“Water Is Life”: Safe Water in Nyarugusu Refugee Camp
When everything else in her life was unstable, safe water was a comfort to Katembo.
In March 2025, an uptick in conflict and violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) caused Katembo and her husband Lubungu to flee with their three children. At the time, Katembo was also nine months pregnant.
Women were being harassed and raped. We decided to leave to rescue our lives…. Due to the chaos there, we couldn’t pack anything. I just carried my children.
Katembo (right) and her husband Lubungu (left) with three-year-old Sabina and baby Lubungu.
Compounding the stress and trauma of relocating their family, Katembo’s labor pains started along the three-day journey. She was given a ride to the closest hospital, where her youngest son was born and named Lubungu after his father.
When Katembo and her family arrived at Nyarugusu Refugee Camp, they were overjoyed to discover that the camp had access to safe water due to an established Water Mission project. Amid fleeing danger, giving birth, and settling into a new home with young children, collecting water was one less thing Katembo had to worry about.
This is one reason why keeping water flowing is as essential as getting it flowing: refugee families like Katembo’s can immediately have access to this basic need as they rebuild their lives.
Back in Congo, I collected water from the river. Here in Nyarugusu, we are collecting water from the taps. It takes five minutes.
Water Mission has been working in Nyarugusu since 2015, when more than 100,000 refugees arrived after escaping violence in Burundi. The initial emergency relief operation expanded into installing long-term, solar-powered pumping solutions to serve the entire camp.
In 2025, an influx of refugees from the DRC—Katembo and her family among them—arrived at Nyarugusu Refugee Camp. Now, more than 87,000 Congolese people live in the settlement. Although Water Mission already had a project in Nyarugusu, it now needed to accommodate the large number of new arrivals.
Thanks to generous partners like you, we constructed storage tanks, added soak pads around emergency taps, and installed underground piping to ensure that our project met the needs of all incoming refugees.
Today, our solar-powered system in Nyarugusu provides safe water to every man, woman, and child at the camp, which is nearly 108,000 people.
[Without water], my life would be difficult because water is life. We depend on water. I could not cook, wash utensils, clean my children’s clothing [without water]…. I am confident that the water is safe.
According to UNHCR, there were an estimated 42.5 million refugees worldwide as of June 2025, with children making up 40% of all displaced people. When refugees arrive in a camp or settlement, they often find themselves in vulnerable situations without access to essential services like water.
On World Refugee Day, Water Mission honors refugees like Katembo around the world, acknowledging the challenges they face as they seek safety and stability for their families.
You can join us in standing with refugees by providing reliable access to safe water across refugee camps like Nyarugusu and communities around the world.
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