The Western Uganda Baptist Theological College (WUBTC) is located in Kiburara, Kasese district, Uganda. WUBTC was founded in 1990 with the assistance of WorldVenture (formely CBInternational) and is now run by national leadership with limited support from WorldVenture. The college trains pastors and their wives for ministry in rural Uganda through a two year theological training program during which the pastors and their families live at the campus. Currently, the campus can house and train up to 20 families.

In rural Uganda, church congregations can rarely provide enough financial support to meet the physical needs of their pastor pastors. Therefore, pastors typically grow their own crops to feed their families while pastoring their churches. In order to follow the same model, WUBTC requires that the pastors grow their own crops during the time that they train at the college. This allows for a decrease in the tuition at WUBTC (the approximate operating budget for the college is only $2500 annually) as well as training pastors for the same type of future they will experience in the villages.

The college owns 23.6 acres of fertile property of which approximately 4 acres contain the academic and residential portion of the campus and the remainder is dedicated towards agriculture. In this area of Uganda, there are typically two growing seasons. During the shorter of the two growing seasons, rainfall is not always consistent leading to years when there is not enough rain to sustain the crops. Recently, crops have failed during this shorter growing season approximately every other year. When the crops fail, there is not enough food for the pastors to feed their families. WUBTC has started to gain a reputation as a place where students may face food shortages, causing enrollment to decrease. If there is no sustainable solution, the whole college may have to close.

In addition, the drinking (potable) water supply is inconsistent and unreliable. Water is occasionally supplied to WUBTC from a local hospital. When water is not supplied by the hospital the fall-back water supply is a river, approximately 2,300 feet away which is of variable quality. Water from the river is carried in 5 gallon containers up a steep grade to the college. Water from the river requires purification (via boiling or chemical disinfection) which requires significant resources.

It is within this Darrie Turner of WorldVenture requested assistance from Engineering Ministries International's East Africa office (eMI EA) to evaluate the feasibility of, and provide a basic design for a water system at WUBTC to provide assurance of sustainable crops at the college as well as a reliable, high-quality drinking water source.