Uganda, March 24 -- At least 1,000 residents across Kiikuuta Village in Kakabara Sub-county, Kyegegwa District, are celebrating after finally getting a clean and protected water source for the first time in 90 years.

The residents, who have inhabited the area since before the country's 1962 independence, said "for generations, they have relied on water collected from runoffs along the roadside or endured over 15km-journeys to reach the Nyakabiso River."

Over the last near-century, residents have endured the burden of waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea and typhoid due to the lack of access to safe water, according to local authorities.

Sixty-year-old Kikuuta Village resident Joseph Bareekye told Monitor that "majority of his village ...