By Ambrose Okwanga
Every school morning begins with a decision no child should have to make: risk the flood or miss class.
As dawn breaks over Bata Ibwol Village, popularly known as “Bata Highland” on the shores of Lake Kwania in Dokolo district, dozens of children gather at the edge of a vast stretch of murky water that has swallowed the only road linking their village to Abalang Modern Primary School.
Barefoot, with exercise books balanced above their heads, they wait for a canoe that may never come. When it doesn’t, they step into the floodwater and begin the slow, and dangerous crossing.
For more than 200 pupils, this is not an extraordinary journey; it is their daily commute.
Bata Highland has a population of 730, living under 280 households with 223 primary school going children.
By 9:26 am. on July 15, 2026, nearly 100 pupils were still struggling through the flooded crossing.
Their first lesson had already ended before many of them reached school, soaked, exhausted, and anxious.
The flooding that has isolated Bata Ibwol Highland is not the result of a single storm. Since
2021, rising waters around Lake Kwania have transformed what was once productive farmland into an expanding inland lake, displacing families, cutting off roads, destroying livelihoods and making access to education and healthcare increasingly dangerous. For many residents, climate change is no longer a distant global crisis; it is the water at their doorstep.
Fourteen-year-old Tobias Opio knows the crossing better than most.
A Primary Four pupil at Abalang Modern Primary School, Opio has walked through the floodwaters almost every school day for years. He says he excelled academically in Primary One and Primary Two, but as the floods worsened, his education began to suffer.
The long walks through contaminated water frequently leave him sick with malaria, fever, and body itching.
He often arrives late for class, his uniform soaked and his books damaged before lessons even begin.
“I want to study,” he says quietly. “But every day I fear the water because the level is unpredictable; it keeps changing every day.”
“If I study, I want to become a teacher, and this has been my dream since I started schooling,” Opio added.
He asked the government to construct a good access road for them to allow them to go to school, as most of his friends are no longer going to school.
“Some of my friends that we started studying with decided to leave and go for farming because their parents could not afford to pay the little money that school always asked for,” Opio stressed
His story is repeated across Bata Ibwol Highland, where parents face an impossible choice, keep their children at home and sacrifice their education, or send them across dangerous floodwaters in pursuit of a better future.
When the community canoe is working, the journey takes only a few minutes. But the engine on the government-supplied canoe has broken down, leaving residents with few safe options.
John Calvin Olum, the man who ferries pupils and residents across the flooded channel, says the canoe provided by the government in 2019 once offered hope, but the engine broke down, and they don’t have money to repair it.
On busy school mornings, he makes repeated crossings, carrying dozens of children to safety. Many others, unable to wait, simply wade through the floodwater.
“This is how they get to school every day; they have no other choice,” he says. “In a single trip I load a maximum of 70 school pupils, which at some point is very scary even to me, but I have no choice but to help my community.”
The consequences extend beyond late attendance.
Peter Omara, the head teacher of Abalang Demonstration Primary School, says many children from Bata Ibwol Highland regularly miss lessons during heavy rains.
Others leave their textbooks at school because carrying them through the flood would ruin them, making it impossible to revise or complete homework from home.
“The flooding is affecting their performance; some arrive after lessons have started, others miss school altogether whenever the water rises,” Omara added
Local leaders say more than 200 households remain stranded in Bata Ibwol Highland, where access to healthcare, clean water and other essential services has also been severely disrupted.
Harriet Hope Apio, the female councillor representing Adeknino sub-county in Dokolo district local government, said as a result of this flood, a population of over 700 could not access health services, clean water, school, and other services.
“The district used to organize health camps for the community of Bata Highland, but it stopped. We are looking at a better way of bringing the initiative back because the community is really suffering,” she says.
The flooded road was proposed for construction under the government program of National Oil seed. “The district is following up the construction project with the central government,” She added.
She confirmed the increasing cases of child marriage and teenage pregnancy and school dropout in the area.
“There has been a rise in teenage pregnancies, early marriages, and school dropout rates among girls aged 14 to 16, largely because many of them have been unable to continue with their education,” she said.
Flood not only affected learners from Kwera sub-county but other sub-counties too.
Enyang Brian, a 17-year-old resident of Atama village, Apenyoweo parish in Okwongodul sub-county, is also living in regret after dropping out of school in 2022. He was in primary six at Adwila Modern Primary School, the only nearby government school in that area.
” When the flood came, my parents had no land for farming as all our homes were submerged by water, leaving them with no option but to seek refuge in a nearby trading center. This made me stay home as they could not afford to pay my school fees,” Enyang narrated.
Regrets and shattered dreams
His dream was to become a soldier, but climate change ruined his childhood dreams and desire to serve his nation
“I always wanted to become a soldier, he says. Soldiers are good people who love their country and help their families, but all is gone; I am now at my uncle’s place”.
“I am still optimistic that if a good Samaritan takes me back to school, I can still achieve my dream of becoming a soldier,” he added.
With few alternatives, Enyang resorted to fishing and cultivating yams and sugarcane to survive. But he says the ventures have been a disappointment, never delivering the income needed to rebuild his livelihood.
Sharing a similar experience, Sarah Apio, a 14-year-old girl, a resident of Apenyoweo parish, said she left school at lower primary in 2022 when their home was submerged in water.
“I have no hope of returning to school at the moment. My parents can barely afford to feed the family. The only way we earn money is by making mats, but even then, it is often difficult to find a market for them,” Apio said, tears rolling down her cheeks.
Sitting beside her daughter, Sophia Aguti, 40-year-old Apio’s mother says the family’s financial status could not allow them to send all four of her children to school, as all her garden has been submerged by water, making it difficult to earn a living.
“We have four children, but where we are living now, we have only one small house. We had no choice but to send three of our children to live with different relatives. We are now living like refugees on our own land,” she said.
Beyond the interrupted education of their children lies another painful reality: Displacement.
Families who once lived in permanent homes now crowd into temporary shelters, surviving in what they describe as camps on their own ancestral land.
” I don’t have where to cultivate because all our homes, land, and properties are gone; sometimes I sleep and cry because even the graveyard of my late husband has been submerged by water. Sometimes I can fail to get what to feed my children,” Karen Okello, a 61-year-old widow who is taking care of her 10 children, recalled her situation
Okello and other community members of Kacung parish, in Agwata Town Council, are now living on a five-acre plot of land given to them by the authority of Kacung Junior School after hosting them for a few months in classes.
She said the flood swallowed her two acres of cassava, half an acre of sweet potatoes and other food crops.
“Where we are settling now is like a refugee camp, and I have built two temporary houses for my family. What worries me the most is the future of my children and grandchildren,” She added.
She asked the government to support them with a project that can enhance their livelihood, adding that they are now vulnerable because there is no land that they can cultivate.
Caramela Ayeni, a 62-year-old, said the flooding intensified in 2022, forcing her family to abandon their home temporarily. Although they returned after the floodwaters receded, the relief was short-lived. Within a few months, the water came back with greater force, making it impossible to remain. This time, the family left for good, abandoning their home and livelihoods as the relentless flooding permanently displaced them.
“My family is now living at the mercy of a good Samaritan who gave us a piece of land. We don’t have where to cultivate, and we survive on working at people’s farms for some money,” She added.
Ayeni appealed to the government to either purchase land for the displaced families or build permanent houses for them, saying they have lost hope of ever returning to their former homes.
Like Ayeni, 55-year-old Patrick Obada, also experienced years of displacement and suffering.
“This flooding is not normal because the water level is rising even during dry season,” he says. We fear that the entire Town council will become part of Lake Kwania if this continues”
For Obada, the devastating floods did more than wash away his home and livelihood, it tore his family apart. He recalled how the deepening poverty eventually drove his wife to leave him, leaving him to struggle alone.
“My wife and I have 12 children, but when life became unbearable after we lost everything to the floods, she left me. I am now living alone in the trading centre,” Obada said.
Some of the affected community members have now resorted to growing sugarcane and vegetables as a means of survival.
“We are using part of the affected land to grow sugarcane and yams since it is covered by water. This is the only way we can earn some income from the small remaining portion of land; besides the land we rent to grow beans, cassava and maize,” narrated Morris Ewoc, one of the affected residents who now lives in a trading centre.
Most of the affected community members, who are now living in what they describe as camps and trading centres, have taken up small-scale climate-resilient farming by growing vegetables such as cabbages, tomatoes and other green vegetables, which they can irrigate to cope with the effects of climate change.
While survivors struggle to rebuild their lives, local leaders and development partners argue that the scale of displacement requires more than humanitarian relief; it demands long-term government action.
Barbara Akech, the resident district commissioner for Dokolo, said the district has three sub-counties and one Town council that are badly affected, including Kwera, Okwongodul, Adeknino and Agwata Town Council.
She said the impact of the flooding has been devastating, displacing thousands of people and submerging schools, health facilities and farmland.
According to Akech, the disaster has also triggered widespread hunger, increased school dropout rates, and contributed to a rise in teenage pregnancies and early marriages as vulnerable families struggle to cope.
“The government should immediately look for a better solution for the affected communities
because there is increasing cases of teenage pregnancy, child marriage, and intense poverty. The government should start handling the critical areas of schools, roads, and health facilities.’’ Akech said.
Isaac Okola, the Dokolo District Natural Resources Officer, who also serves as the District Environment Officer, confirmed that flooding in Lake Kwania is more frequent.
“Since 2024, the water level has never reduced,” he said. “This flooding has highly affected those who were settled close to the wetlands. In some flat areas, it has extended about 4 kilometres from the lake, while in others, it has spread only a few meters, but we suspect El Niño this time, which might cause more flooding.”
About 2,500 households have so far been displaced due to flooding, of which over 1,000 are permanently displaced.
“We now have people who have become permanent climate refugees. They are staying in trading centres and schools, while others are looking for small pieces of land for settlement,” Okola added.
He cautioned the affected communities against wetland degradation, adding that in some areas flooding is happening due to abuse of the wetland by the community.
Besides district interventions, he said the district has on several occasions written to the Office of the Prime Minister seeking a permanent solution for the affected communities.
The district has also encouraged a change in economic activities.
“As a district, we have encouraged them to form different farmers’ groups that deal in different enterprises, including aquaculture and apiculture,” he said. “We are linking others to the government’s Climate Smart Agriculture Transformation Project, and our extension workers are doing their best to support them.”
In the meantime, the Honourable Atim Ogwal Foundation, under the leadership of Dr. Rosemary Alwoch, is spearheading Nature Restoration and Disaster Risk Reduction Programmes in Dokolo District. Through its initiatives, the foundation is working with communities to restore degraded ecosystems, promote environmental conservation, and strengthen resilience to the growing impacts of climate change, including recurrent flooding.
“This will begin with schools by planting at least 50,000 food trees in 250 academic institutions across Dokolo district,” she says. Our children go hungry to school, and this is why the program was started to bring food and income to school, besides fighting climate change.”
Dr. Rosemary Alwoch talking to the primary five pupils of Abalang Modern Primary School, encouraging them to study hard
Dr. Alwoch said this program will also handle garbage management, recycling strategies, and energy-saving cooking to reduce air pollution that is causing ill health.
Sam Engola, the Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, said the government is aware of the persistent flooding in Lake Kwania and Lake Kyoga, as well as the hunger situation in the Karamoja sub-region, and is working on both immediate relief and long-term solutions.
“Some of the interventions the government is implementing include providing food relief to the affected communities. We are also working towards lasting solutions such as irrigation schemes and the relocation of some of the affected communities,” Engola said.
He urged families living along the shores of Lake Kwania to relocate to safer areas to avoid their homes being submerged by floodwaters
In Dokolo District, flooding has directly affected 4,798 households; over 2500 has been displaced, with 1,532 households permanently displaced from their homes. The disaster has also exposed communities to increasing dangers, with 203 people reportedly bitten, attacked, and killed by snakes and crocodiles.
Over the past few years, 384 people have drowned in Lake Kwania, highlighting the devastating human cost of the prolonged flooding and the growing impacts of climate change.