Greg Force's Report - February 2017

During this year’s trip we went to two South Sudanese refugee camps located in northwest Uganda. (We went to these camps due to the conflict in South Sudan, which prevented us from going to our original planned destination in Pibor or Pochalla, South Sudan.)

Having received reports of potential potable water shortages within the refugee camps, I previously visited WaterStep, an NGO in Louisville, Kentucky and learned how to operate their chlorine generator and bleach maker for disinfecting water and sanitizing. The chlorine generator uses a 12-volt car battery and salt to produce chlorine gas that is injected into the water to kill waterborne pathogens and can treat up to 10,000 gallons of water per day. The bleach maker produces a gallon of medical grade bleach at a concentration of 5,000 parts per million using only water, salt and a 12-volt DC battery.

With support from Saxe Gotha’s Change for Sudan ministry, I purchased a chlorine generator, bleach maker and supporting equipment and brought them to the refugee settlement camps. There are limited water sources for the over 300,000 South Sudanese refugees who have fled to Ugandan refugee camps since August 2016 with an average of 4,000 additional refugees arriving daily.

I was able to train refugees and camp personnel to set up and operate the chlorine generator. Based on an assessment of the water resources, it was determined that an optimal use for the chlorine generator was to treat rainwater captured in cisterns. Camp personnel at both settlements received training for the bleach maker. They immediately identified the savings that could be achieved by producing their own bleach to disinfect water storage tanks and jerry cans.

The Rhino Camp, where we worked for three days, is struggling to provide drinking water to its 86,000 refugees. In the Wanyange village that we visited, over 5000 villagers are relying on a single borehole for all their water needs. By installing and training people to use the chlorine generator to purify water, the potable water available was increased by a factor of five to 50,000 gallons per day.

Two by-products are produced during the chlorination process: lye which they can use to accelerate the decomposition of human waste in their latrines and liquid chlorine that can be used as a house hold disinfectant. The volunteer from the village plans to sell these two products to receive compensation for his efforts with treating the water and keeping the system operating.

During our last two days at the Bidi Bidi camp I conducted training for water chlorination and bleach making. The bleach maker was left with the head WASH Coordinator so that they can begin using it to disinfect their water storage tanks and jerry cans. Two other teams included a doctor and three nurses with the medical mission team who served the medical needs of 600 South Sudanese Refugees and provided 400 people with reading glasses.

The theological team distributed 150 Talking Bibles in their own language to South Sudanese pastors, evangelists and women leaders from multiple South Sudanese denominations.

Trauma healing seminars were also conducted for the pastors who are personally struggling with violence and atrocities that they have witnessed. With this vital assistance, they can begin helping their own congregations deal with the trauma inflicted upon them so that they may too begin the healing and reconciliation process.