A story titled "Busoga grapples with safe water problem," which was published in the Daily Monitor on Friday, August 28, highlights the challenges many Ugandans face in their quest for clean and safe water. The story narrates the plight of locals in several areas of the Busoga Sub-region, who are forced to share water sources with livestock.
Due to a shortage of clean water sources, the locals are forced to get dirty water from sources where livestock are watered and motorcycles are washed, for drinking, cooking, and other domestic activities.
Unfortunately, this ordeal faced by residents of Busoga Sub-region is also experienced by people in other parts of the country.
This situation exposes people to diseases such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery, among others.
These are diseases that can easily be avoided if the authorities step up efforts to ensure that all people in the country have access to safe and clean water.
Access to clean water is a human right that nobody must be deprived of. The onus is on the government to ensure that part of the tax money it collects from the populace is used to provide clean water.
Because of the dirty water sources, many people fall sick and the government spends a huge amount of money to treat them.
Some people have over the years lost their lives to diseases caused by drinking dirty water. These are deaths that could have easily been avoided if the authorities had provided clean water sources.
It is imperative that the government act fast to increase access to clean water to avoid deaths and reduce expenditure on treating diseases that can be easily avoided.
When access to clean water increases, the money that is currently being spent on treating water-borne diseases can be used to address other pressing issues such as building more classrooms and hiring more teachers.
Furthermore, access to clean water will directly lead to a healthy population that can engage more in income-generating activities, and this will spur economic growth that will ensure better standards of living.
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