Water Shortage Hits Lamogi Sub County

Residents of Opok village in Lamogi Sub County Amuru district are struggling to get clean water after boreholes in the area broke down.

The village had 12 boreholes of which 8 broke down last year forcing the 3,628 households to share clean water from the 4 remaining functional boreholes or fetch water from streams.  

Patrick Ojara, the area LCI Chairperson says the situation even worsened with the dry spell which dried up the shallow wells.

//Cue in: “Kare me Oro   

Cue out …. Yub iway pii eno”//.  

Nighty Aciro, a resident of Opok village says that she is forced to walk for 4 kilometres to fetch water from the stream which is also used by cows in the area. She is scared that her children might contract water-borne diseases.  

Denis Otim, another resident of the area says they agreed with the wife that he would be fetching water every day using his motorcycle given her weakness due to pregnancy. He says getting the water from the borehole is also another hurdle due to the high number of people demanding water.  

Michael Lakony, the LCV Chairperson Amuru says he has not received any letter of concern from the village about the broken boreholes.   He says each borehole has a water source committee that is in charge of minor repairs before the issue is taken to either Sub County or the District.  

//Cue in: “the water source   

Cue out …. Any borehole”//.  

Amuru District has a total of 584 boreholes. Last year, the district in partnership with JICA piloted the repair of all the boreholes in the district starting with Opara, Elegu, Atiak Sub County and Atiak Council.  

In November last year, a study by AMREF revealed most water consumed in Lamogi contained human waste.

The study conducted between October 1 and 5 2020 covering the whole of Lamogi Sub County found out that 80% of the households, 90% of hotels and restaurants were using contaminated water while 100% of the open wells were contaminated by faecal matter.

 The study also revealed that the latrine coverage in Sub County had reduced from 80% in the past five years to 62% as of the latest study.