Moroto squeezing water from stones

trueIn the Make Uganda Clean campaign, Vision Group will be profiling major urban centres in the country, highlighting their sanitation situation, with a view to recognise the cleanest towns towards the end of November. Today, we bring you profiles of Moroto and Kyegegwa towns.

By Stephen Ssenkaaba

The stretch that leads into Moroto town looks like a long pothole-filled avenue. With a tiny isle running through it, the little town is decorated with tiny shops. Loud music blares from a tiny rickety kiosk at the mouth of the town. It is a lovely town though with colourful characters — such as tall gangly men with red fluorescent drapery around their bodies. At some point, it looks like a meeting point for international aid agency vehicles. This town is dirty, but many residents according to a recent survey on cleanliness believe all is not lost.

The survey sought views of the residents on cleanliness in the town based on waste management, public toilets and the situation of public places such as markets. According to the survey, 94% of the respondents reported existence of a cleaning schedule.

While on the overall, residents are satisfied with the cleanliness of the town, they are only averagely satisfied with the market areas, streets, roads and unsatisfied with the dustbins.
Seventy-four percent of the respondents said they have seen dustbins in the town before and are sufficient, earning the town a satisfactory 6.7/10 rating. The dustbins were mainly seen in the markets and the streets/roads.

Majority of the respondents (74%) reported it was easy to locate a dustbin in the town. Eighty-seven percent have seen someone litter the town in the past three months.

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Meanwhile, 90% of the respondents reported the town to be at least clean. Only 26% claimed to have personally avoided littering, while a mere 19% have taken part in the exercise to clean up the town. A decent 58% sensitised other people about cleanliness of the environment, meaning that local people here cared about cleanliness. There are 10 garbage skips, 0.5km apart and a garbage fill is managed by authorities, which as per the findings, are not sufficient.

Sixty-eight percent of the respondents said thenewvisionthey know a public toilet in the town and the toilets were averagely clean. It costs sh180 to access public toilet, leaving many people that cannot afford to find their own means. There are four toilets owned by the municipal council, but for a town of 13,000 people, this is hardly sufficient.

Drainage in Moroto town is in a bad state. When asked about sewerage management, 52% of the respondents said they have seen sewage bursts before. They added that response towards fixing the bursts was poor.

Loitering animals have also made the town more dirty. Indeed, 77% of respondents said they have ever seen livestock/poultry loitering in town in the past six months.

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Most of Moroto lacks electricity, the survey showed that the national grid electricity and kerosene provide the major source of lighting. Even then, there are very few homes with electricity.

Fourty-two percent of the respondents said they have seen street lights and 32% said less than half were functional. Thirteen percent of the respondents said they had not seen street lights in the town, meaning that there are areas in a total blackout.

Water also remains a huge challenge in this arid area. Boreholes are the main source of water according to 87% of the respondents. Only 40% of the residents have access to piped water. They observed that water was also averagely irregular and unclean.

Only part of Moroto town has tarmac while most of the roads are murram. Our respondents observed a number of potholes on most roads, rating the town at an unflattering 7.7/10.

The town is a buzz of activity, that is probably why many respondents (74%) said the town was noisy. The main cause of noise here include traders, boda boda riders, motor vehicles and taxi operators. Despite this, 79% of the respondents believe there is a noise control programme.

The town has two planners, two health inspectors, two engineers, two lands officers, two education officers and two environment officers.

Kyegegwa

Residents fill skips with human waste in Kyegegwa

Out of the 19 boreholes in the town, only two are functional

Although all the respondents have not seen animals loitering in town, Kyegegwa, being a young town, is faced with challenges of population growth.

By Stephen Ssenkaaba and Rogers Sunday

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Kyegegwa’s busiest street. Photos by Rogers Sunday

 IT is one of those towns that you hear very little about. But Kyegegwa is on its steady way up. Born only four years ago, the town, carved out of Kyenjojo, now boasts of a population of 25,000 people and growing.

While this portends progress, it also highlights major development challenges seeing as there are not enough facilities to support growth.

The town does not have a garbage dumping site. As a result, all rubbish is dumped in open spaces from where the garbage truck picks it for disposal at Katente garbage bank. Authorities have identified six open spaces where people dump the garbage, but these are not appropriate for dumping garbage.

Before these places were identified there were garbage skips in town, but were withdrawn by the town authorities saying the residents were misusing them.

Out of the total budget of sh448m only sh335m is generated locally. The rest is obtained from the central Government. According to Friday Kyomya, the town clerk, sh12 million (12%) is spent on various sanitation projects. But this needs to be increased once funding is secured.

These and more issues were echoed in a recent Vision Group survey. The survey carried out from August to September sought to get the views of the residents on the cleanliness of the town. The poll reflected people’s feelings on waste management, public toilets, maintenance of green spaces and sewerage issues.

The poll indicates that residents are generally dissatisfied with the cleanliness of the town. All respondents gave the town a below average rating of 4.2/10 on cleanliness.

While all respondents said they had seen a dustbin in the town before, they thought the available dustbins were insufficient. Most of the dustbins were seen in shops, meaning that public places did not have the needed bins, which potentially increased chances of littering the town.

All the respondents have seen someone litter the town in the past three months. All of them also believe the town is polluted. A whole 48% said they had done nothing to improve the cleanliness of the town.

Public toilets still pose a big sanitation challenge to this town. All the respondents said the toilets here were dirty, giving the town a measly 1.8/10 score. On average, people have to pay sh143 to access these toilets, way beyond the means of most residents.

Sanitation highlights of the town

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 We would like to hear from you

-Vote for the cleanest town and give reasons.
-What should we do to improve sanitation in Uganda’s towns?
-What can you do as an individual to keep your town clean?

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