Update #10: World Water Day, new partnerships and a lot of plants

Henri is back from his visit to Uganda. He was invited by the Ministry of Water and Environment to join the “Uganda Water and Environment Week”. On behalf of Bamboo Village Uganda he spoke about the possibilities of bamboo to stop erosion, to filter water, to stabilize water levels and how it can be used as a sustainable material to build houses, furniture and other products. It was a very valuable visit and enabled us to expand our network with NGO’s, farmers, growers, architects and product developers.

During the Uganda Water and Environment Week, World Water Day took place on Friday, March 22nd. Worldwide there are still billions of people who lack access to safe water. The United Nations want to bring this number back to zero by 2030, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. In total there are 17 Sustainable Development Goals, access to safe water is number 6. Together the Sustainable Development Goals – or SDG’s – form the new global agenda to end poverty, inequality and climate change.

Next to the function of bamboo as a filter and stabilizer for water, Bamboo Village Uganda also contributes in other ways. In one of our previous updates we announced our partnership with FuturePump for efficient and eco-friendly irrigation. We will also provide water pumps for the village.

Planting bamboo

In the mean time, we obviously have our focus on the carbon compensation project. The counter almost hit 3,5 million kilos. That is a lot of bamboo! Luckily, 2500 mother stocks arrived to our growery that will be used for propagation. We aim to reach 1 million plants this year! In order to make this happen we also set up a partnership with a local grower, where the bamboo is already in a more mature stage. We purchase bamboo of approximately 5 meters, cut it up in 20 pieces and use those pieces to grow new plants. This way we have full control over both cost and the amount of plants that we can grow.

Next to the mother stock we can also share the exciting news that the very first bamboo plants have been planted in the field. What a special moment! Our founder Henri personally put the plant in the dirt, with all his love and joy.

New team members

There is so much work to be done and that is fantastic news. That means that more and more jobs become available. We expect to add a lot of new members to our team in the next couple of weeks. In this update we would like to introduce you to Mitch (operational manager), Steve (field worker), Samuel (field worker) and Maria (chef).