One borehole serving more than 1000 residents

(Picture by Andrew Masinde)

Inside a well maintained barbed wire fence, women are busy pumping borehole water. The lines increase as more people continue to throng from various corners.

Whoever enters the fence has to remove their footwear.

By 4:00 pm, the lines are even longer. One of the residents who identified himself as Andabati, said that the lines are always long between midday to 5:00 pm because these are pick hours to closure.

Andabati notes that on a daily basis, the borehole area is opened between 7: 00 am to 1:00 pm, reopened at 3:00 pm and closed at 7:00 pm. 

According to Andrea Augustine, chairman water user committee of the borehole, the borehole which serves close to 1,312 residents, is the only lifeline in Olivu Maracha Village, Ombokoro parish, Manibe Sub County in Arua district. 

Other water sources such as streams and spring wells have either dried up or have dirty water which is shared by animals. 

"We put up very strict rules such that people don't mishandle the borehole. Residents are expected to remove their footwear such that water is not contaminated," Andrea says.

Simon Aluma, the caretaker of the borehole says that when it was constructed, a water user committee was selected to take care of the borehole. 


He adds that the users also decided that every day the first people to come for water are the ones to sweep around the borehole.


"It is encouraging to note that this is done willingly by the residents. People come to my home requesting for brooms, where others participate in clearing the overgrown grass around the borehole," he notes.

According to Aluma, the government should think of providing clean water for its people instead of waiting for donations.

Florence Ajiko, a water user says that before the borehole, they were fetching water from dirty wells. 

To get clean water for drinking, they had to walk between three to five kilometers in other villages.

With boreholes near their homes, water problems have been solved.

"Cases of domestic violence due to over delaying at the water sources are no more. Even our children who would spend a lot of time looking for water, which would result in missing school, have had more time to spend at school," Ajiko says.