Clean water is the toast of Pakwach

 trueIn the Make Uganda Clean campaign, Vision Group will be profiling 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 Butambala and Pakwach towns.

BY BENEDICT OKETHWENGU AND ELIZABETH NAMAZZI

Pakwach, the gateway to the West Nile region, is a thriving town with a beehive of activities that range from fishing to oil exploration. Its strategic position adjacent to River Nile and Murchison Falls National Game Park would make it one of the best towns to live in. But as Vision Group’s Make Uganda Clean survey revealed, it has key issues to sort out in order to reach its full potential.

All respondents said they knew about a town cleaning schedule and are quite satisfi ed with the general cleanliness of the town, thus a score of 5.4/10. Market areas, streets and dustbins leave a lot to be desired and scored 3.8/10, 2.6/10 and 2.5/10 respectively.

DUSTBINS
Respondents reported that they had ever seen dustbins in the town. However, they were insuffi cient (4.4/10) and very dirty (2.5/10). About 75% of the respondents said most dustbins were seen on the streets and at roadsides, and 63% of respondents reported that it was easy to locate a dustbin.

SEWAGE MANAGEMENT
There is no sewer system in Pakwach. Human waste is managed through pit latrines and septic tanks. For public toilets, 86% of the respondents knew that they exist (three fl ush toilets). However, they were rated as dirty (3.9/10). For sewage bursts, 50% of the respondents had ever witnessed one in Pakwach town with a 2.4/10 score for slow response towards fixing them.

NO TOWN PLAN
Pakwach has been struggling to get a town plan since 1995, when it was elevated to town council status. Acording to the Pakwach town council chairperson, Benson Okumu, most of the buildings were constructed without a plan; in fact others are in the road reserve.

“Although the town plan is in the offing, we have no capacity to effect it very soon,” Okumu says. All the respondents noted that 100% of its buildings have old paint.

ROADS AND ANIMALS
The town also needs new roads. About 63% of the roads are murram and 37% are partially tarmacked, but have many potholes (6.5/10). Goats roam and litter the streets with animal waste. In the past six months, all respondents reported that they had seen livestock and poultry in the town, with cows (5.5/10) as the commonest sight.

LIGHTING
Grid electricity (63%) and kerosene (25%) are the main sources of light. According to Okumu, those who can afford fuel and solar power use them for not more than four hours a night.Most of the residents said the town has functional street lights, although 38% had never seen them. The town has no drainage system, which makes it prone to floods.

“We have submitted a request to the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) to take over the management of our water, so that they sort out the drainage system,” Okumu says.

WATER SUPPLY
Piped water is available to most of the residents with 30% of the respondents accessing it in their homes. It is regular (6.0/10) and clean (5.6/10). The rest use public taps, boreholes and rain water.

TOWN BUDGET
The Pakwach town planner, Stephen Ovurutho, says the town has an annual budget of about sh819m. It is generated from local revenue and central government transfers. He also noted that with funding from Stanbic Bank, they have money to construct a modern abattoir at sh35m, which he said would soon be commissioned.

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PICTURE : BENEDICT OKETHWENGU and Matthias Mugisha

Town needs to clean up its act

Pakwach town council chairperson Benson Okumu says the buzzing population, which he estimated at over 25,000 people, comes with waste management challenges.

“People consider waste management as the sole responsibility of the town council. For instance, we provided garbage skips, but people ignore them while others steal and destroy them,” he says.

The survey showed that 38% of the respondents had ever seen someone litter rubbish in the past three months, while 38% had done nothing to improve the cleanliness of Pakwach town. Only half of the respondents felt the town was clean and was less polluted, while 62% reported that they personally avoid littering to improve Pakwach’s level of cleanliness.

The Pakwach town planner, Stephen Ovurutho, says sh27m of the town’s budget goes to health and sanitation. “With that fund, we collect 14 tonnes of garbage and dump it at the designated waste dumping site that was approved by the National Environmental Authority. We have also constructed a modern abattoir,” he says.

He added that the council has levied an extra sh1,000 in taxes on shop owners to increase revenue for waste management.

KEY ISSUES

A structural plan has been implemented with residential, industrial and commercial areas.
There are eight garbage skips and garbage is collected once a day.
There are two town planners, two health inspectors, an engineer, lands officer, education officer and environmental officer.
There are two permanent and three temporally markets but they do not have garbage skips. There are about 420 market
stalls.

Butambala

Butambala residentstake part in cleaning the town

Although Butambala still has challenges with garbage collection, the authorities have made an effort to clean up their town. The district has acquired land where they will dump and recycle garbage such that it is used as manure. The town dwellers are also sensitised about the advantages of proper garbage disposal

BY ANDREW MASINDE AND ELIZABETH NAMAZZI

Butambala district became operational on July 1, 2010. Its headquarters are located at Gombe, approximately 31km west of Mpigi town and 68km southwest of Kampala. In 2010, the district’s population was estimated at about 98,200 people.

GARBAGE DISPOSAL
According to the town mayor, Hassan Kalule Semugya, the council has one truck, which collects garbage around the town and takes it to the dumping centres. However, Vision Group’s Make Uganda Clean survey revealed that 17% of respondents had ever seen someone litter rubbish in the past three months and only 6% avoid littering.

However, Kalule says the town’s sensitisation programme has largely informed people about garbage management.

“We have a bulungi bwansi(cleaning) programme, where we sensitise people about cleanliness once a month. People’s attitudes have been positive, that is why the town is clean,” Kalule says. 

As a result of the cleaning programme, 33% of the residents have taken part in town cleaning exercises, 6% have done nothing to improve its cleanliness, while 33% have sensitised other people about living in a clean environment.

However, 63% rated Butambala as polluted, yet only 11% avoid pollution activities like burning. To a large extent, the town is rated as averagely clean (5.3/10) with cleaning schedules available for the town (67%), market areas (80%) and to a less extent the roads and streets (40%) and dustbins (20%).

However, respondents were unsatisfied with the cleanliness of the market areas (4.9/10), streets and roads (4.2/10) and waste bins (3.0/10), which were also rated as very insuffi cient (0.6/10) and diffi cult to fi nd (67%).

SEWAGE MANAGEMENT
There is no central sewer system and no sewage burst had been seen by respondents. Ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrines serve as public toilets, although only 27% of the respondents were aware of their existence. They were rated as very dirty (1.8/10).

“We introduced VIP latrines in the town. Now, everyone who builds in the town council must have a VIP latrine, a policy that has positively contributed to the sanitation of the town,” Kalule adds.

ROADS AND BUILDINGS
The council has no tarmacked roads. “We want to tarmac all the roads, but the funds are not available,” Kalule laments. Most roads are either murram (53%) or levelled ground (40%) fi lled with potholes (4.5/10).

As is the case in most towns, most of Butambala’s buildings have old paint (93%). Grid electricity (73%) was reported as the main source of lighting and 73% had ever seen street lights in working condition. However, 26% said there were no street lights.

The public well (40%) and borehole (40%) were reportedly the main sources of water. The water was very irregular (Score 2.5/10) and relatively clean (5.6/10).

NOISE IN BUTAMBALA
Most of the respondents (67%) feel that Butambala town is not noisy. However, there are a few instances of noise as a result of religious prayers (20%), boda boda riders (13%) and motor vehicles (7%).

LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY
Of the respondents, 40% had ever seen livestock and poultry loitering in Butambala town in the past six months. These included goats (33%), cows (20%), sheep (13%) and chicken (7%). However, these animals irregularly loiter in Butambala town 2.3/10.

About 27% of the residents had noticed overgrown grass in Butambala town and the grass maintenance levels were rated as relatively good (Score 5.5/10).

BUDGET CONSTRAINTS
Kalule says the council operates on a budget of sh255m, with 4% coming from local revenue. The rest is provided by the central government.

However, only sh9.5m is meant for sanitation. Kalule says the council employs cleaners who clean the town daily.

“We are affected by the small budget, which compromises our services. Some people disobey the rules of sanitation by littering, but we are going to start punishing them. There is also too much dust in the town since the whole of Butambala is murram,” Kalule laments.

For sanitation, Kalule says the council has plans of improving garbage management in the town.

“We procured land to use as a dumping ground. Our plan is to recycle the garbage so that people can use it as manure. We also tried to distribute dustbins in the residential areas and employed private garbage collectors who collect garbage every day,” Kalule says.