Lack of toilet facilities irks Rwenshama fishing village
A section of fishermen prepare their fishing equipment at Rwenshama landing site on Lake Edward in Bwambara Sub County Rukungiri District. PHOTO | RONALD KABANZA
What you need to know:
- Mr Kenneth Niwagaba, the LC II chairperson for Rwenshama Parish wants the government to construct ecosan toilets that can last longer and equip people with knowledge and skills of building modern toilets that can survive the flooding conditions of their area.
Residents of Rwenshama fishing village in Bwambara Sub County, Rukungiri District are worried that they are susceptible to contracting diseases due to lack of toilet facilities.
Particularly the toilets that were constructed about four months back in the have all collapsed due to floods that hit the area leaving residents with no option but use polythene bags and basins to answer nature’s call and later thrown into Lake Edward.
Rwenshama fishing village LC1 chairperson, Kenneth Mugisha said, “Our area was badly affected by heavy rains that left over 400 households with no toilets and the few that remained are not enough to accommodate the whole population at the fishing site."
Mr Kenneth Niwagaba, the LC II chairperson for Rwenshama Parish wants the government to construct ecosan toilets that can last longer and equip people with knowledge and skills of building modern toilets that can survive the flooding conditions of their area.
Ms Fridah Twine, 47, a mother of four says their locally constructed toilets are easily filed by water and they eventually collapse shortly after their construction.
"At the moment the whole fishing community has only two toilets that were built by government and they are far from our homes and we find a lot of hardships to access them," she said.
Mr Innocent Tugume, a businessman at Rwenshama trading center says the cost of constructing a pit latrine in their area is too expensive due to the nature of soils in the area.
“Our soils are not good enough to dig up pit latrines. One needs to construct a toilet facility using bricks and cement from the bottom of the pit which is so expensive for a common person,” he said.
When contacted for a comment, the Rukungiri District fisheries officer, Mr Dan Mugenyi, said, "The district is very much aware of this issue, which we already sent to the Ministry of Agriculture for further management. At district level, we are planning to construct two modern toilet for them in the coming financial year as we wait for the ministry's response," he said.
