Kibaale still waiting for Museveni to carry water
May 20, 2009
Under the glowing sunshine, Aida Nandudu of Namiryango Zone in Kagadi town bends in an open well to fill her 20-litre jerrycan.
By Francis Kagolo
Under the glowing sunshine, Aida Nandudu of Namiryango Zone in Kagadi town bends in an open well to fill her 20-litre jerrycan.
Then, she breathes hard and streams of sweat cover her forehead, as she lifts the jerrycan, climbing a fairly steep hill to her home, six kilometres from the well.
“We are suffering. We do not have clean water. That is why we fetch water from this filthy well,†the 29-year-old laments.
The water she has just fetched to prepare her food is contaminated.
This well, which supports hundreds of residents in Kagadi, collects run-off water from the surrounding bare hills.
In Kibaale, it is not rare for the residents to scramble for filthy wells. Women and children walk miles in search of wells, while others fetch water from river streams. Sources of clean water like boreholes are rare.
Contaminated water
Kagadi Town Council had dug up shallow wells which have been condemned for containing water that is contaminated with faeces.
Following complaints from the residents, the district health officials warned the town council against digging more shallow wells.
“There are thousands of pit latrines in Kagadi which are full. Health officials discovered that faeces from these latrines used to mix up with the water in the shallow wells,†says William Kasaija Mugenyi, the Kagadi LCIII chairman.
However, it was also worthless for Kagadi, a town of over 30,000 people, having only four hand-dug shallow wells.
The only borehole in the town belonged to a secondary school, and thus only students accessed it.
The other two boreholes, which had been put up two years ago, no longer function.
Access to clean water is a basic right denied to people in Kibaale.
Statistics from the district water department put the safe water coverage at 53%.
Kibaale which has a population of 551,000 people, only has 383 boreholes, 81 of which no longer function.
There is no town in Kibaale district that has piped water. The Department of Water Development, under the Ministry of Water and Environment, had early this year began on a project to provide piped water to the town but the project stalled and the taps dried. This has left the residents with no option but to queue for dirty water.
Poor sanitation
Statistics from the district water office indicate that more than 192,500 people do not have latrines and therefore defecate in the bushes.
Consequently, the faeces end up in the wells when it rains.
In Kagadi, 60 tonnes of garbage are produced per month, half of which remains uncollected.
High mortality rate
In Kibaale, 90 out of 1,000 infants die every year before the age of one. This is higher than the national mortality rate of 88 children per 1,000 live births.
Medics attribute such high deaths to dehydration from diarrhoea due to contaminated water.
The district health officer, Dr. Dan Kyamanywa, says intestinal worms, diarrhoea and dysentery are among the top ten causes of morbidity. Worms kill more people (70 of every 1,000 deaths) than AIDS.
“Many people are not aware that they must boil water before drinking it and yet much of the water we use is contaminated,†says Franco Agaba, the chairman of Kagadi North LCI.
Contaminated water, coupled with other unhygienic tendencies caused a cholera outbreak in Kibaale last year that killed six people, leaving 50 others on treatment.
Lack of health facilities
Health centres have been hit hard by lack of clean water. At Kagadi Hospital, nurses in the children’s ward are overwhelmed by the daily influx of diarrhoea-infected children.
“We admit over 30 children everyday. Half of these are suffering from diarrhoea,†says Cotildah Mbateranize, the nurse in charge of the ward.
Thirty patients a day seem affordable with good facilities; but not in Kibaale where even the district’s main hospital — Kagadi — lacks basic essentials.
With 550,000 inhabitants and more than half its population below 18 years, Kibaale has only three doctors. “We do not have enough beds and mattresses. We are forced to put three children on the same bed,†said another nurse. “Quinine is the only medicine available in this ward. And we are forced to handle the patients with our bare hands due to lack of gloves,â€she adds.
However, district leaders blame the problem on the population growth rate of 5.2% compared to the national rate of 3.2%.
The LCV chairperson, George-William Namyaka, says this has had adverse implications on service delivery, including the provision of safe water.
“We have been constructing water sources every year but due to the migration of people into the district, a lot of pressure has been exerted on the resources,†he says.
Town councils and district water departments have tried to implement the water supply and sanitation programme by putting up more boreholes, but officials say under funding is the major challenge.
Mugenyi says they are still waiting for the piped water which President Yoweri Museveni promised them during the 2006 elections.
Under the glowing sunshine, Aida Nandudu of Namiryango Zone in Kagadi town bends in an open well to fill her 20-litre jerrycan.
Then, she breathes hard and streams of sweat cover her forehead, as she lifts the jerrycan, climbing a fairly steep hill to her home, six kilometres from the well.
“We are suffering. We do not have clean water. That is why we fetch water from this filthy well,†the 29-year-old laments.
The water she has just fetched to prepare her food is contaminated.
This well, which supports hundreds of residents in Kagadi, collects run-off water from the surrounding bare hills.
In Kibaale, it is not rare for the residents to scramble for filthy wells. Women and children walk miles in search of wells, while others fetch water from river streams. Sources of clean water like boreholes are rare.
Contaminated water
Kagadi Town Council had dug up shallow wells which have been condemned for containing water that is contaminated with faeces.
Following complaints from the residents, the district health officials warned the town council against digging more shallow wells.
“There are thousands of pit latrines in Kagadi which are full. Health officials discovered that faeces from these latrines used to mix up with the water in the shallow wells,†says William Kasaija Mugenyi, the Kagadi LCIII chairman.
However, it was also worthless for Kagadi, a town of over 30,000 people, having only four hand-dug shallow wells.
The only borehole in the town belonged to a secondary school, and thus only students accessed it.
The other two boreholes, which had been put up two years ago, no longer function.
Access to clean water is a basic right denied to people in Kibaale.
Statistics from the district water department put the safe water coverage at 53%.
Kibaale which has a population of 551,000 people, only has 383 boreholes, 81 of which no longer function.
There is no town in Kibaale district that has piped water. The Department of Water Development, under the Ministry of Water and Environment, had early this year began on a project to provide piped water to the town but the project stalled and the taps dried. This has left the residents with no option but to queue for dirty water.
Poor sanitation
Statistics from the district water office indicate that more than 192,500 people do not have latrines and therefore defecate in the bushes.
Consequently, the faeces end up in the wells when it rains.
In Kagadi, 60 tonnes of garbage are produced per month, half of which remains uncollected.
High mortality rate
In Kibaale, 90 out of 1,000 infants die every year before the age of one. This is higher than the national mortality rate of 88 children per 1,000 live births.
Medics attribute such high deaths to dehydration from diarrhoea due to contaminated water.
The district health officer, Dr. Dan Kyamanywa, says intestinal worms, diarrhoea and dysentery are among the top ten causes of morbidity. Worms kill more people (70 of every 1,000 deaths) than AIDS.
“Many people are not aware that they must boil water before drinking it and yet much of the water we use is contaminated,†says Franco Agaba, the chairman of Kagadi North LCI.
Contaminated water, coupled with other unhygienic tendencies caused a cholera outbreak in Kibaale last year that killed six people, leaving 50 others on treatment.
Lack of health facilities
Health centres have been hit hard by lack of clean water. At Kagadi Hospital, nurses in the children’s ward are overwhelmed by the daily influx of diarrhoea-infected children.
“We admit over 30 children everyday. Half of these are suffering from diarrhoea,†says Cotildah Mbateranize, the nurse in charge of the ward.
Thirty patients a day seem affordable with good facilities; but not in Kibaale where even the district’s main hospital — Kagadi — lacks basic essentials.
With 550,000 inhabitants and more than half its population below 18 years, Kibaale has only three doctors. “We do not have enough beds and mattresses. We are forced to put three children on the same bed,†said another nurse. “Quinine is the only medicine available in this ward. And we are forced to handle the patients with our bare hands due to lack of gloves,â€she adds.
However, district leaders blame the problem on the population growth rate of 5.2% compared to the national rate of 3.2%.
The LCV chairperson, George-William Namyaka, says this has had adverse implications on service delivery, including the provision of safe water.
“We have been constructing water sources every year but due to the migration of people into the district, a lot of pressure has been exerted on the resources,†he says.
Town councils and district water departments have tried to implement the water supply and sanitation programme by putting up more boreholes, but officials say under funding is the major challenge.
Mugenyi says they are still waiting for the piped water which President Yoweri Museveni promised them during the 2006 elections.