Bukedea town rewards cleanest homes.

trueBy Stephen Ssenkaaba

In the Make Uganda Clean campaign, Vision Group is 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 profile of Bukedea town.

Bukedea town council was formed in 2007, out of Bukedea district. The town, located 30km along Mbale-Soroti highway is home to 15,000 people.

The town was a home to Indians who took advantage of its strategic location along the highway and two railway lines on its fringes and settled there to trade. Rusty iron-sheet buildings constructed by the Indians still line up the streets of the town.

No amount of legislation by council to knock down the structures for better buildings has wiped off the dilapidated structures.

The town continues to grapple with poor sanitation and as findings from a recent Vision Group’s survey on cleanliness indicate, the town needs to pull up its socks. The poll reveals that dustbins in the town are only averagely sufficient, meaning that more are required.

According to Stephen Osomel, the town council health inspector, there is only one garbage truck and four concrete garbage skips. This for an area of more than 10,000 people is hardly sufficient.

According to the poll, the town lacks sufficient toilets. Osomel says there is only one functional public pit latrine at Bukedea cattle market. He, however, adds that council is building two more public pit latrines, which are near completion.

“The challenge we face with the usage of these pit latrines is resistance from the populace. Because these are public facilities, some members of the public feel they should be accessed free of charge. Often, these disturb the people we employ to guard the facilities,” Osomel says.

The town lacks sufficient water. According to Osomel, the town council has 60% safe water coverage with boreholes and spring wells being the main source of water.

About 92.9% of the respondents said they had seen loitering animals in town, especially cows. On overgrown grass, 13.3% had ever seen grown grass in the town. The location of this town on the extreme end of Teso sub region, bordering Bugisu has had some impact on the hygiene and sanitation practices here.

“The fact that this town is located along the highway means people from different ethnic groups have settled in. The settlers have come along with their different sanitation habits, which the town council is trying to reconcile,” Robert Okello, the town council speaker, explains.

This unique winning formula has helped matters, albeit in modest ways as Okello further explains.

“For those that hail from rural areas, the council last year came up with the strategy of rewarding the first and second family that excel in maintenance of sanitation and hygiene in their households.”

For families that come from town, the council holds educative meetings on hygiene and rewards to ensure cleanliness.

“The reward is either a goat or sh100,000. On the eve of the awards, a team comprising the district health inspector, the LC3 chairperson and other technical personnel move around the wards in the town council scouting for the cleanest household.

“These are often households with a pit latrine, bathroom and plate-stand in the compound. Two winners are selected per ward,” Okello stresses.

More than their urban counterparts, people from the rural parts of the town council take this token seriously and have improved hygiene in their households in anticipation of this reward.

Top on the agenda: Increase water supply

Besides the planned construction of a gravitational flow scheme on Mt. Elgon to reinforce pumped-water supply in the town, Osomel says the council is building another water pumping system that will bolster the availability of safe water.

“The government is discouraging construction of boreholes in the urban centres. So we are looking at alternative avenues to increase the number of tap stands in the town,” Osomel explained.

The council has allocated plots to developers whom it closely monitors to ensure they do not deviate from council plan and build unplanned houses on plots allocated to them.

Everyone participates in cleaning the town

- The council occasionally organizes days for general cleaning. Technical personnel, politicians and the council team up with residents to clean the town.

- The LC3 chairperson and other technical personnel move around the wards in the town council scouting for the cleanest household.  Bukedea town council comprises eight wards; Okunguro complex, Oswapai, Kachabul, Okunguro parents, Emokori, Bukedea, Kide and Tamular.

The council has an average annual budget of sh934m out of which sh456m is collected from local revenue while the central government funds the rest of the budget.

Out of this, sh37m is allocated to waste management and sanitation-related activities annually.

In numbers

Sh934m: The annual budget for the town council, sh37m of which is allocated to waste management and sanitation-related activities.

92.9%: The percentage of people who have seen animals loitering in the town centre.

15, 000: The population of the town council.