Africa-Press – Uganda. Longoromit dam, the second largest dam in the Karamoja region is drying up after months of a dry spell in the region. The dam’s situation has been made worse by pastoralists who now bring animals to drink water directly from it instead of the initially built water traps.
This reporter visited the dam early this week and found out that the dam is getting covered by soil, animals urinate and contaminate it the same in every way.
Mr Joseph Mudong, a pastoralist said that ever since the central valves that open water to traps got spoilt, they have been forced to bring cattle to drink directly from the dam.
“This remaining water can’t reach next month because the sunshine is too much and animals are many and they are drinking directly from the dam,” he said.
Mr Moses Emanikor, a Turkana pastoralist who’s among the hundreds of Turkanas grazing their livestock in Kaabong, said the drying up of Longoromit dam is a setback to thousands of cattle keepers who have been benefiting from the facility since 2010.
Peter Lolek another Pastoralist, said they are pondering a next move on how they can migrate with their livestock before the dam dries up completely.
Mr Jino Meri, Kaabong District chairman, said he has made several appeals to the ministry of water and environment to step in and save the situation but he’s yet to get any feedback.
Mr James Olinga, the resident engineer in charge of water for production in Karamoja region, blamed the district leadership for failing to take full responsibility to manage the dam.
“The problem is that our people in Karamoja don’t want to own up any project that ministry puts in place, we trained the dam management committee but it seems they are no longer active,” he said.
Longoromit dam was built by the Water Ministry at a tune of Shs12 .7 billion in 2010, with the capacity to store up to 2.3 billion liters.
It serves over 6 million animals on a daily basis in Kaabong District. Other dams in Karamoja include; Arecek in Napak District, Kobebe in Moroto District, and Magamaga dam in Abim District which dried up early last year.
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