A shallow well in Elwany Village, Lira district in Uganda badly needs rehabilitation. But rather than collect money to repair the well, residents would rather return to a dirty pond which they used before the well was established. This is all because they were once betrayed by a treasurer whom they had entrusted with collecting water user fees.
Published on: 17/10/2011
Residents of Elwany Village, Agali Sub-County in Lira district enjoy a bountiful supply of water. They fetch from a shallow well, which is located in an area endowed with high water yields. The distance from their homes to the well is convenient as most of them live within one kilometre to the well.
When we visted the well on 2 September, the scene was bustling. People of all shapes and ages were fetching water. Some were children with small jerry cans. Others were elderly men taking the little water that their frail hands could carry. Others were women – some of them pregnant and others with babies strapped on their backs. Yet, in spite of the bustle the queues were bearable and people didn’t take too long fetching water.
All seems perfect until one sees the state of the hand pump. This shallow well, constructed way back in 1989, has a broken handle. Whereas the handle would ordinarily be about one metre long, the one at Elwany Shallow well is only a few inches. The area around the well is bushy and no wooden barriers have been constructed to protect the pump from poor use. The soak pit is full and covered with overgrown grass. The apron is cracked, exposing the concrete below. Yet the users go about their water-fetching like all those pitfalls do not matter.
The caretaker of the well, Charles Bongonyinge, sounds resigned as he explains. “We used to collect user fees and we used to maintain our source. But one time the treasurer of the Water User Committee took off with all our money and since then no one wants to pay fees for source maintenance.” Apparently the treasurer at that time left Elwany village and none of the residents could trace his whereabouts.
Bongonyinge agrees that indeed it is important to raise money for operation and maintenance but it is nearly impossible to regain the users trust in the WUC. In its lifetime, the Elwany Shallow well has broken down twice. The first time it was repaired using the fees collected by the users – that was before the treasurer did a disappearing act. Then it broke down again and the area Member of Parliament repaired it, but swore he would not help another time. In its current shape the well needs a touch up, but residents just don’t know what they are going to do.
So they have resigned to using the half-handle shallow well, not that they don’t suffer any pain from it. One user explains that pumping with a half handle makes one get easily tired and in some cases may cause blisters. The bushy surroundings, the cracked apron and the untended soak pit all present different hygiene risks, which then breaks the safe water chain.
Asked what they will do if the pump breaks down again, they (without shame!) point to a nearby pond saying that will be their relief source of water.
Indeed Elwany shallow well says volumes about community based management of water sources!
