With several solar-powered water systems no longer functioning and the nearest operational borehole located about four kilometres away, residents say they are spending hours queuing for water or resorting to wetlands shared with animals. Anna Magret Akiteng, a resident of Ongongoja, said the situation had become unbearable, with residents having little choice but to collect water from swamps.
“The solar system that was constructed by the Ministry of Water and Environment has all shut down. The nearest borehole is about four kilometres away, but it serves many people. We have no choice but to endure drinking the water collected from the swamp because when we reach the borehole, more than 50 people are waiting for water,” Akiteng said.
Janet Florence Apeduno, who has a family of 12, said the shortage had disrupted normal life as residents were forced to spend nights at boreholes to secure water. “We don’t even sleep; you have to forego sleep and stay at the borehole at night queuing for water,” Apeduno said.
Apeduno urged leaders to lobby for more boreholes in Ongongoja, saying the existing water sources were overwhelmed. “The same borehole serves almost the whole sub-county of Ongongoja. Drinking that water from the wetland has resulted in many diseases at my home, mostly diarrhoea,” she said.
The shortage has also left livestock farmers struggling to keep their animals alive after the valley dams dried up. Moris Elungat, a farmer from Angerepo village, said cattle were now forced to search for the little water remaining in dried-up dams, where deep mud poses a danger to the animals.
“There are very many cattle, and the dams have all dried up, leaving only dirty mud. If you let the cattle get deep into the dams, they will get stuck, and some may even die,” Elungat said. Elungat also alleged that Balalo herders had moved into the area and were using generators to extract some of the remaining water from the dams, limiting access for local farmers.
“They have brought their generators to help them extract the last water, and they do not allow the community to share it with their animals,” he claimed. He appealed to the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries to intervene by removing mud from the dams during the dry season so that they can retain more water when the rains return.
“If they had removed the mud from these dams, it would help farmers for a long time while we wait for rainfall,” Elungat said. Juventino Omaruk, LC1 chairperson of Akamurei village, said the breakdown of a solar-powered water system had compounded the crisis.
“We used to depend on a solar-powered system which could pump water for domestic and livestock use, but since it became faulty, it barely works for a week after being repaired. That is why our people have been pushed to swamps to look for water,” Omaruk said.Omaruk warned that continued reliance on wetlands could expose residents to waterborne diseases because the same water sources are used by both domestic and wild animals. “As you know, the wetland water is shared with both wild and domestic animals. You will not know which animal used that water before you scoop and drink. I fear that if this scenario continues, diseases will occur,” Omaruk warned.
Residents are calling for urgent repair of the failed solar-powered water systems, construction of additional boreholes and rehabilitation of the dried-up valley dams to ease pressure on the few available water sources-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
