When floods keep you in filthy toilet

Peter Ocen Julius and John Acwera. Photos and videos by Vicky Wandawa

HEALTH

KAMPALA - With all the hardships in life, the disabled people continue to strive for survival. 

Lying weak and helpless, on the cold floor of a reeking pit latrine John Acwera's stomach was running endlessly.

The pain was severe. Given his crippled state and the heavy downpour that had flooded all the way to the latrine, Acwera could not crawl through.

He had been forced to hire a man to carry him to and fro the latrine, about 30 metres from his room.

However, when the diarrhea worsened, the 39 year-old crippled street beggar had no choice but to stay in the latrine for hours.

Acwera is among the estimated one billion people around the world with some form of disability, with over 80% of them living in developing countries.

In Uganda's housing and population census, it is estimated that 12% of the population has some form of disability, approximately 4.5 million people.

 
Acwera begs from the streets of Kamwokya, in a slum for the disabled. It's about two kilometres from Kamwokya centre, with over 50 families, sharing toilet and bathroom facilities.

It has a history dating back to the early 2000s, when the security insurgency in northern Uganda was at its peak, forcing numbers to flee.

On this hot Sunday afternoon, a sweep of one's eyes across the area reveals mostly crawling adults, a few on walking sticks.

Acwera started living here in 2009. He is married with four children. His wife and children live in Lira.

Asked if he ever gets to see his family, Acwera said he goes back to Lira to visit them once in a while and returns to Kampala to make a living.

"I do not stay here all the time. At times I go home to see my family, and then I return," Acwera said. 

"We came here as a result of insurgency in northern Uganda by Kony rebels. It was not easy for the disabled persons like me. When the rebels attached our area, people would run and leave me behind," he narrates.

Acwera said this, and many other reasons forced him to leave his family for the city, to try and make ends meet.

But, he ended up on the streets as a beggar, and later learnt of a place where a Good Samaritan from Denmark had bought a piece of  land and constructed shelter for disabled beggars.

"Most of us here are married with children. My wife and children are not here because the space is not enough. We are sharing. In a room you can get two to three people," he says.

Right within the community is a wide trench always filled with dirty water and filth, producing a perpetual stench.

Acwera says he curses when it rains because then, the trench fills up and floods the whole place, including his room.

The dirty water covers the floor, in the process wetting everything in the room, including the beddings.

When the rain stops, Acwera and his counterparts are helpless, they have to hire someone to push the water out.

"There is a stream nearby where people throw all sorts of waste there, including faeces, but all that ends up in our houses," he said.

"The latrine is elevated and on a dry day it's easy for any of us to crawl up to the stairs and use it.

"But when it floods, we cannot otherwise we would drown in the dirty water. We have to hire men to carry us to the latrine in case we need to have long calls. The fee depends on one's bargaining power," he says.

For such days, he admits that they pee anywhere in the water.

A bath in a filthy bathroom
While Acwera's woes are only when he gets diarrhea, Harriet Acen, 28 had trouble taking a bath every day, as a result of a filthy bathroom floor.

Right next to this elevated pit latrine is a tiny bathroom, probably five by five, complete with four walls and cemented floor.

But when certain people, men especially feel the urge to take a short call, they do it on the cemented bathroom floor, instead of the latrine.

This leaves the floor with somewhat oval pockets of fresh urine, as well as dried up patches of the same.

Consequently, all would be well for an able bodied person to bathe albeit on their legs, for the ground is filthy. But not Acen.

Acen's legs are crippled to the pelvic. Bathing there means her private parts may get in contact with the filth.

For a while, she painfully bathed in the bathroom until she could take it no more; infection after infection, the pain, fever, probably from urinary tract infections.

She decided to start taking a bath in her small 10 by 10 room, where she, her husband, two babies and a nephew sleep.

"I used to fall sick all the time until I stopped bathing from there," she adds.

Much as she found a way to rid herself of infections, she still has to worry about infections, when it rains. For the area floods, making filth from the trenches and pit latrines flows into the houses.

No running water
There is no running water around, and Peter Ocen Julius, 50, explains that he has to hire able bodied people to fetch him water.

"The running water is about 100metres away. A jerrican of water costs sh200 while hiring someone to carry the jerrican is sh500 which adds up to sh700 per jerrican," Julius explained.

He adds, "And at times that tap runs dry. That means we suffer because no one can go fetch water from a further distance and especially when it rains."

He continues that as a result of the unhygienic conditions, he and his counterparts suffer from diarrhea.

"And especially for the children its worse. Children are very stubborn; they even drink the water so they suffer diarrhea and malaria," he says.

No help
"We have been talking about our problems for several times, we ask the government now to come and help us because this place where we are staying needs should be made more conducive for people like us.

The house should be raised so that our rooms do not flood, also, that trench should be modified such that the water flows and does not flood when it rains," he says.

He adds that they also need wheel chairs because the area becomes extremely muddy and moving a few meters crawling means they get mud all over their bodies.

"One night in 2016, it rained so heavily. People were making alarms, others died so I thank God I am still here," Acwera says.

"We have children supposed to go to school but we cannot afford. We also need government to get us jobs, some people like me have diplomas and can work," he notes.

Ocen suggests that the children of the disabled should be given bursaries.

Doctor warns of adverse health risks
Henry Bukenya, a doctor with Mulago hospital warns that the floods carry filth which exposes the people to communicable diseases like cholera, dysentery and typhoid among others.

"For example, when the rooms flood, most likely the food which may have been kept for the next meal may get contaminated, drinking water gets contaminated as well," he explains.

He also notes that such congested places are a haven for airborne diseases such as tuberculosis among others as well as skin diseases like ringworm.

When it comes to the women like Acen who was bathing in a dirty bathroom which also doubled as a urinal, Bukenya warns of recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs).

"Women are more susceptible to UTIs because of their anatomy. Women have a much shorter urethra than men, which allows bacteria to ascend more easily into the bladder," Bukenya says.

He warns that recurrent UTIs can lead to miscarriages, infertility and pelvic inflammatory disorders among others.

He also warns of upper respiratory infections as a result of the cold flooding environment, which can turn fatal.

NUDIPU speaks out
Esther Kyozira, the head of programmes at the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU) says that unfortunately, despite the dire conditions the disabled community is facing, NUDIPU is not aware of their existence.

"They have not gotten to us about their plight. But even then, we cannot promise to build them houses or provide the wheel chairs. We can only amplify their plight such that organisations with funds can improve their environment," Kyozira notes.