Water shortage hits five villages in Apac district

Apac, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Residents in the five villages of Chegere sub county, Apac district have decried the lack of safe water. This follows the breakdown of five major boreholes out of the 20 in the area.

The boreholes broke down six months ago forcing residents to share water with animals from swamps and streams.

Benson Oceng a resident of Oyima village said due to the water crisis, they are unable to regularly wash their hands as one of the preventive measure against the spread of coronavirus.

Lucy Edonga, a resident in the area says they are forced to walk for more than 4 kilometres to a swamp, putting their lives at risk.

Vicky Engola, another resident wants the district authorities to immediately come to their rescue and save their lives from outbreak of diseases.

Robert Ebong, the Oyima village chairman says the water crisis is beyond the capacity of the water user committees. He adds that they have written to the district several times requesting intervention but there hasn’t been any response.

Innocent Abongo, the Community Development Officer of Chegere sub county says that repairing the boreholes requires 88 million shillings which the sub-county lacks.

The Chief Administration Officer of Apac Michael Wanje said the district has set aside 18 million Shillings that was donated to the district COVID-19 task force to repair major boreholes.

“We have 18 million shillings’ donation. The money will be used to repair the broken boreholes. The district had previously contracted a company to do major borehole rehabilitation in the district but we are still experiencing difficulties in accessing water equipment due to coronavirus crisis, the problem will be sorted soon.”

In March, the Ministry of Water and Environment directed local governments to repair all non-functional boreholes and ensure that communities have access to clean and safe water in order to implement preventive  measures of COVID-19.

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