Napak struggles with rubbish and animals

trueIn the Make Uganda Clean campaign, Vision Group is profiling major urban centres in the country, highlighting their sanitation situation, with a view to promoting proper hygiene in towns. The cleanest towns will be announced on Friday November 29, at the Crested Cranes Hotel in Jinja during the Urban Authorities Association of Uganda’s Annual General Meeting. Today we profile Napak

Napak town is not your typical thriving place. It still struggles to get many things going; has bad roads and has yet to implement a sound development plan. Napak is a town in northern Uganda, found approximately 90km southwest of Moroto, the largest town in Karamoja sub-region.

It is about 340km by road, northeast of Kampala, Uganda’s capital city. The town is largely accessed by road, the road network is deplorable. A recent Vision Group survey has indicated negative views from the residents about the poor state of hygiene in this town.

All respondents reported the existence of a cleaning schedule for the town, and while they were generally hopeful about their town, they expressed dissatisfaction about the way rubbish is managed in their town. Forty percent of our respondents have seen dustbins in the town, especially in the market areas and by the road side. However, they said the dustbins are insufficient. And, 93% said it was not easy to locate a dustbin in the town, a clear sign that more rubbish depositories need to be availed. It is, therefore, not surprising that 80% of the respondents had ever seen someone litter rubbish in the town over the past three months.

A fairly good number of respondents (67%) said they have taken part in an exercise to clean up the town, while 60% claimed to avoid pollution. Seven percent reported to have done nothing to improve the cleanliness of the town. Public toilets are greatly lacking in this town as 73% of respondents observed that toilets here were only averagely clean.

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Animals loitering on Napak roads are a common sight

On average it costs sh187 to access a public toilet here — a little beyond the means of the average Napaka dweller, which means that most people just go wherever they can to defecate. Domestic animals and birds have made the town even dirtier as all respondents said they had seen livestock and poultry loitering the town in the past six months. The biggest culprits are cows, goats, sheep and hens.

The bushy nature of the town has not helped matters as different parts of Napak are covered with overgrown grass. Accordingly, 93% of the respondents had noticed grown grass in the town, with only modest attempts to clear the bushes. Noise in the town goes on unabated. In fact, 67% felt that the town was noisy.

The major causes of noise here include: religious prayers, traders, boda boda riders and motor vehicles. Majority of the roads in the town are mainly murram and the buildings are quite old and without much repair. The town has one planner, a health inspector, one engineer, one lands offi cer, one education officer and an environmental officer.

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