The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Mayuge, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Jovia, a 30-year-old resident of an island in Mayuge decided to take her two-month-old baby to a medical facility on the mainland, unfortunately, the locally made boat capsized and the child died.
Two years later, her second baby fell ill, with heavy vomiting. Afraid of trying the boat transport, the only available means to the most easily accessible mainland facility, she decided to use any treatment options available, unfortunately, she lost the second child.
This is according to a narration by the woman in a documentary, “The Unpredictable Waters” done by a team led by journalist Canary Mugume, courtesy of youth rights and empowerment charity, Reach a Hand Uganda, highlighting the magnitude of drowning as a major source of death and trauma in Uganda.
The project is aimed at drawing attention to the safety issues surrounding water transport and other marine-related activities, including fishing, swimming and others, on lakes, rivers, ponds and swimming pools.
Emmanuel Balinda, Reach a Hand Uganda Country Manager Uganda says the project aims at ensuring that fishermen and lake and riverside communities are equipped with basic survival skills including safe swimming.
This, he says, is because water transport and related activities are essential for the country and the local communities, but must be made safe.
Enid Mbabazi, the Board Chairman, says the issue is made worse by the fact that young people dominate the annual 3,000 drowning cases in Uganda, and calls for a wide debate on what can be done.
Unfortunately, most of the cases are not registered or even noticed. The project, also supported by the Ministries of Water and Environment and Works and Transport, is also part of the effort to sensitise Ugandans ahead of the launch of the draft National Water Safety Drowning Water Strategy in March.
According to Aisha Sekindi, the Minister of State for Water, the strategy is aimed at ensuring the reduction of drowning in Uganda’s waters and how policies can regulate water activities in all forms.
In the statement read by Christopher Tumusiime Commissioner Water Utility Regulation Department, Minister Sekindi says there is a need for strengthening related policies in collaboration with other relevant organs to ensure water safety.
Some laws are aimed at regulating water transport and other marine activities, regarding the safety of passengers, pollution of the water bodies and others.
However, the Ministry of Works and Transport says the Inland Water Navigation Act, for example, cannot be enforced for now because of the lack of regulations that are supposed to operationalize it.
The Ministry moves about five million people per year on government ferries across the country, signifying the importance of the safety of water navigation.
Charles Ruzigye, Assistant Commissioner in charge of safety navigations at the Ministry of Works and Transport, says the regulations should be in place before the end of this year.
It was also revealed how dangerous fake or substandard life jackets are, with reports of some bodies that have been picked up from under the water with life jackets.
Mugume revealed how the operators of the boat they were using to move across the islands told them that the jackets they were wearing were counterfeits.
Ruzigye emphasized that for a boat to set sail, it must be certified, inspected, and equipped with ISO Certified life jackets, adding that there is a need to intensify enforcement on top of sensitizing the public on safety.
The first-ever Global status report on drowning prevention details the scale of global drowning fatalities, and progress made in advancing strategies and actions to reduce drowning around the world.
The report issued last year shows that the rate of deaths from drowning dropped by 38 percent between the year 2000 and 2021, “yet drowning remains a major public health issue, with more than 300,000 fatalities in 2021,” says the World Health Organisation.
According to reports on global maritime, Africa has the highest rates of lakeside drowning, and Dr Frederick Oporia, the Head of the Trauma, Injuries, and Disability (TRIAD) unit at Makerere University School of Public Health, Uganda leads in the cases.
He says children between one and four years of age drowning is the fourth leading cause of death, and in five to 14 years, it is the third, while in the African region, among children aged five to 14, drowning is the sixth leading killer.
Unfortunately, Dr. Oporia says, most of the drowning cases are not reported especially when they do not involve prominent persons, giving the example of the MV Templar disaster on Lake Victoria in 2018.
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