Wine to Water — Water in Karamoja

The context

Karamoja is one of the most arid and poorest regions in northeastern Uganda. 66% of the population lives below the poverty line. Access to clean water is limited, droughts are frequent and prolonged, and the lack of water in schools directly affects student attendance and the quality of education.

How it works

Wine to Water is the project through which Casa Costa Foundation ETS — together with ISP in Africa and, in some editions, STI Internazionale — intervenes each year on water access in Karamoja, adapting the type of intervention to the needs identified on the ground.

In 2023, an irrigation system was installed at the Gift of Mary Learning Centre in Katanaga: a motorised well, a 1,000-litre tank and 15 water points distributed across the garden. Result: 500 children with continuous access to vegetables and fruit even during the dry season.

In 2024 the intervention was broader: 22 wells repaired or rehabilitated — community, school and health centre wells — and 9 rainwater collection systems renewed in as many primary and secondary schools, with storage capacity increasing from 55,000 to 143,000 litres. Direct beneficiaries: over 51,000 people.

The overall numbers

Since 2017: over €42,500 invested, more than 20 schools and community structures reached, tens of thousands of people with improved access to clean water.

Why we do it

Water is the condition for everything else. Without clean water there is no hygiene, no health, no food, no school. In Karamoja, where everything is already harder, guaranteeing a functioning well or a rainwater collection system is not a symbolic gesture — it is the difference between a school that works and one that empties.

Casa Costa Foundation ETS is present in Karamoja through several interventions. Wine to Water is the one that guarantees the foundation: water, above all else.