Igor is our water, sanitation, and hygiene specialist for all of ARC. He traveled to Kyangwali Refugee Settlement with a team ARC colleagues to answer one question – how might we help more everyday people in the settlement access and use clean, safe water?
There’s a quiet emergency happening in Kyangwali, with over 60,000 new refugees from Congo who have arrived in the past few months. Resources there are stretched. Igor and the team have long term plans to find a solution, and help these new arrivals get the services they deserve.
But, in the meantime, they also have some doable ideas in mind…some quick, low-cost solutions that will have a big impact on families right away. Their first idea? Water filters.
Igor and the team concentrated their efforts on one particular community in Kyangwali that was pretty remote – about an hour’s drive from the entrance of the camp.
“Sometimes they don’t have any other option but to get water from the stream, which can lead to sickness” he said. “This filtration system will allow people to treat and disinfect their own water.”
The team gave out over 1,000 of these filters, allowing almost this entire community to feel a little more confident in the water they’re drinking – and giving to their kids.
“It’s a short term solution,” said Igor. “But it’s something. It’s a big something.”
