Hatch Mansfield to renovate village water holes in Uganda

UK importer Hatch Mansfield has announced it is going to support the renovation of village water wells in Uganda as part of its efforts to cut carbon emissions.

The project was voted for by attendees to the Hatch Mansfield stand at the London Wine Fair last month.

The project will work to re-establish several boreholes in the districts of Alebtong, Kole and Dokolo in northern Uganda used by local people.

These districts were badly affected by the depravations of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army between 1987 and 2007 and the water pumps, pipes and wells that people need for clean drinking, cooking and cleaning water have fallen into disrepair.

As many as 60% of the people in the area have no access to clean water. People, in particular women, are forced to walk long distances to get the water they need for daily use and it needs to be boiled before drinking because it often polluted and full of dangerous bacteria.

Reliant on wood for fuel in order to do so, by providing them with clean water their need for and use of fuel will be less intensive.

The project will identify and repair many of these boreholes and supply a maintenance programme.

The project is the latest that the wine agency has undertaken. Last year it supported reforesting projects in the Amazon and Rift Valley.

And back in 2013 it partnered with the Woodland Trust in the UK to support woodland creation. So far this project has led to the planting of 6,500 native British trees and removed 1,150 tonnes of carbon.

Every year staff and customers are invited to choose a carbon offset project to help address the company’s carbon output.

In 2015 it received the ISO 14001 accreditation due to its work in offsetting its carbon footprint.