By David Magere
GULU CITY: Gulu Regional Referral Hospital is apparently struggling to have access to clean water to run the hospital activities. This comes after the hospital’s only water reservoir that supplies water of over 30,000 liters per day got spoiled a month ago.
James Ojwang, the Hospital’s Acting Principal Administrator who confirmed the development saying water shortages have been intense in the last month says they are considering repairing the spoiled water reservoir at the hospital in a month’s time.
Ojwang says at the moment, patients and staff are getting water from three boreholes besides the hospital and one piped water source at the hospital’s emergency complex wing situated at the maternity block.
“The other alternative water sources are the three boreholes around the hospital. The other alternative of water is the one that supplies the maternity ward. The water crisis has also left the hospital accumulated water bills over a total of 600 million that it was unable to pay in the last six months,” he says.
he however, reveals they have since requested for the Ministry of Health’s intervention in paying the pending bills -since the hospital pays only 24 million per month.
The patients however, also decry acute shortages in health services. Winnie Aloyo, a mother who is admitted at the hospital for a week now says they are facing challenges in using the urinals in the hospital and for other purposes such as cooking.
Aloyo says there is only one borehole surrounding the hospital and the water comes out in small quantities. She says makes it hard for them to fetch water needed for use at a specific time.
Others including Gloria Atim, a patient caretaker at the women’s ward says she has faced difficulty in getting water from the nearby borehole which keeps her waiting.
“I spend about three to four hours to get water from the borehole. The borehole is so congested that you can hardly get water fast”, Atim explains on average, she needs up to four 20-liter jerry cans of water to enable her to manage other uses such as washing patient’s clothes, taking baths among others.
Meanwhile, the hospital administration estimates they need at least 30,000 liters of water a day for at least 300 patients at a ratio of one patient to 30 liters of water per day -that is to say (1 patient: 30 liters of water) daily which is currently a big challenge for them.