IOM, USAID, Government End Decades of Community Struggle in Accessing Safe Drinking Water in Oro

Villagers of Kabuni, Kuririka, Roadside Guesthouse, Baga 1 and Baga 2 in Northern (Oro) Province are happy recipients of the gravity-fed water supply installed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) through USAID funding. The successfully completion of the 8.3km gravity-fed water supply was made possible through the technical assistance and logistics support from the Provincial Disaster Centre (PDC) and Provincial Health Authority (PHA) in Oro.

The water supply project was identified by the people of Ward 12 in Tufi Local Level Government during the Community-Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM) planning facilitated by IOM in partnership with the Northern PDC. Onoria Ifuda, an elderly woman from Baga 2 village could not hold her tears while narrating her struggles since childhood in accessing water for her household. “I started walking to Aubuni (8.3km) from Baga 2 village and canoeing in the sea to go and fetch water for drinking and cooking since I was 9 years old. I am now 71 years old and find it burdensome collect water for my daily use. I hope that my struggle will end one day,” she noted during an IOM and PDC field visit to target CBDRM communities.

Funded by the USAID, IOM in close cooperation with the PDC and PHA teams responded to the villagers’ need for clean and safe drinking water through supplying materials including polyvinyl pipes and relevant fittings, cement, galvanized pipes, water taps, shower combinations, couplings and the like  to equip the 8.3km gravity-fed water supply. Men, women and youth from the target communities provided labour including digging trenches for the water pipeline, carrying sand, stones and gravel that was used to reinforce the water reservoir and spring box. Women and children also prepared meals for those who worked on the installation of the gravity-fed water supply.

The gravity-fed supply installed is the first of its kind in the target villages and brings water to the villagers’ doorstep for the first time after decades of community struggles in accessing safe drinking water. The intervention has reduced the distances villagers would walk or paddle, and time they would take in fetching water for their household use.

“This is the first time over many years that our villages are able to collect water from a tap. I am happy to see my dream come true and that clean water is now flowing in the village,” said Onoria.