Water user committees are managing borehole sites in Palorinya settlement

Refugees and host community residents wait in lines to get water with jerry cans and buckets in hand in zone 1 of Palorinya settlement. The refugee settlement is located in Uganda’s West Nile, a region with semi-desert weather conditions. Each waits calmly for their turn to use the borehole. They methodically hand pump water from the borehole for house hold use in bathing, cooking and sometimes for small-scale farming on their 30x30 meter plots.

Amidst the crowd stands David Lubare who watches the crowd shrewdly for any hint of misbehavior. Lubare is a member of the water user committee for borehole #52736 in Zone III of Palorinya settlement.

Together with other 6 members of the committee, Lubare cleans the borehole and the surrounding area and also enforces hygienic practices among water users at the borehole site to prevent water contamination.

He also collects a monthly fee of UGX 1000 on behalf of the committee from water users. The fees are saved by the water user committee and used for hiring mechanics to repair the borehole whenever it breaks down.

With amass pressure on boreholes from the immense population in Palorinya settlement, LWF trained 7 community-appointed borehole custodians, who form a water user committee, for each borehole. These were trained to maintain the water source and ensure its operation.

Water user committees were trained after LWF drilled 20 boreholes and rehabilitated an additional 20 in Palorinya from April 2016 to March 2017 with funds the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO). This was aimed at providing refugees and host community residents more access to clean water and to reduce pressure on water sources.

At each borehole site, LWF installed a sign post displaying a diagram of safe water chains with messages aimed at increasing knowledge and practice of safe water pumping, transportation, storage and consumption among water users.

Borehole #52736, where Lubare is a custodian, is one of the 40 boreholes where the informative signposts were installed. With the information disseminated at the signposts located at borehole sites and efforts from the water user committees, Lubare explains that the borehole sites are always clean and boreholes rarely break down making water available always.

As a result, the borehole site is rarely overcrowded by water users, reducing water queues and the time people have to wait to fetch water.