OUR PROJECTS:

1.The Nile Transboundary Action Project

2.Namuyamba Integrated Rainwater Harvesting Project.

3.Promoting Community Based Environment Based Environmental Management in Nakivale Settlement in Isingiro District.

THE NILE TRANSBOUNDARY ACTION PROJECT 

Introduction

The Nile basin initiative is a partnership initiated and led by the riparian states of the Nile river through the council of the ministers of water affairs of the Nile basin states of which Uganda is one. The vision of the NBI is to,” Achieve sustainable socio-economic development through the equitable utilization of and benefit from the common Nile basin water resources.” Sango bay Forest reserve in Rakai district in Uganda forms one of the major catchment areas of the Nile river and lake Victoria in Uganda. It covers 131 Km² in Uganda alone although it also extends to Tanzania. Until…….year the forest was a source of income from crafts, charcoal, brick-making and timber;water; fuel wood; land for cultivation; and fish. , to the local communities. Gazetting of the forest as a forest reserve was done in an effort to keep a health catchment area for rive Nile. However to the local communities this automatically meant the loss of access to important forest resources. 

Project overview

Loss of forest resources has led to increased poverty levels among communities living around Sango Bay forest. Increased poverty levels cause farmers to degrade the environment by practising unsustainable income generating activities such as charcoal burning, rampart brick making which deplete trees on the farm land and in the forests and destroy top soil. Bush burning which is mostly practised by pastoralist and some farmers during the dry season accelerates the rate of soil degradation through erosion. This, coupled with prevalent shortage of land leads to poor yields and poverty among the subsisting communities. 

The project in Rakai district is therefore intended to improve livelihoods through building the capacity of CBOs  to offer services and lead communities in demanding for services that will lead to mitigation of losses of forest resources that communities have been utilizing until Sango Bay forest was gazetted; those that will improve productivity of land as well as those that will lead to improved health.  

Poverty is one of the major causes of environment degradation in the Nile basin. IRDI is working with three community based organizations (CBOs) in three parishes Minziro, Kasensero and Mugamba Mujanjabula. The CBOs are trained in skills of resource mobilization, lobbying, networking, report writing and community mobilization among others. The skills are intended to increase the influence of CBOs so that they can initiate development and reduce poverty levels in the area.  In addition IRDI works to create lasting linkages between the CBOs and the local leadership in order to pave a way for lobbying for services by the CBOs and communities at large. Among the services which have been identified as critical are safe water, toilets, fertilizers, income and fuelwood. 

In addition IRDI builds the capacity of partner CBOs directly by monitoring their activities and offering technical support in areas of report writing, project monitoring and financial management.  

Objectives

Objective 1: Community Resource Plan established during the first project month. 

Objective 2: Capacity needs of 5 CBOs in implementing community resource plans through initiating and managing community based projects established during the first project month.  

Objective 3: CBOs are able to initiate and manage projects by the end of the project year. 

Activities

Facilitate the making of Community Resource Management Plans for the three beneficiary parishes.

Oversee monitoring activities of beneficiary activities.

Facilitate beneficiary CBOs to submit acceptable reports to donor agency.

NAMAYUMBA INTEGRATED RAINWATER HARVESTING PROJECT

 Introduction

IRDI is a partner to WaterAid. Together with Wakiso District in Uganda, the partnership is focusing on developing and documenting good practices and approaches towards household water supplies with specific focus on rainwater harvesting. The two year which started in April, 2006 aims at improving the quality of lives among the people of Namayumba in Wakiso district of Central Uganda.    

Project Overview:

In Namayumba sub-county, 3000 people do not have access to safe water and adequate sanitation. The sub-county is the least served in the district with safe water coverage trailing at 29% far below the district average of 55%. The vulnerable people are specially targeted. Among these are the blind, orphans, widows and the old. The project mobilizes the community to participate in the implementation and management of project activities. Safe hygiene practices are promoted as a way of conserving water resources through minimizing contamination. 

Low cost war jars are promoted for purposes of harvesting rain water. The jars are made using ready-made wooden frames which makes them easy to duplicate. The other materials used to make the jar include mud and water. The jar which has a capacity of 1500 litres can easily be made by women. This is important because it is the women and children who fetch water for household use.  

In order to reduce incidences of water borne diseases, the communities are trained in safe practices of handling water. These include hand washing and proper storage of drinking water. The project also encourages households top construct pit latrines. Ecosan toilets are particularly promoted because the area is stony and it is difficult to construct deep and lasting pit latrines. 

Community participation is encouraged at administrative and household levels. At the administrative level, IRDI organizes meetings with district and sub-county officials to review project activities and assess the contribution of other players in the water sector within the district. Such players include other Civil Society Organizations working in the sub-county, Department of Water Development and the district water and health offices. A sub-county network initiated by the district was formed. The district administration contributes to project success through community mobilization, enforcing bye-laws on sanitation and leading the sub-county’s network of stakeholders in the water sector. IRDI plays a coordination role and contributes to the sub-county budget for water development at this level. 

At the community level the project offers community training in construction of water tanks and Ecosan toilets as well as safe hygiene practices the major one being hand washing. Communities are grouped in clusters each of 10 households. Each cluster is given a cluster leader who is trained in monitoring and monitors the progress of each household in the acquisition and use of water harvesting jars, Ecosan toilets, pit latrines, bathrooms, kitchen racks and hand washing facilities. Monthly community review meetings are organized by IRDI to discuss community progress as depicted in cluster monitoring results. Mason are trained to make the water jars and other cheap facilities that promoted good hygiene and sanitation practices in homes and public places such as schools. 

Objectives

Water:

·                    Safe and adequate water supply at household level.

·                    Safe water supply for at least 1 school with a population of 164 children.

Hygiene:

·                    increased community awareness of the three safe hygiene practices namely safe water chain, excreta management and hand washing in order to decrease incidence of diseases among at  900 people including 164 school children

Sanitation:

·                    Increase community access to safe sanitation.

·                    improve sanitation in 1 primary school

Community Development:

·                    Build community capacity towards management of integrated projects.

·                    Documentation and sharing of experiences with the sub-county, district and Technical support unit on Water and Ecosanitation best operation practices..

Activities

Construction of 42 rainwater harvesting facilities (40 jars, 2 ferro-cement tanks)

Rehabilitation and improvement of 4 wells

Promotion of safe excreta disposal and hand washing among households

Construction of 20 low0cost eco-san toilets

Construction of 1 improved pit-latrine for 1 school

Train communities in operation and maintenance of project outputs

Conduct an exposure visit for ECOSAN beneficiaries.

PROMOTING COMMUNITY BASED ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN NAKIVALE SETTLEMENT IN ISINGIRO DISTRICT 

Introduction

The project is intended to restore the natural environment in refugee hosting areas of Isingiro district in Uganda. About 378km² are occupied by over 22,000 refugees from 8 countries of Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Burundi, Rwanda and Congo. Under the self reliance strategy of the UNHCR refugees are supported to be self reliant in terms of shelter, food and income as opposed to dependence on hand outs. Use of land, forests, wetlands and the lake by refugees in Isingiro has led to widespread degradation of the environment. The project seeks to correct this degradation and to support refugees and nationals in using the environment in more friendly and profitable ways. 

Project overview 

Uganda has a generous refugee policy where refugees are placed in spacious village-like settlements. Here each refugee household is allocated a plot of land for shelter and agriculture. This differs remarkably from other countries where refugees are placed in squeezed concentration camps where their wellbeing entirely depends on costly handouts from relief workers. However, the village settlement mode with its great benefits to refugees and the donor community incurs high costs to the country of asylum in form of increased and unsustainable resource utilization, land and general environmental degradation. For Uganda in particular, the impact on the environment is increasing presently since the minimum program of the Self-Reliance Strategy is being expanded to include development assistance to refugees and refugee-hosting communities. This implies that refugees no longer clear land and use other natural resources to meet food and shelter requirements alone, but in addition they stress the environment because they depend on it for income in order to meet other needs. For this reason Uganda’s national environmental policy and legislation requires sustainable environment and natural resources management in all refugee operations inclusive of emergency, care and maintenance and post-repatriation environmental rehabilitation. 

The area settled with refugees in Isingiro District is made of steep undulating hills with rocky tops prone to soil erosion. This area formerly well covered with tree vegetation is at present depleted of vegetation cover as a result of increased demand for woody biomass for cooking and construction. In addition large chunks of land are cleared for settlement and cultivation. The large herds of livestock kept by the nationals and refugees overgraze the area. Also seasonal burning of bushes to cause new grass to grow leaves the land bare which further contributes to the soil erosion. 

1.2 Description of the beneficiary communities  

Nakivale Refugee Settlement was established in 1963 for Rwandese Refugees of the Tutsi origin and now has seven nationalities and these include people from Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Eritrea. The breakdown of the refugee as per 30^th December, 2006   

The population statistics as of 30^th December 2006 

 NB: Taking into consideration the population of the surrounding nationals of approximately 21,000, we can approximate the beneficiary population at 43,448 people.  

1.3  Implementation Arrangements 

The project is overseen by the Office of the Prime Minister, UNHCR and the District Environment Office of Isingiro. Since the implementation strategy for environmental activities in 2006 had been refocused to reflect discontinuation of funding from the UNHCR annual budget and to anticipate future financial constraints, current environmental activities reflect a shift from capital-intensive activities requiring long-term management by implementing partners to low-cost but effective activities requiring short-term management by implementing partners and long-term management by the beneficiaries. Refugees have now been trained to plant and manage trees as opposed to the original arrangement where IRDI planted and maintained woodlots. 

Activities to enable beneficiaries’ access services (sanitation, safe water, better education), much more easily have been emphasized.The development of a clear environment action plan was undertaken jointly between the

Implementing Partner (IRDI) communities, the district and partner IPs. 

 IRDI is to assist in negotiating collaborative agreements for management of woodland areas, woodlots and plantations, strengthening production and environment committees at parish, sub-county and district levels.  

1.4  Specific Objectives

The objectives of the sub- project are as follows;

1.      To alleviate the level of current environmental degradation in Nakivale and adjacent villages.

2.      To promote appropriate techniques, this would contribute to site regeneration for the benefit of refugee and local communities.

3.      To strengthen the participatory community environmental management planning in refugee hosting areas through training and capacity building of communities and relevant local authorities and  to incorporate other tools like environmental assessment, Rapid Environment Assessment, Environmental Indicator Framework, GIS and evaluation for proper Monitoring and evaluation.

Activities

Construct 3000 stoves

Train 200 individuals in the construction of Rocket Lorena stove

Training 3000 households in stove maintenance and kitchen energy management

Revision of the community environment action plan which was made in the previous phase of the project

Integration of the community environment action plan in district environment plan

Support community tree nurseries to become viable income generating projects

Train refugees in tree grafting

Produce a variety of tree seedlings in accordance to demand

Give awards and presents to best performers in environment conservation

Train 20 members of environment committees in the use of assessment and

 Produce 1000 posters with environmental messages

Produce 1000 brochures with environmental messages

Sensitize 5000 people including new refugees, on environmental issues

 Train 1000 households (using direct training and demonstrations) in agroforestry practices

Set  up 10 demonstration farms in 10 zones for soil and water conservation practices

Establish 100 hectares of community managed woodlots

Vacate all refugees and nationals from Lake Nakivale shores and affected wetlands

Establish a buffer zone for lake Nakivale and surrounding wetlands

Establish three groups of beekeepers

Establish 3 demonstration apiaries