The community of Opam Okidi North village used to fetch their water from River Unyama. Unfortunately, during the rainy season, the river is prone to flooding and bursts its banks after heavy downpours. Everybody from the village has stories about friends and family members who were swept away and killed by the river. Among the recent victims were a mother and her child who died attempting to cross the river. “Earlier this year, a young boy was washed away in a village called Pawel that is upstream from here. His body was found in Elegu, which is further down the river,” Okwera Julius tells us solemnly. “It is disturbing to think that we drank water with a dead body in it,” laments Okwera.
Similar Scenarios
Apart from human bodies, people from outside the area would dump animal carcasses in the river. These would decompose and contaminate the water. These people either didn’t know or didn’t care that the river was Opam Okidi North’s only source of drinking water. Several residents have stories of encountering live snakes and even some pythons while collecting water at the river.
The Long Walk to the Water Source
The river was one-kilometer walk from the village. The way there was easy because your containers were empty and it was downhill the whole way. But the walk back was another story! You were walking uphill carrying one or even two heavy containers filled with water. “We would get home exhausted only to find that we still had other household chores waiting for us. We knew that it was better to boil our drinking water, but it is a lot of work to go and find wood for the fire, so most of the time we did not do it.” says Abalo Alice, a mother of three. She also believes going to the river for water was the reason the village had had a few cases of nodding disease.
Community Participation
When Drop in the Bucket first arrived in the village, we told the community that the road, which was barely more than a footpath, would not allow our big trucks holding the drilling rig and compressor to reach the village. Undeterred, the community mobilized its members who widened the path creating a road for our vehicles.
No more Unyama
When Drop in the Bucket finished drilling the well for Opam Okidi North Village, the community members cheered and danced for joy. They coined a slogan, “Unyama mo dong pe,” which they explained translates as, “No more Unyama”. Aceng Margaret smiled broadly and said “No more being washed away by the river, no more bilharzia, and no more drinking contaminated water”.