Pallisa, Uganda | For many years, the morning routine for women in villages across Pallisa District was the same: wake up, fetch water and, in some cases, line up at health centres to seek treatment for waterborne illnesses.
Diarrhoea, typhoid, and stomach pains were common, forcing families to spend money on medicines instead of school fees and other basic needs. Children missed classes, while household incomes were drained by preventable illnesses.
However, that cycle is beginning to change following a memorandum of understanding between Pallisa District Local Government and Evidence Action to provide chlorine for the treatment of water from domestic sources.
Pallisa LC5 chairperson Ben Okiria said the district is among 22 in Uganda, where Evidence Action has installed safe water points and provides chlorine to help communities purify drinking water.
“For the first time, families can stop spending money treating sickness and start spending that money on development. It can go towards school fees, buying seeds, or building better homes,” Okiria said.
He cautioned residents against misusing the chlorine, particularly for treating poultry, saying it is intended to make drinking water safe for human consumption.
“This chlorine is for saving human lives. For poultry, please consult our veterinary extension workers for better handling of livestock,” he said.
Last Friday, Okoyo Jude, a health assistant at Opadoi Primary School, spent the afternoon educating pupils about safe water practices through dialogue, demonstrations, and questions.
He warned pupils against covering drinking water containers with dirty materials, saying such practices can reintroduce germs into treated water.
“Water can become dangerous through the way we handle it. We must learn to keep it clean,” Okoyo told the pupils.
He explained that some people without proper lids resort to using leaves picked from roadsides to cover jerrycans. Such leaves may have come into contact with flies that have landed on decaying waste, including faecal matter, thereby contaminating the water.
When Okurut Isiah, a Primary Four pupil, asked whether boiled water also needed to be treated with chlorine, Okoyo explained that both methods kill germs but differ in how long they protect water from recontamination.
He said boiling stops protecting water once it cools and is exposed to contamination, while chlorine provides residual protection that continues killing germs for hours and, under suitable conditions, longer.
Meanwhile, Okiria has urged the school to acquire additional water-storage facilities for pupils. Semei Edward, the headteacher of Opadoi Primary School, welcomed the proposal, saying it would be included among the school’s priorities when Universal Primary Education (UPE) funds are received next term.
Akello Mary, the school’s health prefect responsible for water and sanitation, also pledged to encourage pupils to carry personal drinking-water bottles to reduce congestion at the school taps.