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Moroto, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The enumerators in the Moroto district have decried the lack of protective equipment for carrying out the census exercise in the midst rainy season
On Monday, UBOS rolled out the census program to run for ten days across the country.
However, the exercise comes at a time when different parts of the Karamoja sub-region are experiencing heavy rain that is washing away some bridges while other roads are submerged.
Now, the enumerators have expressed concern over the lack of protective gear such as gumboots, raincoats, and umbrellas to ensure their safety and the protection of gadgets on rainy days.
According to them, some roads are impassable because they are submerged, while other bridges cannot be crossed when it rains and this blocks them from accessing some villages.
Joseph Lomongin, an enumerator from Katikekile Sub County said that he is operating in mountainous areas prone to rainfall and they were never supported with protective gear. He noted that sometimes when it rains heavily, they cannot cross some of the bridges because of the flash floods. He observed that the soil texture is also sticky which requires only gumboots to Passover.
Lomongin explained that some of the homesteads are in isolated areas and this puts their gadgets at risk when it rains because they do not have waterproof equipment or where to take shelter.
Naume Lomongin, another enumerator shares the same worries asserting that they have been left to struggle for their own without facilitation.
Lomongin said that she was forced to walk over 20 kilometers from Natopojo village in Rupa Sub-county to the district headquarters to deliver the tablet for corrections when she failed to log in to the system.
She expressed fears that the rainfall is more likely to disrupt the census exercise because they have not been equipped with any protective gear. Lomongin urged the UBOS officials to consider facilitating them with some money that they can use in case of any emergency that may arise from the field.
The enumerators also experienced challenges while operating tablets due to technical glitches and poor internet connectivity to enable them to load data into the system.
Korobe Lowal, an enumerator in Kidepo trading center, Lotisan Sub County said that the poor internet connections also delayed the exercise. He said that he had targeted at least 20 households for a day but he only managed to access 7 households.
He said that a lot of time was wasted struggling to enter the data into the system because of slow connections.
Francesca Nambuya, Assistant Supervisor for Lotisan Sub County said that they cannot facilitate the enumerators instead they should consider equipping themselves.
Nambuya noted that transport to move around the villages has been a great challenge and the enumerators have to endure. She also urged the numerators to consider accommodating themselves at the area’s local leader in case they are blocked out by the rains.
She said that they have already engaged the area’s local leaders to support the enumerators in case of any challenges within their jurisdictions. Nambuya also said that they were not given internet data and only those who can afford their own are working.
She added that they need internet data bundles so that they can capture household code to load into the system.
Pollar Opio, the Moroto District Census Officer said that all the enumerators were sent in the morning to the field unfortunately they failed to log into the data collection system.
He said that the numerators were called back to the district and they discovered that the training mode for entering data was different from the census mode. Opio noted that they were later guided on how to clear and correct the data system which enabled them to continue with the exercise.
He said that the numerators were also not able to see the maps of the households in the system. Opio observed that the three sub-counties of Nadunget, Katikekile, and Tapac did not participate in the day one exercise.
Opio said that recruitment officers did not complete assigning the numerators to their areas of operations. He said that the efforts are ongoing to ensure that all the numerators are assigned to their respective areas of the operations and the exercise begins on day two.
He said that they had also requested more extension days for the Moroto district due to numerous challenges compounded by the terrains. He added that they were given an extension of five days to complete the exercise without pay.
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