Prior to 2015, Western Tanzania’s Nyarugusu refugee camp was home to approximately 65,000 refugees from Democratic Republic of the Congo. The original water systems, installed decades prior, only offered intermittent access to treated water. Then, between the spring and fall of 2015, more than 100,000 refugees arrived after escaping violence in Burundi. This influx put an incredible strain on the aging infrastructure, and safe water was the greatest need.
A humanitarian nightmare unfolded, prompting Water Mission to deploy 10 emergency water treatment systems in September 2015. These systems met the daily safe water needs of an estimated 50,000 refugees.
A year into the emergency relief operation, we received a grant from the Grundfos Foundation to install solar-powered pumping solutions to serve the entire camp. Today, these provide safe water to every man, woman, and child at the camp.
In March 2021, six years after this groundbreaking relief effort, some of the original equipment returned to Water Mission’s headquarters. During our annual Strategic Partners Event, we returned this best-in-class equipment to our partners.
This equipment served tens of thousands of people every day for years in Western Tanzania. It was part of a project that involved sourcing raw, highly contaminated water from the Kaga River, treating the water, and distributing it throughout Nyarugusu refugee camp.
Thanks to our faithful partners, lifegiving safe water continues to flow for hundreds of thousands of refugees in Western Tanzania. We thank these corporate partners for their dedication to quality. They allowed us to respond with safe water solutions in one of the most challenging environments in the world.
