By Felix Okello
ARUA – Four years ago, Ms Christine Night had to trek two kilometres each cold morning to look for water from a spring well. She would then spend three hours waiting for water because of the long queues at the well.
“I and other women had to wake up early in the morning when it is dark and cold to get water from a well. It was not easy because sometimes we fear that we could be attacked on the way. The line alone at the well also caused fights among the women,” she recounted.
Sometimes, whenever other competing demands forced her to abandon the hunt for water before she had fetched enough to cater for her household’s needs, Night would be forced to forego bathing her children or washing her family’s clothes.
Yet, according to Night, even the water she fetched from the well was usually unsafe and unclean because it was muddied by humans and livestock. This exposed her family, which lives at Ocea A settlement camp, to the risk of contracting water borne diseases like cholera, dysentery and typhoid.
But now, Night’s burden has been lessened after the intervention of the Pentecostal Assembly of God (PAG), which repaired the camp’s borehole that serves 300 family households.
“Right now, this borehole that was repaired by PAG has helped the women from trekking long distance and wasting time to wait for water. Things are now much better,” she said, with a smile.
According to the PAG officer, Mr Okillan Erick, the borehole was repaired by installing a fresh set of 18 pipes to replace the ones that were no longer serving the purpose.
The borehole helps both the refugees and the host communities. Statistics indicate that more than 10 million Ugandans still live without safe water, while 65 per cent are not practicing improved hygiene behaviour.
The families that fetch water from the borehole at Ocea A settlement, which has a population of 4870 people, use it sparingly due to a low water table that sometimes results in limited water supply.
He said: “The only challenge is that the water table in this area is low but when there is rain, the production of water in this borehole is enormous. This has also helped the children to get to school early because they do not spend much time fetching water.”
According to Night, the situation sometimes gets more complicated during the dry season, when the water table further dips. She said, “The only problem with this borehole is only during the dry season where the water table is low and you spend some time.”
However, despite the low water table, the fact that the borehole is located near a swampy area prevents it from drying out completely during the dry season, according to Okillan.
Since the borehole was repaired, the community at Ocea A settlement has formed a committee to manage it. The committee usually sits for regular meetings to make sure that the borehole does not break down due to improper usage. The locals testified that since 2016 when it was repaired, the borehole has not yet broken down.
The water user and hygiene committee also keeps on sensitizing and educating the communities about the use of clean jerrycans. Those who come to the borehole with unclean jerrycans, are stopped from fetching water until they clean their containers. This move is intended to guard against contaminating the water and, ultimately, to prevent the spread of water borne diseases.
