We are a small organisation and this is a small dataset. It is offered honestly rather than dressed up as a data portal.
What we hold
| Dataset | Covers | Format | How to get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quarterly water quality readings | 6 points, 2023 to present | CSV | On request |
| Planting records and survival counts | All sites, 2022 to present | CSV | On request |
| Fixed-point bank photography | 6 points, quarterly | JPEG with coordinates | On request |
| Buffer agreements register | Anonymised | CSV | On request, anonymised only |
| Site boundary sketches | Active sites | GeoJSON | On request |
Why nothing downloads directly yet
Two reasons. Some records contain landowner information that needs removing properly rather than hastily, and we would like to know who is using the data so we can tell them when it is corrected. Direct download is planned once the anonymisation is done to a standard we are comfortable with.
What the data looks like before you ask for it
Each chart below has a table view and a CSV download built into it, so nothing here requires reading a figure off a picture. These are the same series we publish across the site rather than a summary prepared for this page.
The turbidity record is the one worth studying first, because it contains the result we like least: the point below Mbarara read higher last dry season than the year before, despite the work upstream.
Turbidity at our monitoring points
Nephelometric turbidity units — how much soil is suspended in the water. Lower is better. RW-04 sits downstream of our earliest buffer planting; RW-05 is a stretch we deliberately never restored, so it shows what would have happened anyway.
The control site is drawn as a dashed line, so it is distinguishable without relying on colour.
Seedling survival at twelve months, by planting cohort
The number that decides whether a planting day meant anything. We publish it beside the planting total, always — quoting one without the other overstates the work by roughly 60%.
Bank replanted and surviving
Cumulative kilometres with buffer planting still alive at twelve months. Not the length we planted — the length that held.
Read the control before the results
RW-05 is a stretch we have deliberately never restored and never will. Without it, an improvement at a planted site could just as easily be a wetter year. Any comparison drawn from these series that ignores the control is a comparison we would not stand behind ourselves.
The catchment as spatial data
The map below is built from 43,776 NASA SRTM 30 m elevation samples and the coordinates of our own sites. The terrain, the contours and the long profile all derive from that same grid, and the source is public domain — you do not need our permission to use it, only the site coordinates, which we will send.
90 km and 666 m of fall, from 1,800 m in the Buhweju hills to 1,134 m at Lake Victoria. Elevations are the published figures for these places, not a surveyed bed profile.
Away from the river
Where we actually work
Three of the ten districts in the catchment have programmes running. The rest are part of the same watershed and carry none of our work.
- Buhweju
- Bushenyi
- Sheema
- Ntungamo
- Mbarara
- Rwampara
- Isingiro
- Kiruhura
- Lyantonde
- Rakai and Kyotera
The full explorer has the terrain, the 3D model and the downloadable data. It is built for a larger screen.
Why work across a whole basin?
What happens upstream does not stay upstream
A hillside cleared forty kilometres away decides what the water looks like at Mbarara. Four steps, every one of them ordinary, and not one of them stopped by a district boundary.
- 01Upstream
Vegetation is cleared
Headwater slopes that used to hold forest are farmed or cut for poles. Nothing is rooted where the rain lands first.
- 02On the slope
Soil moves
With no root structure, heavy rain lifts topsoil off the hillside instead of soaking into it. The farmer loses the field slowly.
- 03In the channel
Sediment arrives
That soil ends up in the river. The bed rises, the channel widens, and the banks it undercuts were stable before.
- 04Downstream
The water changes
Turbidity rises, treatment costs more, and the wetlands that would have filtered it have been drained for cultivation.
Each step is documented on the threats page with its source. The chain is why a buffer strip planted at Rwentondo is measured against a control stretch upstream rather than against nothing.
From map to measurement
What we are measuring along the river
Six fixed points, sampled quarterly. One of them is a control stretch we deliberately never restored, because a number with nothing to compare it against is not a result.
- RW-04restored
62NTU
8 lower than a year ago
Downstream of our earliest buffer planting.
2026 Q2 · Rwampara
- RW-05control
88NTU
1 lower than a year ago
Control stretch — deliberately not restored.
2026 Q2 · Rwampara
- RW-02urban
131NTU
25 higher than a year ago
Katete bridge, mid-city.
2026 Q2 · Mbarara
Turbidity in nephelometric units; lower is better. Last updated 2026-06-30. Flagged as sample data until the organisation's field records are loaded through the admin — the charts carry the same flag rather than hiding it.
Ask and we will send it
Usually within a week. There is no charge and no form to sign beyond telling us what you are doing with it.