The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | At least 95 per cent of the people who use boats don’t wear life jackets, yet when a drowning accident happens, very few get rescue support. A study by the Makerere University School of Public Health has found that the entire Uganda Police Marines has only 25 lifebuoy rings which can aid in rescuing victims.
Dr Olive Kobusingye, a research fellow at Makerere University School of Public Health who was the principal Investigator on the study said that from 2016 to 2018, a total of 1,435 drowning cases had been recorded by police in 14 districts where the study was conducted.
In the same period, she says, an additional 2,066 cases of drowning were identified by Village Health Teams (VHTs) who confirmed this in individual interviews with witnesses, friends, survivors or their family members. The districts involved in the study include Arua, Hoima, Kabale, Kampala, Kitgum, Masaka, Mayuge, Mbarara, Mubende, Nakasongola, Rakai, Rubirizi, Serere and Soroti.
In the districts, Kobusingye says, the deaths identified ranged between 30 and 287 whereby for many witnesses reported that they saw victims drown to death but had no way to help. This, she said, is the reason as to why they have decided to donate some safetyware to police at the end of their study.
The researchers set out to establish the availability of drowning data and describe the burden and circumstances of drowning in the districts such that appropriate interventions into drowning prevention are adopted in the country.
Kobusingye says they found that safe boating regulations are flouted, yet the police are incapacitated to ensure safety on the lake even as most drownings are preventable through policies and regulations that reduce risk exposure. She was releasing results of the study ton Thursday.
James Apora, the Commandant of the Marine Police says the available funds cannot facilitate them enough citing forinstance that they have 26 detachments across the major water bodies in the country but each of them has one lifebuoy ring which means that they can only save four people at a time.
On his part, AIGP Edward Ochom, the Police Director for Operations acknowledged the challenges that they face and blamed them on poor funding. He said they are currently discussing a water safety strategy and in it will be aspects of preventive policing on the water to among others curb drowning.
He, however, noted that people who use water transport should also, be sensitized on safety since they have been grappling with businessmen who overload boats and will not hid to their advice of dropping some of their merchandise in water in case of an emergency on the lake.
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