Water treatment costs rise in Fort Portal

A wire mesh fixed under the bridge on River Mpanga in Fort Portal Town to block plastic bottles and other waste materials. Photo by Felix Basiime.  

In Summary

·         Appeal. The officials have asked residents to ensure water safety in order to reduce costs.

·         The NWSC manager Fort Portal branch, Mr Denis Muramuzi, urged residents to cooperate and ensure water safety in the area

(http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Water-treatment-costs-rise---officials/688334-3381320-ysapkc/index.html)

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 15 2016

By Felix Basiime

Kabarole. The cost of treating water for public consumption in Fort Portal Municipality has trippled in the last six years due to the pollution of River Mpanga, officials have said.

“The chemical consumption at National water sewerage corporation (NWSC) Fort Portal plant has increased by 3.1 times, from 0.0120 Kg/unit of water to 0.0375 Kg/unit of water treated between 2010 to 2016,” Mr John Paul Onencan, the quality control technician, NWSC Fort Portal area said recently.

Mr Onencan said it is now costly for the corporation to filter the polluted water from the main source since a lot of chemical is needed to have the water purified.

The NWSC manager Fort Portal branch, Mr Denis Muramuzi, urged residents to cooperate and ensure water safety in the area.

“It may result into high costs of tap water and also cause water borne diseases to those who consume it directly,” Mr Muramuzi said.

Recently, Kabarole District chairperson Richard Rwabuhinga, appealed to the people living along River Mpanga banks to stop polluting the water source as it also constrains neighbouring districts of Kyenjojo, Kamwenge, Kiruhura and Ibanda.

Mr Rwabuhinga said activities like the washing bay, processing plants, waste disposal pits on the river banks have contributed to the water pollution. He also blamed the situation on weak laws and poor financing of the management committees by the ministry of Water and Environment.
However, Mr Rwabuhinga asked residents to cooperate.

Uganda traditional king arrested over deadly clashes

Rwenzururu King Charles Wesley Mumbere at his coronation anniversary on October 19, 2009

Photo by Felix Basiime

(http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Uganda-traditional-king-arrested-over-deadly-clashes/2558-3467002-usbkj5/index.html)

By FELIX BASIIME in Kampala

Posted  Sunday, November 27   2016 at  18:50

Ugandan traditional king Omusinga wa Rwenzururu Charles Wesley Mumbere was arrested Sunday following fresh clashes in the Rwenzori region

He was reportedly picked up from his Buhikira Royal Palace in Kasese town by the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) in a joint operation with police.

Mr Mubere was later airlifted to Kampala.

Security forces

His arrest came just hours after police said at least 55 people were killed in fierce fighting that erupted in western Uganda between security forces and a separatist militia.

Police spokesman Andrew Felix Kaweesi said 14 police officers and 41 militants had died in the clashes on Saturday, when fighters linked to the royal guard of the Rwenzururu kingdom attacked patrolling security forces.

"Yesterday a joint Uganda police and UPDF (army) operation, patrolling in Kasese town... came under attack by Royal Guards of the kingdom. The attackers threw an improvised grenade which exploded and injured one soldier. Security forces reacted and shot in self-defence, killing four attackers," said Mr Kaweesi.

Explosive devices

"That incident set of an explosion in all local sub-counties. Fighting continued from morning to late evening."

Mr Kaweesi said the attackers -- not all of who were royal guards -- had guns, spears and improvised explosive devices.

River Mpanga pollution leaves residents thirsty

A wire mesh set under one of the bridges on River Mpanga in Fort Portal Town to block plastic bottles and other waste as one of the ways of keeping the river free of pollution. PHOTOS BY FELIX BASIIME 

According to Edgar Muganzi, the coordinator of Natural Resources Defence Initiatives, the plan involves replacement of eucalyptus trees upstream with more appropriate trees like Grevillia robusta

(http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/River-Mpanga-pollution-leaves-residents-thirsty/688334-3465154-7t4nbuz/index.html)

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 26 2016

In Summary

·         River Mpanga is the main source of water for the people around it.

·         Saturday Monitor’s Felix Basiime explores how pollution of the river is affecting the livelihood of those who depend on it.

·         Of late, the ministry of Water and Environment, in partnership with Protos, has stepped up measures to save and protect river Mpanga.

By Felix Basiime

George Akuguzibwe is a sand and stone miner in the hilly Karangura areas in Kabarole District. He is the chairman of Karangura Stone Quarry, a group of 50 members mining stones and sand upstream of River Mpanga.
“We have been in this business since 1990, through which I have managed to educate my children,” he proudly says. Akuguzibwe thinks his job is solving a bigger problem that people face during the rainy season.

“During the mining, we de-silt (scooping sand in the river) the river and this stops it from bursting its banks during the rainy season,” he explains.
Asked whether he and his colleagues know that what they are doing is affecting the river, especially the flora and fauna downstream, Akuguzibwe says: “Yes, we know, but government does not help us. If government gives us an alternative economic activity, we can abandon this one.”
River Mpanga flows from the Rwenzori mountains through the districts of Kabarole, Kyenjojo and Kamwenge and then feeds into Lake George.

However, during the rainy season, the colour of the water from the river turns dark brown as a result of siltation due to sand and stone mining on its banks upstream in Karangura.
“River Mpanga is the major source of water for people around it, including National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) and once the river is polluted, people who use its water for drinking risk getting water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid,” Lieven Peeters, the coordinator of Protos, an NGO, says.
Protos and Natural Resources Defence Initiatives (NRDI) are non-governmental organisations dedicated to better water management.
Officials at NWSC plant in Fort Portal say in the last six years, water treatment costs have tripled as they use more chemicals than before to purify the water, according to Denis Muramuzi, the NWSC Fort Portal branch manager.

NWSC has more than 7,000 water connections (households) in Fort Portal town alone and of late, consumers have complained of the colour of the water pumped into their homes.
Nyakato Rusoke, a resident of Fort Portal Town, recently shared her frustration about the quality of the water with the public when she posted on social media: “I collected water from a tap this early morning and I thought I would use it to prepare breakfast. What I saw defeated my understanding! Why should consumers part with their hard earned money to pay for such dirty water? In my lay man’s view, this water is not fit to even be used in a toilet, because it will leave it stained! I have observed this for some time.”

The source area in the Rwenzori mountains is currently under high pressure mainly due to deforestation on the slopes. Loss of tree cover is leading to important changes in the river bank characteristics and has started to impact on the river itself.
“Loss of tree cover upstream causes run off that results into siltation of the river and the lake downstream,” observes Peeters. 
He adds: “Of recent, there has been an increase in the number permanent houses near the river, car washing bays, sand mining activities, brick laying and crop production on the river beds, all of which cause silting of the river.”
In Fort Portal Town, washing bays have been established just 20 metres from the river banks as opposed to the recommended 200 metres.

This allows oils and other chemicals from the vehicles to pour into the river, thereby contaminating the water. 
Pit-latrines at Mpanga Market in Fort Portal Town were constructed along the river, allowing faecal matter to spill directly into the river whenever it rains, making the water unfit for consumption.
The degradation of the river is also threatening the power production at the Mpanga hydropower plant downstream at Mpanga Falls as water levels fluctuate.
Lake George at the downstream faces several serious threats related to the rivers flowing into it and the management of its fisheries resource.

Residents of all fishing villages around Lake George say the water level of the lake has been going down over the years. 
Nicholas Kabagambe, the secretary of Kayinja Beach Management Unit at Lake George, says: “The fish breading grounds at the shores of Lake George have been affected due to siltation, so we are have been experiencing less fish catch over the last three or so years.”
Victoria Birungi who sells fish at Katunguru Trading Centre in Kasese District, shares the same story.
“In the past (2011), I used to buy between 200 and 300 fresh fish from the landing sites but now I get just between 30 and 50 fish because of pollution of the fish breeding grounds on Lake George,” she says.

Interventions

Of late, the ministry of Water and Environment, in partnership with Protos, has stepped up measures to save and protect river Mpanga. The authorities prepared a catchment management plan (CMP), which aims at creating public awareness on the importance of conserving the environment.
According to Edgar Muganzi, the coordinator of Natural Resources Defence Initiatives, the plan involves replacement of eucalyptus trees upstream with more appropriate trees like Grevillia robusta.

“We are replacing eucalyptus trees with fruit trees, sensitising communities, regulating washing bays and demarcating the buffer zones,” he says.
Fort Portal Municipal Council has also launched alternative packaging materials in order to stop polluting the river with polythene bags.

The Water ministry has also formed Albert Water Management Zone as one of the initiatives to save the river Its team leader, Mr Albert Orijabo, says: “Some interventions upstream include sorting waste and conservation preparations of tree nursery beds and sensitising the communities.” 

He adds: “Downstream in Kamwenge District, we have established fish ponds in Mutamba wetland to protect the Mutamba wetland system with the aim of enticing the communities to see the wetland as a resource.”

However, the Kabarole District environment officer, Godfrey Ruyonga, says law enforcement and monitoring, among other interventions to protect River Mpanga, have been affected by politics. 

“There is a lot of political interference that brings down enforcement, especially in the upstream area. Some politicians advise people against giving up sand mining,” he says.

Early marriage ruining girls’ future

Biira Samanya with her baby.Photo by Scovi Atuhaire

“…girls should be strong during hardships,” Biira says, suggesting that it is only strength and the will of God that can make one survive through.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 8 2016

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artsculture/Reviews/Early-marriage-ruining-girls--future/691232-3372938-6jgh9k/index.html

In Summary

Many young girls continue to suffer at the hands of people who ought to have protected them. Research indicates that many are forced to drop out of school and married off at an early age.

By FELIX BASIIME & SCOVIA ATUHAIRE

It is a bright Monday morning in Kasese District but Samanya Biira is not anywhere around school or intending to get there any soon. 

In 2015 the 15-year-old girl was asked to leave school because she could no longer be sustained without paying dues or buying scholastic materials.

However, within that period, she says, a man convinced her that he would pay her school fees but instead turned against his promise defiling her and impregnating her in the process.

The case was reported to police but the man, whose name has been omitted because he is still a suspect, is still at large.

Fortunately, Biira was allowed to sit her Primary Leaving Exams and she had to do some of her papers on the hospital bed in 2015 after she went into labour in the middle of exams. She obtained 26 aggregates.

Joining secondary school 
She hopes to attain secondary education at her preferred school choice, Mugunu Secondary School because it is nearer to her home. This will afford her the luxury of looking after the baby as well as attending school. 

For Biira it was a hard lesson but it has made her grow and see things in a more mature way at her age. 

“…girls should be strong during hardships,” Biira says, suggesting that it is only strength and the will of God that can make one survive through.

Biira is a mirror image of the plight of the girl-child that continues to be abused in much of the Rwenzori sub-region. 

Jostas Mwebembezi, an IT personnel at Ride Africa, says there is a gap in providing sex education, according to a research study that was conducted about sex education in western Uganda in 2015.

Ride Africa, a non-governmental organisation, integrates technology that amplifies the reporting of different forms of child abuses in the Rwenzori sub-region including early child marriage.

“Our children might be at risk of having sex early. We have a lot of trouble trying to educate our children about sex education,” the research findings released in February read in part. 

The research was carried out in the districts of Bundibugyo, Hoima, Kabarole, Ntoroko, Kyegegwa, Kamwenge, Kasese, Kibaale, Kyenjojo, Masindi, and Buliisa.

According to Mwebembezi, one in every four adolescent girls in western Uganda has had a teenage pregnancy. Girls with primary level education, Mwebembezi says, are twice more likely to have had sex compared to those in secondary schools.

The research findings also shows that girls who have never attended school are 50 per cent more likely to be sexually active with 53 per cent more likely to be married at a very early age. 

About 14 per cent of young women in the age group of 15 and 24 had their first sexual intercourse early in life, the research findings indicates.

More than 31,000 children are estimated to be heading households in Uganda, according to data compiled by Uganda Bureau of Statistics during the 2014 National Housing and Population census. 

Research findings show that only four out of 10 young males and females aged between 15 and 24 have comprehensive knowledge about HIV prevention while one in every four girls aged between 15 and 19 has begun child-bearing or is pregnant with their first child.

Vulnerable children 
Nearly all Ugandan children (96 per cent) are vulnerable with 43 per cent (7.3 million) suffering moderate from vulnerability while 8 per cent (1.3 million) suffer from critical vulnerability.

Up to two million children aged between five and 17 years in Uganda are engaged in some form of work with up to 507,000 involved in hazardous work while between eight and 10 children in primary and secondary school experience sexual violence.

In Kasese District, nearly 74 children are abused every month in five sub-counties while two in every five women aged between 20 and 24 were married or in a union before 18 years, according to Mwebembezi.

A survey conducted by Joy for Children Uganda in 2013 in the mountainous sub-counties of Kabarole District in Karangura, Kabonero, and Kateebwa mainly inhabited by the Bakonjo, found that child marriage is the leading cause of school dropouts among girls. At Nyarukamba Primary School in Karangura Sub-county, the rate of school dropout of girls was at 15 per cent in 2009 and 10 per cent in 2012. The girls are married off in exchange for property including cows, goats and other household items.

The same survey indicates that 14 of those dropping out did not sit their Primary Leaving Examination, especially at Nyarukamba Primary School in Karangura Sub-county. 
Many of them, research findings shows, are negotiated into marriage by their parents. 
Cases have been reported to police but many are never investigated to their logical conclusion.

Why early marriages are high
According to Mwebembezi, teenagers from poor backgrounds are more likely to start child-bearing early compared to those in relatively well-off households.

This also applies to teenagers with no formal education that are thrice more likely to start child-bearing early as opposed to those with secondary education.

Research conducted by Unicef indicates that girls who marry before 18 years are more likely to suffer domestic violence such as sexual violence at the hands of their partners.

Young married girls also tend to be more isolated, exacerbating their vulnerability and are more likely to extend the vulnerability to their children, thus perpetuating intergenerational cycles of poverty and gender discrimination.

About Samanya Biira 
Diversification

Biira is the fifth born in a family of eight children. She was born in Nyamatunga 1, Bukangala parish, Mugunyu Sub-county in Kasese District.

Her father died while still young surviving with her peasant mother, Kyakimwa Nakyanzi. 
Biira plans to start farming with the view of planting eggplants and other crops for sell. 
She believes through farming she will get a source of income that she can use to look after her baby.

Agriculture officials accused of fraud

Left to Right: Operation Wealth Creation officials Maj Deo Kajwara and Maj James Nkojo, Ms Florence Musiime, a resident, and the head of communications at Operation Wealth Creations, Ms Sarah Kagingo, inspect the dumped coffee seedlings in Isunga, Kasese District on Monday. PHOTO BY Scovia Atuhairwe 

Several government officials have been implictated in fraud, especially in the supply chain, following an operation launched by Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) in the Rwenzori sub-region.

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 17 2016

By Felix Basiime, Enid Ninsiima & Scovia Atuhaire

Kasese/Kabarole.

[http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Agriculture-officials-accused-of-fraud/688334-3347908-154f1o7z/index.html]

Several government officials have been implictated in fraud, especially in the supply chain, following an operation launched by Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) in the Rwenzori sub-region.

The 11-day operation code-named; “Fagia Uwizi”, loosely translated as ‘flash out the thieves’, aims at weeding out the mess in the project.

“The President is tired of spending money that ends in people’s pockets, leaving no impact on the ground. We shall not leave any stone unturned this time, but we have a major challenge of political interference instead of being monitors for government programmes,” the OWC head of communications, Ms Sarah Kagingo, said on Monday.

So far, police in Kasese District are holding one suspect on charges of theft while the OWC team is investigating financial loss, impersonation and forgery, among others.

When contacted, the Kasese municipality officer in-charge of criminal investigations, Mr Ibra Batasi, said details of the matter were to be revealed later when investigations are complete.

“It is true we have arrested the UCDA [Uganda Coffee Development Authority] official, but I only have two statements of the suspect and of the complainants meaning that the information we have is not complete,” he said. Other officials implicated include sub-county chiefs, auditors who are accused of forging lists of beneficiaries and signatures of the OWC coordinators.

Documents seen by Daily Monitor show the district internal auditor having verified a list of coffee supplied to Rukooki Sub-county that had, among others, a signature of the OWC coordinator, Lt Col Medhi K Baguma, which Ms Kagingo and team said was forged.

Government released Shs4 million coffee seedlings to Kasese between July and November 2015 season and Shs6.9m coffee seedlings from March to May, but the operation team has not found the coffee trees.

“It is unbelievable that UCDA officials have been creating ghost nursery bed operators and farmers and government has been spending money on non-existent people,” Ms Kagingo said.

The same UCDA official also forged a supply to three nursery operators in Muhokya Sub-county where he purportedly supplied 135,000 coffee seedlings but were not traced.

“I have gone to the field to find out the said nursery operators in the report but I have found none on ground apart from Peter Thembo of Kilembe Sub-county who supplied 100,000 seedlings, yet we are mandated to witness the distribution and operations of nursery operators,” Lt Col Baguma said.

In Kabarole District, Fagia Uwizi found that UCDA did not supply good quality seedlings to farmers.

“We have discovered coffee seedlings were demanded but were not supplied to the people instead were dumped in some areas in Isunga zone, Kasenda Sub-county,” she said.

Ms Florence Musiime, a resident of Isunga, said the seedlings were brought in mid-June when there was too much sunshine and farmers were not prepared because the season was over and there was no rain.

The OWC was established by President Museveni in July 2013 to eradicate poverty and facilitate growth of households’ income, mainly through agriculture.

How community initiative improved village’s livelihood

Moses Kangwangye (Left) the Rwimi Sub-county chairperson, addresses members of the farmers’ revolutionary group in Kajumiro A village. Photo by Felix Basiime 

[http://www.monitor.co.ug/artsculture/Reviews/How-community-initiative-improved-village-s-livelihood/691232-3342162-e0oi8q/]

Residents in the village have turned it into a model area for sanitation in the Tooro sub-region. It is not an easy task to achieve 100 per cent coverage in sanitation, especially in a water-stressed rural area.

FRIDAY AUGUST 12 2016 

In Summary

When a village in Tooro sub-region decided to do something about their sanitatiton, great things started to happen improving the welfare of all stakeholders.

By FELIX BASIIME

We all know it is important to live in a healthy surrounding but very few people make conscious efforts to ensure the environment is up to the mark. But those are not sentiments that apply to Kajumiro A village in Rwimi, Bunyangabu, Kabarole District.

Residents in the village have turned it into a model area for sanitation in the Tooro sub-region. It is not an easy task to achieve 100 per cent coverage in sanitation, especially in a water-stressed rural area. But residents of Kajumiro A village have done it.

Using local voluntary groups, the residents have come up with a mechanism to reward homes with pit latrines and kitchens as well as encourage those without to construct them. The farmers’ revolution and Village Health Team (VHT) have been spearheading this drive.

“Before, hygiene was bad until a farmers’ revolution started, helping many people in the village, that is why many people now have toilets and kitchens,” Amos Kyomuhangi, a member of the farmers’ revolution, observes. He says the group together with the VHT carries out spot-checks in homes and gives out hoes and pangas to those who meet the mark.

Farmers’ revolution was started as a self-help project by farmers in Kajumiro A as a community initiative about four years ago. The goal was home improvement with sanitation and hygiene as one of their components.

When the district health department visited the village, they partnered with the group to promote home improvement.

Kabarole District has 56 crater lakes but their waters are not safe for drinking. “The biggest challenge in Kajumiro A is lack of a protected water source. The whole village depends solely on a nearby crater lake (Kiteere) which is not safe at all and I think that is why we are still having the problems of diarrhoea,” Tumuhairwe says.

The leadership introduced mandatory community work every Wednesday for residents. 

“We have compulsory community work every Wednesday. On such a day you find people either constructing pit latrines or working in a banana plantations,” says Robert Mugabe.

Kabarole District has seven piped water supply systems (six gravity flow schemes and one pumped ground water based system) serving approximately 23 per cent of the population having access to safe water while 77 per cent is served by water point sources.

Kajumiro A’ s plan

Olive Tumuhairwe, the health inspector Burahya Sub-county who also holds the docket of assistant district water officer in charge of water and sanitation says their focus is to have an initiative to improve hygiene and sanitation in the district.

“This is not a pilot project, our focus is on the whole district but Rwimi came out the best. We got the idea from the district planning meeting on health,” Tumuhairwe says, adding: 

“In Rwimi and Bukuku sub-counties the district spent Shs21m between 2013 and 2014. 

She says when they rolled out, Kajumiro A had 64 per cent latrine coverage and handwashing was far below 30 per cent.

“We sensitised the community about the need for sanitation and hygiene and we saw that at the end of the implementation period of 12 months (July 2013 to June 2014), Kajumiro A village had improved latrine coverage from 64 to about 98 per cent and handwashing had also improved from below 30 up to 98 per cent.”

The health department empowered the local communities and local leaders to do follow-ups in the village.

Tumuhairwe explains that although there were village groups, they did not have enough knowledge to monitor, do home visits and the health assistant would give them technical guidance.

She credits Farmers’ Revolution for being vigilant. “We empowered the local leaders with a police post in the area to arrest family heads whose homes did not have latrines.

“The crime preventers do not allow idlers in trading centres before 12pm. All people must be at work in their plantations because a poor community cannot be hygienic,” Robert Mugabe, the Rwimi Sub-county chief says.

“The revolutionary groups move around the homesteads and every Monday they report to us the defaulters and it is these reports that we use for our action plan,” Mugabe says.

“I think we are going to take it as a learning area for other areas so that their best practices can be duplicated in the whole district,” Tumuhairwe says.

The parameters

According to Sarah Kobusingye, the health inspector Bunyangabu, there are several parameters the district health department considers before awarding marks. “We examine the home, whether there are regular repairs, if the house is clean, if it is a kitchen it must have a smoke escape, a raised fire place, how utensils inside a cupboard are arranged,” Kobusingye says.

“We look at the pit latrines, it must have enough height, 15 meters deep and it must be closed, roofed with a door and must have a hand washing facility outside,” she adds.

Water source, a big challenge

“In 2013, there was one case of diarrhoea from that village, in 2014-2015 we registered three cases, two cases of suspected typhoid and five cases of intestinal worms was recorded at Kakinga Health Centre III,” Olive Tumuhairwe adds.

The health department encourages people to boil all drinking water from the crater lake and also to use permanent structures for latrines.

“We encourage them to harvest rainwater and a few individuals have put up tanks,” she adds.

Team work 

The community is also focusing on improving literacy. “We are also focusing on education. Every child in this village must go to school because there is no way such programmes can be implemented without an educated community, and we cannot achieve all this with a community degrading the environment,” adds Mugabe.

“You cannot achieve better sanitation and hygiene with people who are hungry or in a family with low domestic income so we support domestic projects. Rwimi is known countrywide for high production of rice, maize and vanilla.”

Perhaps, this multi-faceted approach is one of the reasons the village is thriving. Robert Onzia, the health assistant, Rwimi Sub-county, sums it nicely, “though we are no where we want to be as a village, we certainly rejoice for the leaps we have taken”.

About Kabarole district

Kabarole District has a population of 433,200, of this 86 per cent have access to safe water. The majority, 78 per cent, use water point supply facilities, mainly shallow wells. Seven piped systems (six gravity flow schemes and one pumped ground water system) serve approximately 23 per cent of the population.

According to the Ministry of Water and Environment data on performance of districts on golden indicators in 2014, the level of access to safe water in rural Kabarole was 86 per cent.

Kabarole District has a poor ground water potential, especially in Rwimi, Kasenda and Kibiito sub-counties. According to Nathan Mugabe, the assistant engineering officer at the district, in these areas, when you construct a shallow well or borehole it dries up within a short time.

The access rates vary from 69 per cent in Rwimi Sub-county to 95 per cent in Buheesi, Kisomoro, Bukuku, Busoro, Hakibaale, Karambi, Mugusu and Ruteete sub-counties. The functionality rate in urban and rural areas is 76 per cent and 77 per cent, respectively.

Kabarole District has 1,888 total domestic water points including bore holes, shallow wells of which 84 have been non-functional for more than five years and are considered abandoned.

The main water supply technology is the shallow well.

Nature’s remedy for Queen Elizabeth buffaloes

Buffaloes take a bath along the road side in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Photo by Felix Basiime

By FELIX BASIIME

Posted Saturday, June 18 2016 at 01:00

http://www.monitor.co.ug/artsculture/Reviews/Natures-remedy-for-Queen-Elizabeth-buffaloes/-/691232/3254278/-/c11qvn/-/index.html

When humans get sick, they get treatment either by self-medication or visit hospitals, clinics or traditional healers. And while on treatment, they rest in wards or sick bays but where do wild animals go or what do they do when they get sick. The buffaloes in Queen Elizabeth National Park have found a sick bay in Lake Nyamunuka.

Nyamunuka is loosely translated as bad smell and according to the manager Queen Elizabeth park conservation area, Edward Asalu, the bad smell emanates from the sulphur in the shallow crater lake that is one of the four salty lakes in the area.

This lake has other minerals that the wild animals lick on the muddy banks and get healed of wounds and other ailments. The old buffaloes also use the lake as a security measure for their safety.

“There are several reasons why buffaloes especially the old ones, find refuge at Lake Nyamunuka,” says Asalu, adding, “One of them is a security measure, the crater lake is shallow and wide enough to easily see the surroundings so that they can get ready to fight the enemy (especially the lions) coming.”

He adds: “The other reason is that the bad smell from the gas emitted from the sulphur acts as a healing drug so the buffaloes inhale it to get rid of ailments such as tick attacks among others.” The wounded buffaloes also find refuge at this lake until they get healed and go back to the savannah park.

“The old and sick wild animals at Lake Nyamunuka are very focused during the time they spend there, because they all have a common enemy. You don’t find them fighting each other, they are like patients in a hospital ward,” says Asalu.

The beautiful Lake Nyamunuka is a few kilometres along the road to Mweya Safari Lodge. Queen Elizabeth National Park is in western Uganda, covering parts of Kasese, Kamwenge, Mitooma, Rubirizi, Kanungu, Rukungiri and Ibanda districts. It is approximately 376kms, by road, south-west of Kampala, through Mityana-Fort Portal road.

Buffaloes have found another sick bay at a roadside pool of muddy water along Katunguru-Kikorongo road also in the same national park where they submerge in the water to smear themselves with the mud as a measure to fend off tick.

When it shines, they move out of the waters to graze as the mud dries, it falls off with the ticks from their skins.

Safe and comfortable

Queen Elizabeth National Park occupies an estimated 1,978 sq kms and extends from Lake George in the north-east to Lake Edward in the south-west and includes the Kazinga Channel connecting the two lakes.

The park is Uganda’s most popular tourist destination due to its diverse ecosystems which include sprawling savanna, shady humid forests, sparkling lakes and fertile wetlands which make it the ideal habitat for classic game.

The park can be accessed through Kampala-Mityana-Mubende-Fort Portal-Kasese road on a six hour drive viewing other beautiful scenery or through Kampala-Masaka-Mbarara-Bushenyi route on a five hour drive.

There is an airstrip at Mweya Safari Lodge inside Queen Elizabeth National Park served by charter flights from Entebbe airport.

About buffaloes
The African buffalo or Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is a large African bovine. Owing to its unpredictable nature, which makes it highly dangerous to humans, the African buffalo has never been domesticated unlike its Asian counterpart, the water buffalo. Other than humans, African Cape buffaloes have few predators aside from lions and are capable of defending themselves.

It is a member of the big five game and the most dangerous. The African buffalo is one of the fiercest animals in the park and their about 15, 000 according the recent census.

The agony of being a crippled husband and father

Ms Annet Kabarinzi pushes her husband Martin Kyansi in a wheel chair at their home at Kaburaisoke South village, Rwimi parish in Rwimi Sub County, Kabarole district. Photo by Felix Basiime

By Felix Basiime
Posted  Thursday, April 1  2010 at  00:00   http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/Health---Living/-/689846/890428/-/qyxivu/-/index.html

In one moment, Martin Kyansi, was electrocuted, something that led to the amputation of his limbs leaving him quite helpless, writes Felix Basiime

It is a sunny afternoon at Kaburaisoke South village, Rwimi parish in Rwimi Sub County, Kabarole district. Ms Annet Kabarinzi, a pretty young woman sits on a local mat with her three children and hulls maize grains off the cobs in front of their road side house on Fort Portal-Kasese road.

Maize growing is the main business in Rwimi Sub County and the main trade in the nearby Rwimi town council. The family has a small plot of land where they have a small house and a pit latrine. Lack of enough space forces the family to hire other people’s land in Rwimi to cultivate food for domestic use and some for sale.

Before she goes to dig every morning, Kabarinzi has to first attend to the children and her crippled husband, Mr Martin Kyansi. She lifts her husband to the bath room daily and bathes him, feeds him breakfast, lunch and supper like a baby on top of feeding and dressing the young ones.

When her husband needs to brush his teeth, ease himself or dress up Kabarinzi needs to be there because Kyansi lost his limbs in an accident he got in 2005 when they had just been married.

What Kabarinzi is facing today, is a calamity that struck the family five years ago when Kyansi went to work on the road as usual with a Chinese road construction company that repaired Fort Portal-Hima Road but never returned home the same.

The contract to rehabilitate the 55 km road was awarded to China Chongqing International Construction Corporation (Cico) from July 22, 2004 and completed in May 2007 at Shs27 billion and funded by the World Bank and Government of Uganda.

Kyansi says, “I completed S.4 at King Jesus college at Mubuku (in Kasese) in 2005 and then I joined Cico in November 2005. At that time, Kyansi recalls, work on the road had reached at Rubona government farm. I was employed in the Survey department as a staff man.”

A staff man according to surveyors is someone employed to hold a surveyors staff ahead of the surveyors to ease surveys. According to a senior surveyor in Mbarara town, Mr Nathan Muganga, “A surveyor’s staff is a tool used in topographic survey in levelling to establish heights.”

It is a long stick marked with measurements on it and is made out of aluminum which conducts electricity like any metal. It is this staff tool that Kyansi says he was employed to hold daily at work ahead of the surveyors until the fateful day, on December 15, 2005 when the staff he was holding accidentally landed on high voltage transmission wires and he was electrocuted.

He was rushed to Fort Portal based Virika Hospital, a catholic founded medical facility where he spent five months before his four limbs were amputated. 

“I thank Cico. They footed my hospital bills at Virika. I was discharged and went home, my wife with whom I had one child by then, has been nursing me till now,” Kyansi says, adding, “I also thank Sister Saverina of Virika Hospital. She used to pray for me at my hospital bed, and the same hospital gave me this wheel chair. Since then, I haven’t been able to feed myself, dress up, bathe, or pick the phone. It is my wife who does everything.”

For better or for worse
“I found him okay with all the four limbs. He was very normal and we got married and after the accident I remained firm with my husband despite the stigma from some women around the village,” Kabarinzi says, adding, “I have nothing to do because he is my husband and I have to cope with the situation.”

Because the family is still young and has numerous needs, Kyansi is pushed in a wheel chair to a nearby trading centre called Aha piida where he has a scale and buys maize from farmers and sells it to earn a living. “I buy maize from farmers between Shs150 to Shs200 a kilo depending on supply and sell it at Shs220 to Shs250 depending on the market forces,” says Kyansi.

Cheated?
Kyansi says when he was still sick, his Godfather, Mr Patrick Bahemuka of Rwimi negotiated for his compensation with Cico out of court before the Kasese Probation Officer, Mr Didas Bingambwa Since then, he has never seen any document to that regard.

“Bahemuka told me he was paid Shs6m as compensation but he refused to show me any document. He gave me Shs800,000 which I bought this small piece of land with and Shs 1m to set up this house. From then, he started dodging me up to now.”

Bahemuka says, he actually negotiated on Kyansi’s behalf.

“Yes, I settled with Cico out of court at Shs6m on behalf of Martin (Kyansi) but now I can’t trace the papers. You have to give me more time to trace them,” said, Bahemuka, a catechist at Rwimi.

Mr Bingambwa, the labour officer says, “I visited the family of Martin and they told me that Bahemuka, a catechist, was trustworthy person. So we gave him Shs6m on their behalf. It is very unfortunate that Martin never got full payment as he says.”

Appeal
“I appeal to Good Samaritans out there to help my husband get at least artificial limbs, so that he can walk,” says Kabarinzi. 

“We have little income, my children have started nursery school, we lack school fees and other essential commodities, but we have to buy food, and hire land to cultivate,” Kyansi says, adding “My wheel chair is getting old, the tires are torn and to replace one, I need Shs 10, 000.” 

The family's situation is still the same today (April 2016) Kyansi can be reached on the mobile phone: 0783055072