{"id":5070,"date":"2026-07-13T11:26:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T09:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/horemi.org\/en\/?p=5070"},"modified":"2026-07-13T11:56:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T09:56:01","slug":"sos-no-water-is-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/horemi.org\/en\/sos-no-water-is-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"SOS\u2014no water is coming!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Uganda has a growing water problem. Either there is too much of it or too little. Either there are floods or there is a water shortage. A few weeks ago, HOREMI, too, was in danger of running dry.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since late 2024, HOREMI has had its own \u201cbore\u00adhole,\u201d a simple hand-oper\u00adated pump well. However, just a few months after it was built, the first repairs to the well shaft wall and pump were already necessary\u2014as well as the first deep\u00adening of the well shaft from 17 to over 20 meters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of this year, the water flow became scarcer again, until it nearly dried up completely in June. As an imme\u00addiate solu\u00adtion, HOREMI had no choice but to deepen the existing bore\u00adhole once more. It took over seven addi\u00adtional meters to reach drink\u00adable water. The neces\u00adsary finan\u00adcial support for this came once again from the \u201cFriends of HOREMI\u201d\u2014that is, from you, the donors. And no sooner had the money been received than the workers arrived with mate\u00adrials, tools, and a good dose of courage \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A gener\u00adator-powered submersible pump draws out the initial water so that the fear\u00adless
man can continue digging at the bottom of the shaft, which is over 20 meters deep.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Climate change is likely a major cause of the water shortage. Prolonged dry spells prevent the replen\u00adish\u00adment of ground\u00adwater. When the long-awaited rain finally comes, it increas\u00adingly takes the form of violent flash floods, which not only wash away soil and crops but can also destroy infra\u00adstruc\u00adture and cont\u00ada\u00adm\u00adi\u00adnate near-surface ground\u00adwater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addi\u00adtion, the crys\u00adtalline rock under\u00adground is not very perme\u00adable, which is why wells often refill only slowly after water is drawn from them. And there are signif\u00adi\u00adcant regional differ\u00adences in deep ground\u00adwater: In the Buyanga area, where HOREMI is located, ground\u00adwater coverage is only 32 percent, while in Namalemba\u2014less than 20 kilo\u00adme\u00adters away\u2014it is 95 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new pump pipes are care\u00adfully screwed together and installed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In total, there are 565 offi\u00adcial water points in the Bugweri district; however, some of them have been aban\u00addoned because they dried up perma\u00adnently or because main\u00adte\u00adnance and repairs were too expen\u00adsive. At the same time, due to the growing popu\u00adla\u00adtion, water demand and the number of illegal bore\u00adholes are increasing dramat\u00adi\u00adcally, which is also placing chronic strain on ground\u00adwater reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drying up of the HOREMI well was likely due to a combi\u00adna\u00adtion of all these factors. Although the Ugandan govern\u00adment and aid orga\u00adni\u00adza\u00adtions are working to improve the water supply\u2014reportedly, new water pipes, storage tanks, and solar-powered pumps are planned\u2014there is no sign of any of this in the vicinity of HOREMI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After ten days of hard work, the shaft is finished, and the pump can be rein\u00adstalled.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Deep\u00adening a well shaft cannot be repeated indef\u00adi\u00adnitely and is a very labo\u00adrious and dangerous proce\u00addure, as noted in our article from March 2025<\/a>. While digging an addi\u00adtional three meters was successful during the first upgrade, this time it took over seven meters.  This brings the total depth of the well shaft to about 27 meters (that\u2019s equiv\u00ada\u00adlent to a 9\u2011story high building!), which does not make pumping the water any easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HOREMI boy Ayubu is happy that the water is flowing again.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Never\u00adthe\u00adless, there is great relief at HOREMI that the precious, life-sustaining water is now flowing again. Let\u2019s hope that climate change and falling ground\u00adwater levels don\u2019t put this problem back on the agenda anytime soon \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Would you like to give the chil\u00addren of HOREMI a helping hand? You can donate quickly and easily here<\/a>. Thank you very much!<\/mark>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

You can find all the ways to support HOREMI on our dona\u00adtions page.<\/a><\/strong><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although Horemi has had its own pump well for a year and a half, the falling ground\u00adwater level is unfor\u00adtu\u00adnately threat\u00adening the reli\u00adable supply of this precious resource.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":5073,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horemi"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/horemi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/horemi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/horemi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horemi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horemi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5070"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/horemi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5086,"href":"https:\/\/horemi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070\/revisions\/5086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horemi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/horemi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horemi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/horemi.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}