BY FELIX WAROM OKELLO
wokello@ug.nationmedia.com
ARUA/MADI-OKOLLO. Water is life. And during this Covid-19 pandemic, it is more essential and needed each time by a person to wash his/her hands regularly.
With the high number of population in the refugee settlements where some of the areas do not have adequate water and handwashing containers, it poses a great threat for contracting the virus. The water points and market places have inadequate provision of the containers for washing hands.
And so, Water Mission Uganda has donated 215 water station containers for South Sudan refugees in Rhino Camp and Imvepi settlements in order to ensure clean hygiene and sanitation in fight against Covid-19.
The refugees are mainly relying on the few water points and with inadequate hand washing facilities from their homes. One of the refugees, Ms Rose Oba of village 16, Zone II in Rhino camp, said: “We need more sensitization on hand washing because some of my colleagues still have poor culture of not washing their hands. But some families do not have the money to buy the containers and have constant water. And they need more sensitisation because many people still have less belief in how the virus is spread.”
The Refugee Welfare Committee Secretary, Mr Bidal Samuel, told Daily Monitor on Friday that: “We still have challenge of adequate access to water. And most families do not have proper hand washing taps and so this will relieve some of the health centers where they will be stationed and ensure proper hygiene of the patients and attendants in the health centers.”
The Wash Team Leader for Arua and Kiryadongo settlements, Mr Apire Samuel, said: “With the current situation of Covid-19, we need to strengthen handwashing and general hygiene in the communities. So these water taps will be stationed in health centers, at water points, markets, police posts and other areas where people gather especially for meetings.”
He said besides the distribution of the water stations, they are also educating both the host communities and refugees to practice social distancing especially at boreholes.
Imvepi has about 65,000 South Sudan refugees while Rhino camp has over 125,000 refugees. The distribution, will help a portion of the refugees, and the onus remains on each individual at household levels to set up hand washing points.
With the high population, danger still looms especially at water points where there is crowding of those fetching water. As a result, 200 crowd controllers have been recruited by Water Mission to ensure social distancing at water points in the two settlements.
The Refugee Desk Officer in Office of Prime Minister in Arua, Mr Osakan Solomon, said there was need for other partners to compliment the contribution by Water Mission.
“The number of refugees is big and so these water points will at least help but we need more so that many people can access handwashing points. This is a virus that may stay with us like HIV/Aids, so we need to plan not only for short term but along one,” he said.
The Resident District Commissioner for Madi Okollo, Ms Akello Alice, said: “Hand washing culture has to change because some people were hesitant to wash their hands always. We should sensitize the communities more on this because it one of the ways of stopping infections. And we need to put them into proper use and not divert the water stations for personal use.”
Due to the need for water, the Mission also constructed 10,460 Kms of pipeline extensions to Omugo VI, Eden 1, Omugo IV and Tika 1 settlements. Water Mission also made a similar distribution of the water stations to refugees in Kiryadongo.
