Funded by European Union Humanitarian Aid, IOM, the United Nations Migration Agency, is providing Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) services for South Sudanese refugees in the settlements of Bidibidi (Yumbe district) and Palorinya (Moyo). Among other services, IOM Uganda is constructing piped water systems and sanitation facilities like latrines, solid waste management plants, and incinerators.

By Abubaker Mayemba 

Uganda - As 21-year-old Martina Openduru fills her four jerrycans at a new water tap in Bidibidi refugee settlement in Yumbe district, about six other women eye her with envious smiles. They too can’t wait to take some of that sparkling clean water from the new tap.  

Their restrained delight is understandable. Before this tap was installed in May, Openduru and village mates had to walk five kilometres to a stream, where they shared murky water with cattle and other animals. There, the expectant mother would only be able to ferry one 20-litre jerry can which wasn’t enough to cater for her six family members. 

“This tap is very near our home and it has saved us walking long distances. We are now able to fetch enough water,” says the mother of one, a resident of Ambataraku village, Odravu Sub-County.

Openduru and her community members are among the first beneficiaries of the new piped water system built by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) – funded by the European Commission's Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO).

The new system is designed to have at least 22 public water stand posts of three taps each, and five single-tap institutional posts in Bidibidi’s Zone 4, serving both South Sudanese refugees and host community members.

European Union Humanitarian Aid is also being used to motorize production wells in Palorinya refugee settlement in Moyo district, where 12,000 South Sudanese refugees and Ugandans stand to get clean water and sanitation facilities. 

Geoffrey Adebo, a senior male teacher at Nyoko primary school in Yumbe, observes that the water tap will save pupils more time to study. They will no longer queue up for hours at a nearby drying-up community borehole, where it takes nearly an hour to fill up four 20-litre jerrycans.  

“We will definitely use this water sparingly because it’s not easy getting clean water in these places,” says Adebo, a father of four who hails from Arua district. 

Speaking in his office, Bidibidi Settlement Commandant Robert Baryamwesiga says that of the 27 water systems in the settlement, this one by EU and IOM’s is the largest and it has greatly reduced dependence on the expensive water trucking. Initially, the settlement relied entirely on water trucking, but by end of 2017, more water systems had brought that figure down to 27 per cent 

“This year [2018] we are at 12% but our water per capita is still low. Government’s standard is [20] litres per person per day averagely, yet some Zones are receiving less than that,” Baryamwesiga says.

He adds that sanitation remains a big challenge, and is glad that IOM is building latrines, which helps contain diseases such as dysentery, cholera, and diarrhea.

In addition to the water, the EU funding is helping to build institutional and household latrines, bathing shelters, laundry decks, incinerators and cattle troughs in Bidibidi and Palorinya.  These interventions are set to benefit 90,000 people, both refugees and Ugandans. 

Rose Sunday, a South Sudan refugee in Bidibidi’s Zone 4, owns one of the 1500 latrines built by IOM’s implementing partner here, Community Empowerment for Rural Development (CEFORD). She recalls that in the recent past, sights of rotting human waste in polythene bags were common in the neighborhood but not anymore.   

“My children no longer have stomach complications like before when they used to defecate around the house,” says 30-year-old Sunday, a single mother of six. Her husband abandoned them in 2016, the year they arrived in Uganda from Central Equatorial state in South Sudan. 

At Palorinya Secondary School, teachers and students have been sharing a dilapidated latrine which is almost full. Francis Kidhiol, the school’s head teacher, says now that two blocks of five-stance latrines have been completed, there will be less incidents of students and teachers suffering from water-borne diseases.

Another five blocks of five-stance latrines have been constructed at four primary schools (Andramere, Morobi, Chinyi, and Balameling) to serve the refugee population. To reduce open defecation at health facilities, IOM Uganda has constructed a block of five-stance latrine at each of the Health Centres III in Palorinya, Balameling and Itula.

Further, six latrine blocks have been constructed at Laropi and Lupo landing sites, Gbari and Lefori primary schools, Ara Health Centre, and at Afoji market to benefit the host community. Teachers will also benefit from IOM’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) interventions with the construction of six two-stance latrines.

Bashir Mawa, the deputy settlement commandant for Palorinya, calls for more support for waste management, lest the new gains are lost through water contamination.

To this end, IOM is constructing a Decentralized Faecal Sludge Treatment Plant (DEFAST) in Robu village, Apo Sub County in Yumbe. 

The plant will handle faecal sludge from institutional sanitation facilities as well as household latrines from the refugee settlement and host community in Bidibidi. 

According to Alex Asianzu, the CEFORD WASH officer beneficiaries like Sunday don’t have to worry about emptying their latrines. All the 1,500 latrines sunk in Yumbe are Fossa Alternas, whose pits can be used interchangeably – in the process turning human waste into manure.

“We dig two pits and after the first one gets full, we remove the housing and place it on the other pit. The filled pit is sealed with a slab for nine months,” Asianzu says. “After that time, the faeces have turned into manure which can be spread in gardens.” 

To sustain these WASH interventions, school water sanitation clubs and water user committees have been set-up. Each with 15 members to sensitize beneficiaries on the need to protect the environment and water source catchment areas. 

Further, drama groups in both settlements are promoting sanitation and hygiene. In Nigonga village, Yumbe, 30 women have been rehearsing a drama detailing the unhygienic practices like open defecation and will start educating community members soon. 

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This document covers humanitarian aid activities implemented with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein should not be taken, in any way, to reflect the official opinion of the European Union, and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.