New borehole project excites Purongo locals

Residents of Purongo Town Council, Nwoya District, will soon start accessing clean, safe and consistent groundwater supply.

The Ministry of Water and Environment will provide a new water source to the town council to complement the existing system. 

Last Friday, ministry officials revealed that a new borehole site has been found. 
The new borehole, to be drilled and motorised, will have a solar component and a transmission main from the source to a tank put in place to increase water supply in the town council. 

For years, the locals were stressed over water scarcity and yet they depend majorly on agriculture.
Ms Christine Akello, the Community Development Officer (CDO) of Purongo Town Council, said it has been difficult to secure the water needed for  construction and domestic use.

Mr Ben Okot, the Purongo LC3 chairman, said the chronic water shortage had hugely affected the institutions of learning and hundreds of households.

Mr Grace Mafabi,  the engineer in charge of maintenance at the Ministry of Water and Environment, said the piped water system constructed in the town council six years ago was producing about 8,000 litres of water per hour.

This came after one of the sources that was giving 10,000 litres of water per hours was  rendered non-functional because of water quality issues.

The ministry developed a water system in the town council under the Water and Sanitation Development Facility-North in 2017. 

It had two borehole sources of water, one tank and 17 kilometres of network. 

When the project was handed over to the community in 2017, 200 households in 14 villages were connected.
Over  time (from 2017 to 2023),  an additional eight villages have been  connected with an extension of about 4kms. The Northern Umbrella of Water and Sanitation manages the system.

“So, the intervention we are planning of getting boreholes that can give us 40,000 litres and 20,000 litres, will increase supply to the tank and ensure that the entire community can access water sufficiently,” Mr Mafabi told Monitor last Friday. 

Mr Martin Wamalwa, a senior engineer at the ministry and also the manager of Northern Umbrella of Water and Sanitation, said a short-term solution to the water shortage in the town council has been found.

A team of engineers from the ministry carried out a survey to find out which location they could get a good volume of underground water.  They got three locations.

Mr Tonny Awany, the MP for Nwoya County, said: “We shall give you the benefit of the doubt that you drill the  motorised borehole….but please implement whatever you’ve told people here, and I want to encourage you to have regular meetings with these people.”