At the moment, Adjumani hosts 33% of Uganda’s total refugee population. According to some district officials, it came as no surprise that the district registered the first-ever COVID-19 case in Uganda in March 2020.
The news threw the district into utter disarray due to a dearth of essential supplies such as protective gear and infection prevention and control (IPC) materials for health workers who immediately fled for their lives.
“I admit to being among those who ran away at first. We were all scared for our lives because we did not have running water in the health centres for patients or health workers to wash their hands,” Dr. Dominic Drametu, the District Health Officer, said.
Dr. Drametu explained that the district’s most critical need at the time was providing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to health workers and giving all the health centres and the local communities access to safe, clean water to maintain proper hygiene.
“It does not make sense to tell people to wash their hands with soap regularly as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines when they don’t have the water to use,” Drametu said.
At the preliminary stage, UNICEF, with support from the European Union through the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), provided water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) supplies such as sanitisers; liquid soap, aqua tabs to 35 health facilities and further procured IPC materials such as gloves, bleach for cleaning and disinfecting surfaces and floors, gumboots, face masks, among other protective equipment for all health workers in the district.
However, UNICEF quickly realised that Adjumani District needed to deepen water coverage if the gains against the spread of COVID-19 were to be maintained.
“At the time, the district had about 67% water coverage concentrated mainly in the towns. Our goal was to decentralise water access to rural communities both in the refugee settlements and the host communities to reduce congestion at the existing water points, lowering the transmission of the virus, said Paul Semakula, UNICEF’s WASH Specialist based at the Gulu Zonal Office.
After the district water office identified two boreholes with a high-water yield, UNICEF contracted a supplier to motorise the boreholes: one in Mirieyi Refugee Settlement, Ofua Sub-County and another 40 kilometres apart in Oblikong Refugee Settlement.
The fully operational water schemes now generate over 100,000 litres of water daily. The Mirieyi water scheme serves 13 tap stands with three taps, while the Oblikong scheme serves 12 tap stands, each with two taps.
The water schemes are solar-powered, backed up with a standby generator fuelled by the locals through their sub-county water boards – a structure put in place to oversee the maintenance of the system and collection of a small levy from the users.
The scheme pumps out 4,000 litres of water every hour to a high-rise 100,000-litre reservoir tank from which the tap stands scattered within the community receive supply.
Instant impact
Besides reducing the rates of hygiene-related infections in refugee and host communities, the water systems spurred entrepreneurship through commercial agriculture. With training from Last Drop Africa on irrigation and modern gardening, her fortunes have changed.
For instance, Joyce Koliba, a 30-year-old mother of four children who fled conflict in South Sudan, used to wake up at 4 a.m. to line up at a lone borehole in Mirieyi Refugee Settlement to fetch water for domestic use. But with the water installation now in place, Koliba has not only improved the sanitation in the home but has also made a bit of money from backyard gardening.
She uses some of the water she collects to irrigate her okra, cabbages and sukuma wiki in a 30x60m garden.
“Since November 2021, when the taps started flowing, I have harvested thrice. I sell the produce in the market and make about Shs160,000 (US$35) which I use to pay school fees, buy clothes and other items for the home,” she adds.
A few kilometres from Koliba’s home is Odego Geoffrey’s mixed farm, GLK Vegetables. He uses soft drink plastic bottles - a local innovation championed by Last Drop Africa - as handmade irrigation tools that have turned his three acres garden into a food basket for Ofua Sub-County.
Odego, a former construction worker, used his experience to partition the garden and connect it to water using just 400 metres of horse pipe.
He then connects the pipes to the plastic bottles suspended on poles. Using the smallest pin, he pricks tiny holes at the bottom of the bottles to create a water sprinkle over a large circumference.
“I plant soybeans, broccoli, green pepper, beetroot, passion fruit, ginger, tomatoes, watermelon, cucumber and pumpkins. I also have a piggery with 13 animals that benefit from the water and the garden. From these projects, I earn between Shs800,000 (US$213) to Shs1 million (US$265) a month,” Odego said.
Previously Odego used to make rounds with a homemade cart, wheeled by an ox to fetch water three and a half kilometres away. Not only was the yield low, but it also took a health toll on the 48-year-old to a point that he contemplated giving up.
With his renewed hope and spirits, Odego is confident of paying for school fees for his daughter, who is joining university this year, from the proceeds from his garden.