Solar water facility ends Tororo’s decades-long struggle
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During the commissioning of the water facility at the weekend, the district vice chairperson, Ms Rebecca Akumu, said access to water will improve enrolment and academic performance
Residents of Osia Sub-county in Tororo District are excited after the installation of a solar-powered water facility in their area.
The locals had suffered decades of water scarcity.
During the commissioning of the water facility at the weekend, the district vice chairperson, Ms Rebecca Akumu, said access to water will improve enrolment and academic performance.
“When communities don’t have access to water, children have to spend hours every day looking for water. In many cases this causes them to miss school and miss out on an education that could have enabled them to have a better future,” she said.
Katerema government-aided secondary school and the surrounding communities in partnership with Hope 4 Kids International and Morgan Family Foundation, installed the Shs500 million solar-powered water pump to provide clean, and affordable drinking water.
The water facility has a 24-hour capacity to pump water and various water taps have been installed in various points at the school and in the neighbouring villages.
Ms Akumu said the district has been receiving reminders from the locals requesting for a water source, but they had limited resources.
According to the national director of Hope 4 Kids International, Ms Judith Odiambo, they opted to provide water based on the outcome of a feasibility study that they conducted and found out that access to safe and clean water was a challenge to the school and the neighbouring community.
She said the water crisis had contributed to school dropout, gender-based violence and disease burden.
“When we came here, we interacted with people on the safety of water and we were able to test the water from the wells, unfortunately it tested positive for pathogens, meaning that the learners and members of the surrounding communities fetched water full of germs,” Ms Odiambo said.
She also disclosed that they are extracting 30,000 litres of water per day.
“We are only extracting 30,000 litres because we do not want to deplete the water and also, we need to manage the resource and take care of the environment,” she said.
Ms Odiambo said they have also constructed washrooms for girls at the school, installed water heaters and incinerator.
She said the organisation has so far constructed 226 boreholes across the district, which have been installed with stainless steel pipes.
According to the school head teacher, Mr Micheal Wambulimu, the school would now save on expenses previously allocated to purchasing water from vendors. Additionally, students, particularly those in the boarding section, will be spared of trekking long distances in search of water, he said.
“For the little time we have been using this water, the learners, especially those in the boarding section are clean and practising good hygiene,” he said, adding that the school has seen noticeable increase in attendance.
