Rural water supply coverage in Uganda is currently estimated at 65% with the
unserved rural population relying on unimproved sources. To meet national and
international targets, the Ugandan government embarked on the „self supply
approach‟. However, no study has been carried to assess how effective the initiatives
are in providing water to rural communities. Data were collected through key
informant interviews, field visits, water quality sampling and focus group
discussions. A total of 84 households, 11 institutions and 18 water user committees
were interviewed. Hand-dug wells (27.4%), ferrocement tanks (56.6%) and protected
springs (16%) form the different forms of self supply in Bugiri with an average
functionality rate of 86.7%. Need for clean safe water and long distances to the few
available conventional sources were the main drivers for self supply. Mean per capita
daily water use for households with self supply sources increased from 10.6 litres to
17.6 litres at an average distance of 5.7 meters to a household self supply source.
Increase in the amount of water obtained at household level resulted into improved
hygiene (46.3%), reduced incidences of water borne diseases (17.9%), reduced costs
on water (6.3%) and income generation (23.2%).