Residents in water crisis
Shortage. Children line up to fetch water at a borehole in Adyel Division following water crisis in Lira Town on Tuesday. PHOTO BY BILL OKETCH
What you need to know:
- The company says the affected districts include Kumi, Dokolo, Amolatar, Lira, Alebtong, Otuke, Apac, Kole, Oyam, Masindi, Abim, Kotido, Gulu, Pader and Kitgum, among others.
Lira. Residents of Lira Municipality who rely on piped water supplied by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) are facing water scarcity after the generator used for pumping water at Kachung broke down on Monday afternoon.
“Our generator at Kachung has broken down. At the moment, we are not in production. However, our technical team is working hard to rectify the situation,” Mr Ibrahim Walusimbi, the area NWSC area manager, told this reporter on Tuesday.
The water crisis is compounded by power blackout that has lasted three days.
“We are currently experiencing cases of no water and low pressure in the network, which has been caused by the fact that we currently don’t have electricity,” Mr Walusimbi explained.
Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (UETCL) on Monday announced on local radio stations that the current power outage is a result of broken electricity poles caused by the current heavy rains in eastern Uganda.
Power distributer Umeme Lira branch manager, Mr Javirah Katongole, said their partner, UETCL, informed them that six electricity poles on the Tororo – Lira 32KV line were broken down by heavy rains on Sunday in Kumi District resulting in the current power outage in the northern region.
The company says the affected districts include Kumi, Dokolo, Amolatar, Lira, Alebtong, Otuke, Apac, Kole, Oyam, Masindi, Abim, Kotido, Gulu, Pader and Kitgum, among others.
“They had actually communicated to us that they had expected to complete the work by end of yesterday (Monday) and restore power, but this was not possible because some more structures we discovered had also fallen down,” he said.
