More than 5000 victims of the Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA rebel insurgents living at the Barlonyo memorial war site in Lira district have received a clean tap water source.
The tap water built by the Otuke Harvest Foundation was officially commissioned for use and handed over to area local authorities on February 23, 2024, during a ceremony that attracted a large local population.
Gabrielle Van De Kamp aka Gabriele Akello, the Executive Director of the Otuke Harvest Foundation, said the water source is expected to benefit over 5000 local people within 10 km of the surrounding areas.
The tap water source was constructed by the Otuke Harvest Foundation at a cost of over 300 million, money donated by the Dutch well-wishers, and it will benefit more than 5000 people, noting that the initiative will directly help local people who had previously been trekking long distances searching for a clean water source.
“Barlonyo had only one borehole, which served a population of over 5000 people. Some people were drinking dirty water fetched from the River Moroto, but now I am happy that the water project has come true and people will now drink clean water, “said Gabrielle.
She committed herself to continue rebuilding the livelihoods of local people to regain their economic strength by directly supporting Village Savings Association (VSLA) groups.
Eng. Job Wacha, who supervised the water project, said out of the 10 kilometres that the water is expected to cover, they have so far installed and connected it within four kilometres.
RCM Okello Orik, the Lira District LCV chairperson, thanked the Otuke Harvest Foundation and the Dutch well-wishers for extending the clean water source to local people at the Barlonyo memorial site.
He said Orit Parish, where Barlonyo is located, had about 17 boreholes, but only one has been functional, leaving local people to trek long distances.
“Orit had 17 boreholes but broke down and left people with a lack of water. Now, as the district, we have resolved to only build tap water within every one of the trading centres instead of constructing boreholes,” said LCV Okello Orik.
The Bishop of the Diocese of Lango, Prof. Alfred Olwa, in his message delivered by the Lira North Archdeacon, Rev. Ronald Paul Eguny, asked the community to protect the clean water source built for them.
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