff water.

Kakiri sub-county had promised the community members safe water and they managed to give us a bore hole that used to serve over 390 people including a primary school. So accessing this safe water meant war. I and my girls had to wake up at 5.00 a.m to get in the line early enough so that they could leave for school in time. However, every one woke up the same time. We could find over 60 people already in the line and getting this water became a problem because I could waste a lot of time so I gave up and went back to my pond. However, this water was brown in color and was not good for consumption but I had nothing to do. It had actually made my white clothes dirty and I had also given up on wearing bright colors.

When our local leaders informed us that COMASA was coming to assist us to construct a hand dug well it was like a dream come true. I eagerly waited for them to come and all my village members were waiting to hear what they were planning to do. I remember very well what the water engineer said! He wanted full participation of all the people who were going to benefit from the water source and he encouraged us to mobilize the local materials which we needed in less than a week. We badly needed the safe water.

During construction, men, women and the children actively participated and we all enjoyed what we were doing. In two and half weeks we had completed our shallow well. This is our well since we all invested in our energies and hence we love it and we shall work hard to maintain it such that we do not go back to the ponds.

This new shallow well has saved our time. The competition for safe water is no longer there in our community since the number of users is just enough.

I am so grateful to COMASA and would like to appeal to it to assist other communities in Nakyerongosa so that they also get relief from the problems that we were facing."