AMUDAT, UGANDA: More than 20,000 residents of Amudat town council and Amudat sub county in Amudat district are facing acute water shortage after major wells and springs drying up.
Despite the establishment of 1.9 Billion Shilling water system by the ministry of water and environment and managed by the Karamoja water umbrella organization, the district is hit by a water crises forcing people to depend on the Kanyagareng sand river where they go and dig holes to get water.
Whenever it reaches October to December and January, Amudat district experiences serious drought which stretches up to March.
Merab Chelangat, a mother and a resident of Amudat town council, said they are facing a big challenge of keeping domestic hygiene due to lack of water.
“Managing personal and domestic hygiene in many families in Amudat now is difficult due to water shortage,” she said.
Gloria Chepong, a village health team of Amudat sub county said the current water scarcity was making it hard for mothers and girls to keep personal hygiene especially when they are in their menstrual periods.
According to Ms Chepong, some children are already developing skin disease as a result of lack of personal hygiene caused by lack of water.
“All the drilled boreholes have dried up including the one ministry of water injected alot of money but we are getting nothing from it,” she said.
Dr. Patrick Sagaki, the district health director of Amudat said the district was likely again to face trachoma yet the ministry of health had managed it.
“We have not being registering many cases of diarrhea and trachoma because people had embraced handwashing and bathing but right now with the current scarcity of water we are afraid,” he said.
Joseph Lobot, the district chairperson of Amudat said they have written several letters to the central government for an intervention but they are yet to receive a reply.
“We are doing badly, all our boreholes have dried up, imagine even the system that the ministry of water injected billions of shillings in to pump water to the town council and the sub county has dried up,” he said.
He said the district does not have resources to drill boreholes, and urged the government and development partners to rescue the community.
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