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Country Director, Uganda
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Introduction from the country director
Uganda officeAddress and phone to add
Our work in Uganda
In Uganda, RAFIKI works through local partnerships. Our first two boreholes are being built now, in Kampala and at Kitgum School in northern Uganda, and each will be looked after by the community it serves.
What we do
Who we serve
Where we work
Where our first wells are
Our first wells are in Kampala and at a school in Kitgum, northern Uganda. For now the pins mark each town; we will move them to the exact sites once these are recorded.
Place data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
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Our impact in Uganda
RAFIKI has worked in Uganda since 2025.
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Kampala and Kitgum
Our first wells in Uganda
Our first two boreholes in Uganda are being built now: one in Kampala and one at a school in Kitgum, in the Acholi sub-region of northern Uganda. Follow them here from site survey to first water.
Name of the local partner, the people each well will serve, and photos as they arrive, to add
Beyond the well
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Under way, next and recent
Projects in Uganda
Projects in Uganda
Completed
Project name, place, year
People served
Active
Project name, place, year
People served
Upcoming
Project name, place, year
People served
Community stories
Our first Ugandan wells are still being built. Photos and stories will appear here once the water is flowing.
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- Two or three written stories from Uganda, each with a photo and a few words from the community
The need for safe water in Uganda
In Uganda the problem is less often drinking from rivers, and more often how far people must go for water, especially in the north, where our school well in Kitgum is being built.
23%
of Ugandans rely on an improved source, such as a borehole or tap, that takes more than 30 minutes per round trip, the highest share of the four countries where we work.
WHO/UNICEF JMP, 202459%
of people in Acholi, the sub-region that includes Kitgum, have a basic water service, compared with 97% in Kampala.
Uganda MIS, 20246%
of people in Acholi have water at home, against 76% in Kampala. Six in ten rely on community boreholes.
Uganda MIS, 2024Over 1 in 4
handpumps studied in Uganda, Ethiopia and Malawi were out of action at any one time.
MacAllister et al., 2022Only about 4% of Ugandans drink surface water, far fewer than in Kenya. But nearly 1 in 4 rely on a borehole, tap or protected spring more than 30 minutes away, including queuing. In a 2024 survey only 11% said their main water source was in their own compound, and half had gone without enough clean water at least once in the previous year. In rural areas, fewer than 1 in 10 people (9.8%) have safely managed water.
Sources: WHO/UNICEF JMP, 2024 · Afrobarometer, 2026
Our first two wells sit at either end of the country’s water divide. In Kampala almost everyone has a basic service (97%), although only 40% of people in Uganda’s towns have safely managed water. In Acholi, the northern sub-region that includes Kitgum, 59% have a basic service and only 6% have water at home. In the dry season some Kitgum boreholes run dry: in 2022, residents of Kiteny sub-county were walking more than 7 km to a water tank.
Sources: Uganda MIS, 2024 · WHO/UNICEF JMP, 2024 · Uganda Radio Network, 2022
Rural Uganda runs on boreholes with hand pumps, drilled into hard basement rock and typically 45–70 metres deep. Keeping them working matters as much as drilling them: in a study of handpump boreholes in Uganda, Ethiopia and Malawi, more than a quarter were out of action at any one time, and 53% of galvanised rising pipes were corroded.
Sources: BGS Africa Groundwater Atlas · MacAllister et al., 2022
“Basic” water means an improved source, such as a borehole, protected well or tap, that takes 30 minutes or less to reach and collect from, including queuing. “Safely managed” means water at home, available when needed and free from contamination. National surveys (DHS) and WHO/UNICEF estimates are measured differently, so their figures can differ slightly.
Current needs in Uganda
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