Kalisizo and Ngora towns trying to rise

trueIn the Make Uganda Clean campaign, Vision Group is profiling major urban centres in the country, highlighting their sanitation, culminating into a gala night on November 25, where the cleanest towns will be recognized. Today we bring you profiles of Kalisizo and Ngora towns.

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Kalisizo bogged down by sanitation woes By Stephen Ssenkaaba & Dismus Buregyeya

The name ‘Kalisizo’ conjures up images of a place far removed from modernity. But names can be deceptive; this town is not as far from modernity as its name suggests.

Kalisizo is a town on the southerly precincts of Uganda, close to Masaka and Mutukula on the Uganda-Tanzania border. The town sprung up in 1944 as a result of trading activities of the Asian communities that lived there.

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Kalisizo has well-maintained drainage channels. PHOTO/Dismus Buregyeya

It was elevated to town council status under Kalisizo sub-county in Rakai district in 2003. This thriving town is fast turning into a lively metropolis that will soon rival leading towns in Uganda. But to achieve that, it will have to clean up its mess first.

A recent Vision Group survey reveals a town on the rise, but one that is being held back by poor sanitation in some parts, a lethargic attitude to cleanliness and lack of sufficient facilities to rake up the murk that sometimes makes it look like a kraal.

The survey sampled a number of local residents who suggested that while the town was relatively clean, several issues still affect sanitation there. The findings indicate that the town has cleaning schedules and, overall, the residents are satisfied with the general cleanliness, giving it a 7.4/10 score.true

However, there are still a number of challenges regarding cleanliness of the markets and dustbins.

Sixty percent of our respondents reported to have ever seen dustbins in the town council, but these bins were scored as being insufficient, at a score of 3.4/10, and only relatively clean at an average 5.5/10 score.

According to information from the town health assistant’s office, there are 16 skips and garbage is collected once a month.

These skips are about 100m apart. Kalisizo has one market that has 25 stalls and has garbage skips owned by the town council. For a town with a population of between 39,000 to 60,000 people, this is not sufficient.

“Local revenue is still too inadequate to match our plans on sanitation and hygiene. As such, garbage collection remains a challenge due to the high costs involved in executing this exercise.”

Ntambazi says the town runs on a budget of sh9.46b annually. Out of this, sh808m comes from the central government and sh138m from the local revenue.

The local revenue is mainly raised from the taxi park, local services tax, trade licences, markets dues and abattoirs. Out of this, sh1.2m is dedicated to routine cleaning and sh19.8m to garbage collection. Thirty-three percent of the respondents reported having seen sewage bursts in the town.

Whenever these bursts occur, the response to fix them is slow leading to a 1.7/10 below average score. Human waste is managed through the pit latrines and septic tanks. Sixty-seven percent of the respondents said they are aware of the public toilets, but they are dirty.

The average cost of accessing the toilets is sh100. The town has done a commendable job on maintaining green spaces. Indeed, only 13% of our respondents claimed to have seen overgrown grass in the area.

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Garbage skip built by residents in an alley. PHOTO/Dismus Buregyeya

Respondents reported that most of the green spaces here were well-maintained, earning Kalisizo a decent 6.9/10 score. Seventy-five percent of the respondents reported having access to piped water.

Other sources of water include springs/wells, rain water and wells. Kalisizo has one health inspector, one engineer, one education officer, an environment officer, but no town planner and no lands officer. 

Good practices

Ntambazi explains: “We carry out a monthly general cleaning exercise every Thursday. We also hire casual labourers who sweep the town daily. We also maintain flower gardens, green spaces and trees on a daily basis.”

He added that the town council has a by-law to ensure that sanitation and hygiene standards are observed.

Plans

Ntambazi said there is a plan to improve the daily cleaning of the town and the budget has been increased from sh1.2m to sh2m per month. Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) in town will be mobilised to contribute towards the general cleaning days.

There is a plan to map out strategies of increasing the local tax base of Kalisizo town council. The judiciary will be involved in handling culprits found littering garbage and animals loitering in the town.

There is a plan to procure the Keep Kalisizo Clean placards and posters to increase the cleanliness awareness.

Mayor's view

Mayor Richard Ntambazi says garbage is picked from gazetted areas and taken to the main dumping site at Mitima near the town. He, however, notes that garbage collection remains a challenge. 

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Ngora is a baby struggling to stand By Stephen Ssenkaaba & Godfrey Ojore

Ngora is a young town, born in 2007. It is not a terribly populated town, but as it upgrades, garbage and filth are slowly creeping in.

“My son if you had come last week, the stench from this garbage bin would not have allowed you stand here for more than a minute. We could not eat from here,” Janet Alupo, a charcoal seller in Ngora main market, said wringing her nose.

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The main street of Ngora town. PHOTO/Godfrey Ojore

According to Alupo, garbage is collected every after two weeks even when the garbage bins are overflowing. This is because the town council has no driver for the garbage tractor.

“We have one driver in the whole town council. When the garbage bins fill up, we ask him to pick the garbage on a weekend at a small fee,” says the town clerk, Emmanuel Olaro.

There are only three casual labourers who help to slash the lawns in the whole town council that covers 10 square kilometres. The town comprises four divisions. There are only six garbage bins for the entire population of 14.300, indicating the dire need for more sanitary facilities.

There are no paved drainage channels within the town centre. When it rains the town gets flooded with all sorts of filth.

A survey conducted by Vision Group between August 26 and September 6 revealed that even though the town is generally clean, it is still grappling with sanitation issues such as inadequate dustbins and poor toilet facilities.

In this survey, 93% of the respondents reported availability of cleaning schedules for the town. On the overall, the residents say they are averagely satisfied with the cleanliness of the town, scoring 5.3/10 on the issue. But the market area and the dustbins are still lacking.

All respondents claim they have seen dustbins in the town. However, they find these insufficient. And perhaps because of the inadequacy of dustbins, 67% of the respondents say they have seen someone litter the town in the past three months.

John Omaido, the LC3 chairman, says the town is operating on budget of about sh1.18b, this financial year. Out of this, sh8m has been put aside for sanitation.

“Out of the sh8m, sh6m is for buying land to be turned into a dumping site, and sh2m for buying dustbins,” Omaido says.

Sewage spills are not yet a threat here. Indeed, no respondent claims to have seen a burst sewer in the town. However, public toilets are not clean, according to 87% of the respondents. On average it costs sh213 to access a public toilet; not too expensive for an ordinary Ngora resident.

The town has one or two places teeming with overgrown grass. Indeed, 33% of our respondents reported having noticed overgrown, poorly maintained grass in town. Eighty percent of therespondents have seen livestock and poultry loitering in Ngora town council in the past six months.

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A heap of garbage near the town’s main street. PHOTO/Godfrey Ojore

According to the office of the physical planner, only 9.78% of the population has access to piped water. The main sources of water are boreholes, springs, wells and rain. Human waste is managed through the pit latrines.

The town lacks a central sewerage system. The tow has only one town planner, a health inspector, two engineers, no lands officer, no education officer and no environment officer. There is one market with garbage skips owned by the public. “We plan to purchase more garbage bins to increase the number of garbage bins from the current six to at least 15,” says Olaro.

Olaro also says they are planning to recruit drivers and fill other positions in the town council to enhance service delivery.

Ngora has nine government-aided and six privately owned primary schools. There are two government and four private secondary schools. They also have a primary teachers college, a nursing training school and vocational institute. There is also health centre IV that serves the whole district.

Good practices

A team of officers led by the principal health inspector is meeting people in each ward sensitising them on the benefits of maintaining their areas of residence clean. They have put bylaws that restrict people from keeping animals in town where offenders are charged sh20,000 per cow.

Toilets

Sewage spills are not yet a threat here. Indeed, no respondent had seen sewer burst in the town. However, public toilets are not clean according to 87% of respondents. On average it costs sh213 to access a public toilet, not expensive for an ordinary Ngora resident.

Roads

The town has 800m of tamarck that was constructed in the early 1980s by central government. The rest of the roads are only levelled. About 3km out of 58.9km of the road network in the town council is murrum.

Mayor’s view

Mayor John Omaido says as a young town council, Ngora does not have a garbage dumping site and the budget is too small. This, he says, constrains their efforts; but all the same, they have embarked on a sensitisation campaign on hygiene in all the wards.

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