Is Kamuli drifting from its plan?

Oct 19, 2013

IF it were not for the cows and dogs that roam the town and litter excreta, Kamuli would get an A for cleanliness. That would make it one of the cleanest towns in eastern Uganda.

BY JOHN MASABA AND TOM GWEBAYANGA

trueVision Group is profiling major urban centres in the country, highlighting their sanitation situation, in what has been termed as The Make Uganda Clean campaign. On November 25, there will be a gala night, where the cleanest towns will be recognised. Today, we bring you profiles of Kamuli and Nebbi


IF it were not for the cows and dogs that roam the town and litter excreta, Kamuli would get an A for cleanliness. That would make it one of the cleanest towns in eastern Uganda. The town has not been severely crippled by challenges like inadequate fi nances that most of the new towns we have so far reviewed, have. This is because it has been around for some years. Kamuli achieved town council status in 1973.

KAMULI DISTRICT


THE BURDEN OF A RURAL TOWN
According to the senior town inspector, Robert Kunya, Kamuli is well-planned, but its only undoing is being a rural town. Often, animals are let off their tethers to the streets. This problem is common in Mandwa, Mulamba, Kasoigo and Muweebwa wards. Kunya’s sentiments seem to reinforce a Vision Group survey done in August on cleanliness in the town.

According to the survey, 93% respondents said they had ever seen livestock or poultry loitering in the past six months. Kunya cited political interference for this failure to deal with the problem. According to the survey, while most towns are struggling with garbage management, Kamuli is not.

Between 2001 and 2006, the town witnessed a spike in rural-urban migration. As a result, there was a surge in littering, with garbage lying on the streets and markets, uncollected for days. This was made worse by the few garbage skips and indiscipline among residents. “There was garbage everywhere, even at health facilities, where hygiene is critical. There was a foul smell in the town. It was terrible, yet the council had inadequate funds,” said Richard Waiswa, a youth mobiliser.


SUCCESS IN MANAGING GARBAGE
In 2007, the town clerk, Kaloli Dhizaala, went into a partnership with the Netherlands government to manage the sanitation challenge. They constructed 20 garbage bunkers, free of charge, and gave 800 plastic dustbins to 400 households. They also embarked on a mission of collecting and sorting garbage. “The bunkers have two porches, for bio – degradable and non-bio-degradable waste. Bio-degradable and non-bio-degradable wastes are deposited in green and yellow dustbins respectively.

They are taken to the bunkers for sorting and later dumped in a landfill or distributed to farmers as manure,” Dhizaala explained. Bio-degradable waste includes food peels, leftovers, banana leaves, while non bio-degradable waste includes plastics, metal, wood, buveera and bottles. Kunya said since the project started, there has been a signifi cant change in sanitation. “The town is relatively clean, unlike in the past.


The only challenge is animals that roam around,” he noted. The survey ranked well on the availability of cleaning schedules for the town (73%) and roads or streets (67%). Although this was quite low for market areas (33%) and dustbins (13%), on the whole, residents were satisfi ed with the cleanliness of the town, thus a score of 7.5/10.

The market areas received a 6.6/10 score, followed by streets or roads (6.3/10) and waste bins (6.4/10), which is way up the ladder. The town did not perform badly in sewerage management. Seven percent of the respondents had ever seen a burst sewer. On the availability of public toilets, 87% said they were aware of public toilets. Of these, most respondents (78%) said they had seen VIP pit-latrines, traditional pit-latrines (33%), flush toilets (22%) and movable plastic pit-latrines (22%).

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A woman sorting rubbish at a bunker


What is good about the town
 SAFE ENVIRONMENT
If you are looking for where to spend an undisturbed picnic, then Kamuli might be that place. The town is generally quiet. The majority of respondents (73%), according to the survey, think the town is not noisy. The only noise you are likely to be exposed to will be caused by motor vehicles (47%), industries (20%) and bodabodas (7%). Others are taxi touts, traders and prayers.

You would also have no fear of walking through the streets when darkness falls because there are street lights Grid electricity (100%) was reportedly the main source of light. The majority of respondents (73%) said the street lights were functional. Only 20% reported they were available, but not functional, while 7% had never seen street lights. Most respondents, however, considered the streets to be safe at night (60%).

 ROAD NETWORK, BUILDINGS
In spite of the successes, there are some areas that need to be worked on for the town to get an overall good score on sanitation. The roads have to be paved and potholes fi xed. According to the survey, most roads are dusty and potholed. The majority of them are murram (87%). Most respondents (87%) said the buildings in the town have old paint.


According to Kunya, the status of the town as one of those that are wellplanned is also under threat. “The town plan is okay, but it is being encroached on by developers, who build houses at night and during weekends, when the engineers are off duty,” Kunya said

A chat with THE MAYOR

The mayor, David Musasizi, said despite challenges like lack of fuel, the council had enough manpower to sustain cleanliness. He also noted that they were sensitising the community in changing their mindset on garbage disposal and management. On animals roaming the town, Musasizi said the council had contracted a company to impound and auction them in case the owners failed to show up within 12 hours.

Authorities also plan to enhance garbage sorting so that communities can get cash from composite manure. They will also put two bunkers in each zone. The town clerk, Ronald Baganzi, said a structural plan to expand the town council from 3.2 to 8kms was almost ready. He noted that they had a short term plan of paving roads and reducing dust and potholes. Out of the road network of 36.4kms, only four are tarmacked.

Baganzi said: “At times, the revenue dwindles, yet we use sh1.8m on fuel for a truck per month.” He said this year, sh110m has been earmarked for sanitation, refl ecting 12% of the sh807m budget. The funds will be used to manage garbage, maintain roads, unblock drainage channels, pay allowances for change agents and guides at bunkers.

NEBBI DISTRICT

Clean water is a luxury in Nebbi

BY JOHN MASABA AND BENEDICT OKETHWENGU
Our heads nearly hit the roof of the car as we rammed into a pot-hole. The 30km ride on Nyaravur-Panyimur road to Akworo sub-county in Nebbi district was really bumpy. Our mission was to visit Biti, a village that tells the tale of Nebbi’s water crisis. Although they were unaware of our mission, the villagers were happy to see us.

They treat every visit with hope. To them, every rare car that pulls up in the village is bringing news about clean water. So, as we disembarked, the village was thrown into excitement. With sweaty, cheerful faces, men, women and children mobbed our car, perhaps mistaking us for government officials. But the excitement died down when we broke news that were journalists looking for a story.

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Residents of Biti village attending a meeting with district leaders recently. Photos by Benedict Okethwengu

  •  water crisis

The Biti community like any other in the district, has heard about clean and safe water, but has not tasted a drop. It is not a surprise that the Vision Group survey on sanitation in towns, ranked Nebbi below the satisfaction of the residents. According to the survey, respondents rated the town at 3.5/10 in providing clean water.

The main sources of water are boreholes (33%) and rivers or streams (33%). Only 0.1% of the population has access to piped water, whose supply is irregular. As a result, the town is regularly hit by cholera and other water-borne diseases. The programme officer of Community Empowerment for Rural Development, Bosco Okaya, said most communities share water with animals. “That has been their life for decades. But it puts their lives at risk,” he noted.

Christine Ocima, a resident, said: “We use dirty water from the swamp for cooking, washing, bathing and drinking.” Ocima said last year, sub-county authorities forced them to contribute money for drilling a borehole, but it was moved to a neighbouring village.

  •  school drop out rates

Gilbert Okello, a parent, said lack of clean and safe water had affected their children’s education. He explained that children trek long distances to look for clean water. “Children wake up very early to fetch water before going to school. This has caused some of them, especially girls, to drop out of school,” Okello noted. According to the secretary for social services, Raphael Anyolitho, less than 50 girls have registered for Primary Leaving Examinations in Akworo this year. Perhaps due to water shortage in the town, public toilets are doing badly. Although most respondents (60%) said they were aware of
public toilets (mainly flush toilets), many said the toilets were dirty, thus a score of 4.1/10. As a result, some people have resorted to using bushes or corridors. According to the survey, the average cost of using a toilet is sh118.

  •  littering

All respondents noted that there were cleaning exercises in the town. Market areas and roads or streets are often cleaned. Overall, residents were satisfied with the level of cleanliness in the town (7.3/10), market areas (6.3/10), streets or roads (5.5/10) and dustbins (6.5/10). The majority of the respondents (80%) reported that they had ever seen dustbins in the town which were reportedly sufficient (5.3/10). In spite of this, most respondents (80%) said it was not easy to locate a dustbin, perhaps explaining the littering on the streets.

The survey, however, commended residents for trying to keep their surrounding clean. According to the survey, only 47% said they had seen someone litter the town in the past three months. Overall, the majority (53%) said the town was clean. Residents said garbage was collected everyday and taken to collection points setup by the council. T

o improve on the level of cleanliness, most residents (47%) said they avoided littering. Twenty percent said they had taken part in the town cleaning exercise and 7% had sensitised others about living in a clean environment.

  • way forward

The district vice-chairman, Iddo Obedgiu, noted that Biti lies in a bad terrain, and as a result, drilling a borehole is a labourious and costly task. He, however, said they are exploring avenues to ensure that residents get clean water.
“We appeal to nongovernmental organisations to support us,” he said.

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The main water sources are boreholes, rivers and streams


Other challenges

  •  Electricity, security,As local leaders try to find ways of solving the water crisis, the district faces many other problems. One such issue is lack of electricity.

According the survey, the streets are rarely lit. So, walking through the town at night can be a challenge. When asked if they had ever seen street lights, no respondent acknowledged ever seeing functional street lights.

Only 13% of the area has access to electricity, making kerosene lamps (67%) the main source of lighting. Although some families have solar, it accounts for only 20% of the energy needs in the district. Most people consider the streets unsafe at night (80%).

  • Animals on the loose

Like any rural town, Nebbi faces a problem of loitering livestock and poultry. Eighty percent of respondents had seen livestock or poultry loitering in the town in the past six months.

Animals seen include cows (80%) and goats (7%). On overgrown grass, 53% respondents said they had noticed overgrown grass in the town and the grass maintenance levels were rated as relatively poor, thus a score of 4.3/10. The majority (67%) of respondents believed there was a noise control programme in the town. However, most of them (60%) think the town is noisy. The noise is mainly caused
by motor vehicles (93%).

  • Bad roads

Most of the roads are partially tarmacked. The majority of respondents said the roads had potholes and most of the buildings had old paint.

 

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