Gulu town on the verge of a cholera outbreak
THE hustle and bustle in Owino Market, Gulu town defies the midday heat. Along the recently tarmacked Lucile Road, people go about their business, some shouting their voices hoarse to attract potential customers.
By Gillian Lamunu
and David Labeja
THE hustle and bustle in Owino Market, Gulu town defies the midday heat. Along the recently tarmacked Lucile Road, people go about their business, some shouting their voices hoarse to attract potential customers.
Down south, houses are coming up and business is booming. But beneath that boom lies a serious problem of immense encroachment into Kony Paco, Gulu’s main waterbed — a slum where human waste is dumped into the Pece Channel that runs through the town.
Nearby, a group of women wash their clothes at a piped water source that stands metres away from dilapidated pit latrines. A drainage runs between the water pipes and another building, flowing past latrines into the deeper valley.
A boy washes his legs in the drainage and women go about their domestic chores on verandas, as a wave of stench from the latrines and rotting matters sweeps across. About 400 families have to put up with this stench every day.
Wetlands no more
What was once a wetland has since turned into washing bays, buildings and a sewerage lagoon, all competing for space. According to, Moses Abonga, the LC3 chairperson of Laroo Division, encroachment on the wetlands started during the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency. Displaced people who fled their villages settled in the wetlands which they named ‘Adoko Gwok’, loosely translated as ‘I have become a dog’, from the harsh conditions in the camp.
Today, those who were once displaced are claiming ownership of this land. Although the insurgency in northern Uganda seems to have come to an end, none of these people is willing to leave.
Suzan Swazi, 26, a Congolese woman who has resided in the area for the past four years, says during the rainy season, the area floods and the only source of water gets contaminated.
“The residents take advantage of the running water to dispose of human waste. At night some of them use buckets and polythene bags as ‘convenient toilets’, and dump them in the drainage,†Hope Anena, another resident says.
Martha Opio, a health official in the division, says the residents do not observe basic hygiene. “Diarrhoea and dysentery are looming,†she says.
No hope of a resettlement
Francis Odongo, the LC1 chairperson, says the people cannot leave the place. Abonga says service delivery in this part of town is difficult because this is an illegal settlement. Construction in the wetlands is prohibited.
“The people have to leave the wetlands but we are not forcing them off the land as long as they don’t build new structures,†Abonga says. “But the conditions will force them to leave.â€
He says health personnel have discouraged the authorities from drilling boreholes because a health report shows the area is contaminated. To prevent further encroachment, the municipality plans to establish a wetlands management committee to oversee conservation.
“The committee will advocate protection of the wetlands and inform relevant authorities on illegal activities taking place there,†James Ocaka, the area environment officer, says. He adds that the National Environment Management Authority will recruit 600 people to work with the Police to protect the environment.
When the encroachers finally leave the wetlands, part of it will become a leisure park and the rest will be preserved as a green belt, Ocaka says. “As part of our 100 years celebration for Gulu town, we are in the process of redesigning the channel into a green belt and a leisure park, befitting a city that Gulu will be,†Norbert Mao, the district chairperson says.
Until then, the degradation in Pece Channel continues and the water base that serves the over 400,000 residents continues to be a source of danger.
and David Labeja
THE hustle and bustle in Owino Market, Gulu town defies the midday heat. Along the recently tarmacked Lucile Road, people go about their business, some shouting their voices hoarse to attract potential customers.
Down south, houses are coming up and business is booming. But beneath that boom lies a serious problem of immense encroachment into Kony Paco, Gulu’s main waterbed — a slum where human waste is dumped into the Pece Channel that runs through the town.
Nearby, a group of women wash their clothes at a piped water source that stands metres away from dilapidated pit latrines. A drainage runs between the water pipes and another building, flowing past latrines into the deeper valley.
A boy washes his legs in the drainage and women go about their domestic chores on verandas, as a wave of stench from the latrines and rotting matters sweeps across. About 400 families have to put up with this stench every day.
Wetlands no more
What was once a wetland has since turned into washing bays, buildings and a sewerage lagoon, all competing for space. According to, Moses Abonga, the LC3 chairperson of Laroo Division, encroachment on the wetlands started during the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency. Displaced people who fled their villages settled in the wetlands which they named ‘Adoko Gwok’, loosely translated as ‘I have become a dog’, from the harsh conditions in the camp.
Today, those who were once displaced are claiming ownership of this land. Although the insurgency in northern Uganda seems to have come to an end, none of these people is willing to leave.
Suzan Swazi, 26, a Congolese woman who has resided in the area for the past four years, says during the rainy season, the area floods and the only source of water gets contaminated.
“The residents take advantage of the running water to dispose of human waste. At night some of them use buckets and polythene bags as ‘convenient toilets’, and dump them in the drainage,†Hope Anena, another resident says.
Martha Opio, a health official in the division, says the residents do not observe basic hygiene. “Diarrhoea and dysentery are looming,†she says.
No hope of a resettlement
Francis Odongo, the LC1 chairperson, says the people cannot leave the place. Abonga says service delivery in this part of town is difficult because this is an illegal settlement. Construction in the wetlands is prohibited.
“The people have to leave the wetlands but we are not forcing them off the land as long as they don’t build new structures,†Abonga says. “But the conditions will force them to leave.â€
He says health personnel have discouraged the authorities from drilling boreholes because a health report shows the area is contaminated. To prevent further encroachment, the municipality plans to establish a wetlands management committee to oversee conservation.
“The committee will advocate protection of the wetlands and inform relevant authorities on illegal activities taking place there,†James Ocaka, the area environment officer, says. He adds that the National Environment Management Authority will recruit 600 people to work with the Police to protect the environment.
When the encroachers finally leave the wetlands, part of it will become a leisure park and the rest will be preserved as a green belt, Ocaka says. “As part of our 100 years celebration for Gulu town, we are in the process of redesigning the channel into a green belt and a leisure park, befitting a city that Gulu will be,†Norbert Mao, the district chairperson says.
Until then, the degradation in Pece Channel continues and the water base that serves the over 400,000 residents continues to be a source of danger.