Inside Jinja's outer beauty

Sep 24, 2013

Shortly before you cross the Nalubale Bridge, the panorama of the leafy aura augmented by what appears to be a well-planned line of tiled houses awakens the bliss to Jinja. T

By Watuwa Timbiti and Charles Kakamwa
In the Make Uganda Clean campaign, Vision Group will be profi ling major urban centres in the country highlighting their sanitation situation, culminating into a gala night on November 25, where the cleanest towns will be recognised. Today we bring you profi les of Jinja municipality and Mityana towns

Shortly before you cross the Nalubale Bridge, the panorama of the leafy aura augmented by what appears to be a well-planned line of tiled houses awakens the bliss to Jinja. The bizarre, however, presents when the eyes take a dash into the alleyways in the town and a stroll downwards illuminates the fact that the roads, although wider compared to the paths in Kampala, are visibly littered and dusty.

According to a Vision Group survey, over 89% of the respondents said Jinja had a cleaning schedule for the town, roads/streets and market. At least 40% of the respondents indicated the town was cleaned daily while 38% believed it was cleaned two to three times a week. Overall, the majority of the residents expressed satisfaction with the cleanliness of the town (7.8/10).

Although 93% of the respondents acknowledged having seen dustbins in the town, the dustbins are insuffi cient, scoring 4.3/10) and dirty - 4.5/10. Located 87km east of the capital Kampala, Jinja was just a fi shing village till 1907 when the colonial administration developed it as the headquarters for the Busoga region.

It was elevated to a municipality in 1956. With a day population of 220,000 today, Jinja was Uganda’s industrial hub between 1954 and late 1970s. Today, it is however a ghost of it’s industrial past. In the Vision Group, at least 71% of the respondents admitted having seen someone litter rubbish in the town in the past three months.

Nevertheless, 80% of the respondents consider Jinja a clean town. Majority have not undertaken any effort in enhancing the town’s hygiene, according to the survey. For instance, 35% of the respondents have done nothing to improve the cleanliness of the town though 30% said they personally avoided littering. On the other hand, only 4% presented knowledge of environmental awareness by avoiding pollution activities like burning and an additional 7% had sensitised people about living in a clean environment.


Garbage near Jinja Central Market along

However, Rachael Mateeka, who operates an internet café on Main Street, notes that the town is still grappling with a stench that town authorities have not fully cleared despite their efforts. “The same applies to faeces, why can leaders not find out who is responsible for human excreta scattered in town? Especially in places that have dustbins and rubbish skips,” she wonders. Unlike other towns, the majority of the residents considered Jinja relatively well lit with 91% of the respondents saying they saw functional street lights.

The town’s road network is fairly bearable with 56% of the roads tarmacked. However, there are many potholes rated with a score of 5.8/10. Despite that, Tausi Nakato, a resident on Iganga Road says the town needs an overhaul targeting buildings and roads. “The newly introduced garbage collection system is not effective as garbage from households sometimes stays on the roadsides for days waiting to be collected,” Nakato said Initially, rubbish would be thrown in rubbish skips at gazetted places and then it would be collected.

Open drainage on Crescent Avenue

The skips have now been withdrawn and now trucks collect rubbish from people’s premises by the roadside. Piped water is the main source of water either into residences (36%) or public tap (49%). “Other water sources mentioned included the borehole, river and spring wells. Just as the case is in most towns of Uganda, Jinja, too, has the problem of loitering poultry/animals. Whereas 27% acknowledge having seen sewage bursts in the town, they added that the response to fi x the problem is slow, earning the town a score of 3.6/10

. “About half of the respondents had ever seen open soak pits/manholes in the town. Although, 91% of the respondents expressed knowledge of public toilets in the town, at an average cost of usage of sh203 per visit, the public toilets, however, are dirty, attracting a score of 4.3/10. The survey states that less than half of the respondents had noticed overgrown grass in town scoring 6.5/10).

Only 40% of the respondents reported the existence of gardens/ planted trees in Jinja town, noting that the gardens were well maintained, thus scoring 7/10. Rajab Kitto, the municipal public relations officer, attributes the dust on the streets to blocked water drainage channels and unpaved roadsides.

He, however, says they have plans to beautify the town and improve the roads and drainages. As part of garbage management, traders without dustbins will have their trading licences withdrawn and prosecuted under the Public Health Act for endangering people’s lives,” Kitto said

Well maintained round-about



PR OFFICER’S VIEW
The drainages were constructed in the 1960s when the population was small. With the level of development over the years, the drainages cannot handle the large volume of runoff water from buildings thus, soil erosion,” Rajab Kitto explains

Mityana market has no toilet
Watuwa Timbiti and Luke Kagiri


 “It has rained, do not bother to come to the market because you will get diseases instead of the food you want,” a phone call from a friend, operating in Mityana central market alerted me. Although my friend wanted to save us from the mess in the market, as a result of the down pour, my curiosity forced to go to this market which has about 1000 people. Visibly, the traders are at a loss; the customers cannot buy anything from them because of the fl ood and heaps of spilling rubbish.

One of the busy streets in Mityana. Photos by Luke Kagiri

“We have never had a toilet in this market and we are forced to walk to the taxi park, where we pay for the only public to toilet in town,” she laments. Mohammed Naserenga, the market chairperson, confi rms the absence of a toilet in the market. The absence of a toilet for the market validates the fi ndings of the survey done by Vision Group. The survey found out that the town whose population is estimated at 45,000 people has dirty public toilets. According to the survey, 30% of the respondents are aware of public toilets in the town. Worse still, the public toilets, whose average cost of accessibility is sh123 per visit are dirty, scoring 3.4/10).

Only 10% of the respondents had ever seen sewage bursts in the town and they reported that even in the circumstances, the response to fi x the anomaly are always slow, attracting a score of 3.0/10. About 90% of the respondents said there was a cleaning schedule for the town, market areas and dustbins. “On the overall, residents are satisfi ed with the cleanliness of the town. Majority of the respondents (93.3%) acknowledge having seen dustbins in the town and are relatively suffi cient, scoring 5.2/10. “The dust bins were mostly seen in the markets, streets/road side and other places such as individual shops.

“Sixty percent reported it was easy to locate a dustbin in the town,” the survey states. On the other hand, 30% of the respondents remember having seen someone litter the town in the past three months. However, 87% consider the town clean.On the other hand, however, 25% of the respondents have done little to improve the town’s cleanliness, 25% have taken part in cleaning exercises, 25% have avoided pollution activities like burning and an additional 25% had sensitised people about living in a clean environment.

Although electricity and the generator are the main sources of power, no respondent has ever seen a working street light in the town. Sixty percent of the respondents did not know whether the streets were lit and safe at night and 40% said the streets were not safe at night. Only 20% of the roads are tarmacked. “There are few pot holes rated with a score of 2.4/10. Majority of the buildings (90%) have old paint,” the survey notes. Although piped water is the main source of water, it is irregular and not clean, scoring 3.8/10 and 4.0/10, respectively. On wandering livestock/poultry, 80% say they have ever seen livestock/poultry loitering in the town in the past six months.

Although 40% acknowledge seeing overgrown grass in town, it’s maintenance levels are good, thus a score of 6.1/10. Although 20% of the respondents reported the existence of gardens/planted trees, they are not well maintained, scoring 2/10. No respondent had ever been subjected to a form of crime in the town, although robbery with no violence and burglary of stock items are the lead crimes.

Mityana has a population of about 45000 people. Majority of the people are traders. According to the town clerk, Gonzaga Ssebulime, three toilets in the town have been closed due to nonpayment by the users. Lawrence Ssemboga, a teacher, says: “Sanitation is too poor. We see the truck around, but we do not see any work being done. This is putting our lives at a risk of contracting deadly diseases,” he says


Top on the agenda:
Build toilets for the market


The town clerk, Gonzaga Ssebulime said garbage skips have been procured through NEMA and more will be acquired. He added that the town has a sh120m annual fund, from Norway for sanitation and that the biggest percentage of this money shall be used to sensitise people on health and sanitation.

Andrew Muganga, a trader, says the authorities should share the challenges they are facing with the people. “We need to cooperate with the town council leadership to sort out the sanitation problem, the situation is so bad,” he says. “It is true it has taken so long to have a toilet for the market traders, but we have identifi ed a place for constructing the toilet,” Ssebulime explains.

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