How open water sources expose you to ill health

They say water is life but it can expose the user to health threatening conditions if it is not safe.

In Bukida village, Banda Sub-county, Namayingo District you find people drawing water from open wells but little do they know they are exposed to water-related diseases.

These diseases are a result of using water contaminated with erosion and other pollutions resulting from open defecation due to low latrine coverage in the district.

Juliet Byakika, a 20-year-old mother of one walks for 30 minutes to the valley to collect water from an open well that is shared with animals.

She says it is either water from that well or salty spring water. “I walk for one and half kilometres to reach this well for water but you see it is dirty and not safe for our health. But we do not have any other alternative.

We mobilised and aligned poles so that we can kneel while fetching water to avoid stepping in it. For animals, they simply step in the well which contaminates the water.”

She adds; “Because of the long distance, and yet animals need a lot of water, which many of us cannot carry, in the end we bring the animals to drink from the well.

In the process the water gets contaminated and becomes a breeding ground for bilhazia and other waterborne diseases.

Byakika is one of the hundreds whose life is vulnerable to water-related diseases resulting from open wells in lowland areas.

Reports indicate that 35 per cent of people in the country rely on contaminated water sources such as streams and open wells.

Elsewhere

In Buwoya village, Jackson Barasa, a brick layer is found fetching water for domestic use.

“I have to step in the water in order to move where there is clean water because we share this source with animals which come here in the morning and afternoon. But is worse during dry season because the water becomes scarce,” says Barasa. According to him, they use the same source to catch fish from the muddy open wells in a valley.

Joshua Wabusa, the assistant water officer for Namayingo District, says they dig deep wells in areas where they are favourable. Community contributions are encouraged so that people feel ownership of the sources to help in protection and maintenance of the water sources.

He says that the district is yet to start a mini-piped water scheme in villages surrounding Lake Victoria to fight water-related diseases.

Rehema Aanyu, the liaison and networking officer at Uganda Water and Sanitation NGO Network (UWASNET) says outbreak of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea and typhoid in the area manifest a lack of access to safe water and improved standards of sanitation and hygiene.

“The dilemma of water resources management in Uganda is that poverty is very rife and this drives communities to exploit their natural resources through unsustainable practices as indiscriminate deforestation, wetland encroachment, unregulated sand mining, poor sanitation practices that expose water sources to contamination,” says Aanyu.

These all affect sustainable supply and water quality thereby causing illnesses in a number of communities .