KAMPALA: The National Water and Sewerage Corporation inaugurated the School Water and Sanitation (SWAS) Club in 2014 with the aim of fueling the discussion about issues affiliated to Water, Sanitation and the Environment among school going children, a demographic most vulnerable and yet most effective and sustainable in ensuring that solutions are arrived at to save the future.
A team from the committee led by Kampala Water’s Senior Legal Officer, Ms. Brownie Ebal, therefore, rendezvoused at Greenhill Academy, one of the pioneer SWAS member schools, to ascertain different activities that can help in expanding the SWAS programme to all other demographic with an emphasis on restoring and rehabilitating the environment under the theme “Every home in Kampala should have at least one tree in their compound”.
In her remarks, Ms. Ebal tasked students to develop different content, and post them on different social media platforms to start the conversation.
The Green Hill Academy Secondary SWAS Patron, Ms. Victoria Mwesigwa, echoed that her students had been at work and boasted of various programmes already in the pipeline in relation to the protection of the environment like; tree planting, water source protection, sanitation, and more. She appreciated NWSC’s drive to battle environmental abuse and pledged to back the corporation up with her ambassadors.
Alluding to the recent Ebola outbreak in Mubende District, Ms. Mwesigwa also advised the team to create promotional material that they can use to create more awareness of Ebola and also create means to overcome the challenge of low levels of technology, especially in rural areas such that they can spate on the number of environment ambassadors for sustainable development.
According to students at the Academy, the SWAS initiative has enabled them to build confidence in fighting for the environment. It has also become an instrument to coordinate and reach out to the vulnerable.
Ms. Ebal hinted at upcoming activities which include but are not limited to; an intellectual debate in February 2023, a convention, and Forum.
Notably, all parties came to a consensus to have a tree planting drive where over 200 fruit trees will be given out and planted.
Note that NWSC is running a tree planting campaign dubbed “The NWSC Green Tree-volution” aimed at planting at least 10 Million trees by 2023, in which SWAS is a partner. The green revolution is clearly bound to be a success.
