Kampala — Egypt, in partnership with the agriculture ministry, is digging five valley dams in Kitgum district to provide safe water for internally displaced persons (IDPs).

The construction of the valley dams started in February 2008 in five parishes in Palebek-Gem sub-county.

The parishes include Anaka, Moroto and Patanga where dams have already been dug.

According to fisheries officials, each of the dams would be stocked with at least 20,000 tilapia and cat fish to improve the diet of the displaced persons who are returning to their homes.

The dams would also provide water for their animals and irrigation during dry seasons.

"The duration of the project is one year and a half years. It takes us about three months to complete one dam," Raymond Oluk, the site supervisor, said recently.

"These dams are to boost the crops, fisheries and livestock production of the IDPs as they return to their villages."

"Already, some people carry out brick-laying and tree planting near these dams," Oluk said.

The acting district fisheries officer, Alfred Omony, said Egypt and the Government were piloting a model fish farm project in Kitgum.

"We surveyed all the sites although work has started on a few sites in Palabek Gem and Padibe West sub-counties," Omony said.

The Palabek-Gem LC3 chairman, Johnson Patrick Olaa, said during the dry season in the past, people would camp with their animals near River Aswa and Awich stream that were far away.

"But now it will stop since the dams have been built," he said.

Olaa appealed to development partners to establish more projects to compliment the dams.

He advised the residents to plant vegetables as a source of nutrients and to improve their incomes since they were now assured of water.