“Life on the edge!”

By Ebenezer T. Bifubyeka

‘CHARACTER is like pregnancy: you cannot hide it,’ a saying goes. Traders’ ugly habit of polluting Lake Victoria from Ripon landing site in Jinja has unfolded. They ‘answer their inevitable nature’s calls’ in the waters of the lake!

The 68,800 square-kilometer Lake Victoria, which is the second largest fresh lake in the world (after Lake Superior) and the biggest in Africa, has been turned into a public toilet!

This traders’ character results from either failure or refusal to pay Sh100 (US$0.05) charged to use one available water-borne toilet here. There are about 30 million residents around Lake Victoria who depend on her water and fish. Aren’t their lives on the age?

Should Jinja Municipal Council keep on charging the Sh100 silver-coin from each user of the public toilet at the expense of endangering the lives of both aquatic and human dependants of the lake? Do traders lack the sanitation laws at this site?

Ripon Landing Site located near Jinja town in eastern Uganda, has a population of over 200 traders that are dealing in fishing and charcoal business. The same landing site houses both a fish landing site and a charcoal market.

This market has a daily customer range of over 100 people plus about 100 workers (excluding fishermen) and about 80 of these, reside here. The area chairman of charcoal traders, Zikaria Mazinga, 40, is worried of the site’s poor hygiene.

He reveals that, “The only five-roomed toilet facility, which is also about to get full, is not enough for a population of over 200 traders! Obviously, some traders can’t afford the required Sh100 for visiting a toilet. They end up defecating in the innocent lake!”

Mazinga further discloses that some traders want to save Sh100 and defecate in the lake especially at night! “The water in this lake is now bad for consumption. That’s why we always board a boat and go to about 1,000 meters inside this lake to fetch clean water.”

This writer has discovered that the water at this shore of the maximally 90-meter deep Lake Victoria - stinks! The 17-year-old Sam Bwongele a fishmonger at this landing site, admits that at night, he uses Lake Victoria waters as his ‘convenient toilet!’ He says that traders have often asked their leaders to construct nearby toilets in vain.

“The only toilet here is about 200 meters away from where I sleep. In addition, there is a fee of Sh100 that is charged before anyone uses that toilet. Therefore, we’ve resorted to using the lake and save our little money, especially at night,” the tall lad lets out a secret.

Monica Akor, aged 35, a business lady, says, “Sometimes we have ‘no’ money and we earn little. So, we don’t have an alternative other than dumping our filth in the lake. Besides, due to the fact that many people are not permanent residents of this place, they don’t bother to pour the dirty water plus the human excreta into this lake.”

John Chedi, Assistant Fisheries Officer at this landing site, warns that the faeces degrade the oxygen content of the lake; and this affects the fish. “Because of such human waste dumping, the fish migrate towards the middle of the lake and this affects fishing.

This has been realised by the reduction on the number of fish caught from this area,” Chedi explains. This contaminated water has not only affected the fish but also its users, who are already suffering from different diseases that have killed some of them.

The Assistant Clinic Attendant of Nyange drugs Shop at this landing site, Susan Anyango describes the prevailing horrible situation. “Many ‘children have become the victims of reckless pollution at this site. For instance, last August, three children died of bilharzia and two others died of malaria!” she discloses.

Anyango adds that most people are suffering from the above-mentioned lethal diseases. “I treat patients suffering from those two diseases. They first get diagnosed from Jinja hospital. On average, we get about 20 to 30 patients daily. This is serious,” she says as she wears sadness on her dark face.

Besides polluting the water with faeces and dirt at Ripon charcoal market/landing site, charcoal business has exacerbated the situation. Zakaria Mazinga, who has been here as the chairman for charcoal traders since 1997, says that Lake Victoria is in danger.

Charcoal particles are floating on the water’s edge. There is dark coating on top of the waters along this lake’s boundary, results from the charcoal remnants. At this market, the almost 20-meter wide slopping charcoal display-ground, starts from one or less than a meter away from the lake!

Mazinga, who has been in charcoal business for the last 20 years, reveals that when it rains, charcoal residues are always washed down to the innocent lake. He recalls that charcoal was banned from Jinja market in 1992 because of its ‘black dirt.’ He said charcoal used to be sold in town but it was banned for leaving black grime everywhere.

Due to this reason, the charcoal market was transferred to Ripon Landing site. Mazinga warns that charcoal vestiges littered by retailers in charcoal kiosks and cooking places at this site, are intensifying the danger to this approximately 30,000-year-old Lake Victoria.

To Mazinga, about 200 bags of charcoal are sold off everyday. “We buy each bag of charcoal at Sh4,500 and sell it at Sh6,000 to residents of Jinja and beyond. He says, about 50 charcoal dealers at this site always get charcoal from the Buvuma Island in Lake Victoria, Bukoma and Buwazi areas in Mukono district.

The approximately 50 by 40-meter wide Landing Site/Charcoal Market houses over 40 kiosks at. Most of the kiosks are restaurants and a few others are retail shops. Women dealing in these eating-joints often dump the food leftovers (posho, beans and fish-bones) in the adjacent waters of the precious Lake Victoria.

Ducks feed on the dumped food on the shores. There are various trenches dung between the kiosks that are taking darkish used (dirty) water to the lake. In the commercial lake, there are over 10 pairs of both children and adult traders busy having bath with soap.

Mazinga claims that they have no authority to arrest the kids and men that bathe from this lake! “We only tell them to stop the habit but they don’t take heed. Officers from Jinja health section come here two times every month and sensitise these people about sanitation but it is like ‘writing on water!’” he says.

Asked about a way forward, Mazinga, a senior four drop out, appeals to Jinja municipal council to at least empty the “full” and the only available toilet at this landing site, which is also a charcoal market.

“The council should also empty our ‘only’ garbage skip whenever it gets full. More strict rules concerning the safeguarding the quality of the water in this lake, should be established immediately.

The chairperson of environmental journalists association of Uganda (EJAU), Elizabeth A. Birabwa says, people pollute the environment because they are ignorant of the existing related bylaw. On page 58 of the 1995 national environment statute, section 72(i), it’s emphasised that environment polluters should be charged, she reminds the public.

This law states, ‘without prejudice to the powers of the authority under section 68, 69 and 70, the court may, in any proceedings brought by any person, issue as environmental restoration in order, against a person who has harmed, is harming or is reasonably likely to harm the environment.’

“This bylaw is not enforced. Some people are not aware that they can be fined or arrested – if not both – for polluting the environment anyhow! Birabwa cautions. She adds, “Look at our towns, people are not making the use of the garbage skips placed on the roadsides. Is this due to ignorance or recklessness?”

Margaret Jjukko, a lecturer of Mass Communication at Makerere University, Kampala in Uganda, advises journalists to mobilise the public about sanitation especially the communities that work in and around Lake Victoria.

She proposes that journalists have the capacity to advocate, educate as well as sensitising people using: radios, newspapers, television, Internet, conferences, workshops and other kinds of public meetings. She said, scribes need more training about ‘environmental journalism to showcase such abuse of the environment.’

Jjukko rapped the National Environment and Management Authority (NEMA) for failing to do its work of effectively protecting the environment. “The NEMA’s role of convicting the reckless people who dispose of garbage in wrong places, as provided in the 1995 Uganda constitution, is not being enforced,” she states.

However, the 21-page document from NEMA entitled, ‘Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project {LVEMP} 2002’ reveals that LVEMP secured US$4.1m for improving research and the information base for ‘pollution’ control and water quality.

The document states that a total of 14 pilot zones have been identified: four in Kenya, five in Uganda and five in Tanzania – to define the current contamination of fish and prevent any increase. In Uganda, Napoleon Bay City of Jinja has been spotted.

Ends.
Word count: 1,507 words.