A total of 64 villages in the Kabarole district are struggling with a lack of safe and clean water. According to statistics released by the water office in the Kabarole district, the water coverage in the district stands at 78% with the most hit sub-counties being Kijura, Kabende, and Kasenda sub-counties

According to Basude Bruno, the Kabarole district water officer, most of the water points in the district are shallow wells that host a lot of contamination.

The IRC-sponsored water quality surveys conducted in 2017 and 2019 found indicators of fecal contamination in 75 out of the 115 water sources in 2017 while 57 out of the 80 water sources surveyed in 2019 were found to be contaminated with fecal matter.

Both of these surveys found fluoride levels above the nationally acceptable limit of 1.5 mg/L in 5% of the samples.

The district Water Supply Atlas puts the water access in the susub-countiest different intervals from 7 % in Kijura Town council to 95 % in Bukuuku Sub-County.

Kabarole has 1,137 domestic water points which serve a total of 258,053 people with 178,127 ar rural areas.

207 water points have been non-functional for over 5 years and are considered abandoned.

Kyorampe Stellah, the district vice chairperson, admits that several villages in the district are still grappling with unsafe water by fetching from swamps and open wells.

According to her, they are working with partners like Water AID and National water to have water points set up in these villages.

The scarcity of clean and safe water in the district came to light during the inception meeting organized by Water Aid on the new innovative technology used in boreholes which seek to improve the functionality of boreholes.

Jonan