Deaths along River Malaba worry health officials

The Ministry of Health has sent emergency response teams to Tororo district after over 10 people have reportedly died due to consumption of contaminated water in last two weeks.

The victims who complained of running stomachs and vomiting before succumbing to the illness hail from the villages neighboring river Malaba stretch affecting the three sub-counties of Kwapa, Mella and Malaba town council in Tororo county south.

The communities here depend on the river Malaba water for both domestic and animal consumptions. The latest two victims died in Malaba town council on Christmas Eve. The deaths have also been registered on the Kenyan side of the border with several other admitted in various health facilities.

The state minister for health in charge of general duties Sarah Achieng Opendi confirmed the disease outbreak, saying it's not cholera as it was earlier suspected, but it's as a result of consumption of contaminated river water.

‘'Our team from the ministry is on the ground to ascertain the situation. We have also dispatched cartons of water guard which is being distributed to the communities and repaired six boreholes that had broken down.

We encourage people to boil their water before they consume it to avoid any other deaths'' the Minister said.

Malaba town council district councillor Rogers Peter Imailuk said it's suspected that sewerage was released into the river on the Kenya side of the border. He said it's not the first time that sewerage has always been stealthy released into the river.

River Malaba is the natural boundary between Uganda and Kenya in Tororo district cutting through the four sub-counties of Tororo.