Efforts to make water safe for community consumption!!!

Water is life, and people want their life to be safe.. Is the water you are drinking safe?!

Let's find out feasible solutions to make water safe for community consumption in rural areas, since it's the only water source available in the villages!

The picture above is taken in Gweng Otiri village, Latanya sub-county, Pader District and it is the only source of water in this village. It shows children drawing water for drinking and other domestic use from an unprotected well, which is shared by animals. This open well is exposed to storm water, fecal matters and many other risks of contamination, causing water-borne diseases.

What about in the other villages, is it the same situation?

Yes, in some other villages, the population has the same problems and, according to my visits in Atede, Onyon, Lugede, Luzira villages among many others in Pader, I have found out that in most of these villages people draw water from streams, unprotected springs and wells for home consumption/use.

Let's look at Atede East village, in Awere sub-county: the logs are laid on top of an unprotected spring to give provision for standing and drawing water.. How do you expect this water to be safe for drinking? There is contamination from storm water and other sources.

 

                          

Below is  a woman drinking water from an unprotected source, the same where Geoffrey took sampling for testing. This confirms once more that the community of this village (Onyon) uses this stream's water for drinking without any treatment measures.

                            

What can be done to improve the situation in the meantime in  this community?  

Geoffrey has made an  attempt to improve on the situation, while waiting for the drilling of a borehole in this village. He has taken initiative by:

1. Conducting Water Quality Testing, surveillance and monitoring.

The picture above shows Geoffrey sampling water for testing from Gweng Otiri well.
 

Above he is sampling from Lugede stream, Lugede village.

The photo below shows Geoffrey sampling water from the Onyon stream, Onyon Village for water quality testing and monitoring.  

 

Geoffrey sampled water for testing also from the unprotected spring in Atede village (see photo above of the well with the loggs). 

2. Community sensitization on different ways or methods of water treatments. Filtration, settlement, boiling and chlorination by use of water guards and aqua-safe tablets at house holds level are all recommended practices.

With support from Water Office Pader, which provided Geoffrey with water quality testing kits, consumable and laboratory, he was able to conduct the test and give a feedback to the concerned communities with proposed solutions to their problems.

The results of the water quality testing of these water sources were very negative, as they showed numerous "e-coli  forms counts", meaning that the water is contamined. According WHO standards, the e-coli should be zero; for Uganda standard, a value 1 to 3 can still be considered as consumable or acceptable. 

The picture below shows Geoffrey doing water testing in the laboratory, in Pader Water Office (E-coli test).

The picture below shows Geoffrey testing for PH and conductivity of the sampled water from the visited water sources from different villages.

The photo below shows Geoffrey conducting water test for turbidity of the sampled water.

What were the results for the water testing?

Out of the ten (10) water sources which were tested from different water points in different villages, only one (01) gives a result of 10%, meaning that the water of this water point is recommended for human consumption, according to Ministry of Health of Uganda and to WHO standards. No test gives a result of 0%, which is recommended for consumption.

The picture below depicts Geoffrey reading and recording the results in the Water Office, Pader District.

The picture below shows sampled results indicating numerous e-coli in the water tested.

Also the photo below shows the result of water quality testing from one water source which has  numerous e-coli counts forms. All other sources have the same results however the counts varies, the yellowish round particles are the e-coli which have developed after incubation and indicate fecal matters in the water.

Now that the problem is identified, how can we solve or improve on the situation??

As way forward to this problem, Geoffrey decided to independently visit four villages where he had sampled water for testing in order to provide the population with the results of the water tested and to sensitize them on the health-related issues, with a view to addressing  the problem in the community using these infected water sources. More specifically, the sensitization focused on the following advices: 

• to boil water before drinking or to use other household water methods, like chlorination through water guard; 

• to identify and use different water pointes for animals, in order not to share the same points with animals; 
• to always use pit latrines, rather than defecating in the bush, so that fecal matters should not contaminate their open water sources; 

• for the community who are using streams and rivers, they should do specific zoning, i.e. making separate points for different purposes: drinking points, washing points, and identifying water points for animals. This will reduces the contamination rate of the streams and rivers.

Not only unprotected or open water sources.. let's look at what happen at the boreholes!

At the same time it is important to preserve the protected sources of water, which are the boreholes. Sometimes boreholes are built but afterwards the community lacks the skills or financial ressources to maintain them properly. This problem has encouraged Geoffrey to carry out visits at the boreholes in three villages within Pader town council. During these visits, meetings were held with the boreholes committees in these villages and sensitizations were provided to them on the operation and maintenance of the boreholes. This was aimed at increasing their knowledge and skills to properly maintain the boreholes, avoiding contamination and breakdown of boreholes which later would lead to contamination and disease outbreak in the community.

The picture above shows Geoffrey guiding the water user committee of Bolo Dam Village, Lagile Parish, Awere Subcounty on operation and maintenance of boreholes in their community.

Geoffrey and the water sources committee of Ajobi borehole, Ogago Parish, Pajule subcounty.

Water source committee of Dago Dwong Village, Ogom planning to improve their borehole after the sensitization received.