Senior Reporter
The construction of a water tank and pit latrines at Kigaragara Vocational Secondary School in Kashumba, Bukanga, Isingiro district, Uganda, has been initiated through a collaboration between the Embassy of Japan and the non-governmental organization known as the Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development (ACORD). The project is estimated to cost 245 million Ugandan shillings.
During the groundbreaking ceremony at Kigaragara Vocational Secondary School, Mr. Najuna John, the program manager of ACORD in southwest Uganda, explained that the Japanese Embassy in Uganda is funding the project, which aims to address water scarcity and enhance hygiene and sanitation.
Najuna urged the school administrators, as well as stakeholders within the school community, including parents, to ensure regular monitoring and supervision of the project implementation. This is to ensure that quality work is delivered by the expected handover ceremony in November 2024, potentially attracting further funding.
He further outlined that the project, scheduled to be completed within ten months, will involve the construction of a rainwater harvesting tank with a capacity of three hundred thousand liters and ten latrine stalls.
Bukanga Begumya Julius, the head teacher of Kigaragara Vocational Secondary School, expressed gratitude to the donors for their contribution to addressing long-standing challenges faced by the school.
Begumya also thanked the Rt Rev Associate Prof Fred Sheldon Mwesigwa, the bishop of Ankole Diocese, for allowing the project to take place in the school under the diocese’s auspices.
Canon Rev Agasha Muhwezi, the Ankole Diocesan Education Secretary, called on ACORD to extend similar water, hygiene, and sanitation projects to other needy schools within the diocese, emphasizing that water scarcity is a widespread issue affecting many schools.
Rodoviko Byarugaba Kageere, representing the Isingiro district secretary for education and social services at the groundbreaking ceremony, emphasized the importance of the contractors delivering quality work commensurate with the investment in the project.
