OPINION: Government delivering safe piped Water to Koboko is a big achievement

posted onJune 11, 2019

by Kp Reporter

By CHARLES ACHODA.

Just like the bible which has been in existence for very many years and yet its gospel is still being spread in different parts of the world, equally the National Resistance Movement (NRM) achievements under the stewardship of President Yoweri Museveni are enormous, visible and more achievements continue to be achieved and spread across the country, day by day. Three years down the road since President Museveni was legitimately elected for a 5th term of office, people of Koboko district and Koboko municipality are now jubilating and thanking the NRM government for the provision of clean water.

For years clean water was a dream to them but now, 85% of locals there now have access to safe water. This water is consumed by over 20,000 people in Koboko municipality and over 70,000 across the district. During the wealth creation tours H.E the President visited Koboko municipality and commissioned a multibillion water project which provides running water throughout the municipality and most parts of the district. People in the area no longer walk long distances in-search of water, no-longer spend a lot of time standing in long queues, no more fights over water, domestic violence related cases have been reduced.

Due to the enormous euphoria created by the delivery of safe water to the people of Koboko, they have even resolved that President Museveni contests again in 2021 presidential elections so as to consolidate his achievements. Before the new water project was constructed, people of Koboko had only 28 boreholes, 8 protected wells and a mini water scheme which provided water to only 15,000 people especially in the central business area. But with the introduction of the new multibillion water scheme, more water connections have been made, water lines extended and many other public water points have been built to serve even the common person down in Koboko district. The newly constructed water facility has capacity to supply over 2.5m liters of water per day and this will serve a population of over 700,000 people. Koboko and Arua municipalities have been experiencing water problems for long but thanks to the new water scheme, this has been made history.

The facility was constructed by the ministry of water with funding from the International Development Association of the World Bank. As a matter of fact, the NRM government has also planned to extend and expand the project to other nearby districts of Arua and Adjumani. As part of the NRM manifesto, government is planning to have water in every village by 2020. Currently water coverage nationally stands at 85% in urban areas while 75% in rural areas but government has come up with plans to shift from drilling hand pumped boreholes to solar motorized boreholes to ensure that water coverage reaches to 90% in urban setting and 85% in villages by 2020.

Recently during the manifesto week, Ministry of Water and Environment revealed that government has come up with plans to extend piped water to all villages in the country and that a total of 60 piped water projects have so far been designed and works ongoing while others are already complete. On the other hand, government has come up with systematic systems to construct solar powered boreholes to water stressed areas in the country like Karamoja and other parts.

I would like to encourage locals to elect and strengthen village user committees charged with the responsibility of ensuring safety of water facilities in their respective villages. As government spends huge sums of funds to provide water to us, we should be able to take advantage of it to make value for money.