Africa-Press – Uganda. Health officials in the island district of Kalangala have reopened all businesses in Betta Trading Centre, Mugoye Sub-county four days after they were closed over lack of latrines.
The officials closed 200 shops and houses last weekend because they do not have toilets, putting the lives of the public at risk.
According to Dr Racheal Nasuuna, a health inspector in Mugoye Sub-county, about 60 per cent of residents in the trading centre have adamantly refused to construct pit-latrines and thus practice open defecation which exposes them to water- borne diseases like bilharzia, cholera and typhoid.
She said landlords have been directed to construct latrines or their premises and/or businesses will be closed again.
“People built permanent houses without constructing toilets. One wonders where the occupants go to answer nature’s call. So, we have given them a grace period of three months to construct toilets and if they fail we shall close their businesses again,” she said on Wednesday.
She said warned those keeping animals near the residential area to remove them and residents should always pay fees for transportation of waste to the dumping site.
Business owners in the trading centre have since the weekend been complaining that the health team closed their shops without prior notice.
”They [health team] should have warned us first before closing our businesses. Some of us have bank loans to service and any day we spend without working costs us money,” Mr Emmanuel Kayemba, who sells chapatis, said.
Ms Robina Namubiru, a bar and shop owner said she was worried after her businesses were closed because “children are going back to school in two weeks”.
The chairperson of Mugoye Sub-county, Mr John Kayiima Muzeeyi, said the officials are doing what they can to ensure public health.
Mr Joseph Wasswa Kaweesa, the chairperson of Betta Trading Centre, said a general cleaning exercise will commence to improve on the sanitation in the village.
“We are going to be strict now on cleaning this place every Friday and everyone who will refuse to do so, will be reprimanded,” he said on Wednesday.
A 2019 district survey, conducted under Dr Nasuuna’s leadership, revealed that four out of the 64 inhabited islands in Kalangala District do not have toilets.
According to the survey conducted in December 2019, residents dispose of human waste anywhere in the surrounding bushes and other established places locally known as “Twatwa” which human waste is later discharged into the lake by rain.
Meanwhile, those who own small private pit- latrines always empty them during the rainy season and all the sewage goes into the lake.
The survey also indicated that the people to pit-latrine ratio in Kalangala is at one latrine per landing site.
Currently, Kalangala is estimated to have a population of 54,000 people and 86 gazetted landing sites. However, majority of the landing sites lack proper waste disposal management systems.
Some islanders claim it is expensive to construct pit -latrines at many islands in Kalangala due to the rocky terrain in the area.
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