John Kyrle High School pupil, Elic Wales entered this year’s Ross-on-Wye Carnival Parade to highlight the lengths that people living in our Ugandan twin town have to go to obtain drinking water. Often it will be the children of the community who are sent off with the ubiquitous yellow containers to collect water from the nearest pump.

Over the 25 years of links between the towns, the people of Ross have contributed generously towards many projects including the provision of additional wells and a pump. This has made a positive difference to the health and welfare of families in the town.

These yellow containers are an enduring symbol of water poverty in Namutumba Region. On their last visit, Elic’s family brought two back to Ross to raise awareness of this issue.

Elic’s father told the Ross Gazette that the distance many children walk to collect fresh water is about the same as the carnival route and the temperature would be about the same as it was on Carnival day too.