Showing posts with label ENVIRONMENT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ENVIRONMENT. Show all posts
Monday, August 22, 2011
ENVIRONMENT HEALTH AND HEALTH POLICY SITUATION IN UGANDA
Jacob Waiswa
Situation Health Analyst
Dishma-Inc.
P.O. Box 8885,
Kampala-Uganda
Tel. +256392614655/+256752542504
dishma.imhs@gmail.com
www.situationhealthanalysis.blogspot.com
“Environment can determine yr level of health, and climate is part of the environmental factors. Of course, the essence of health policy is to create better health.” Simon Nantamu (PhD), Global Health, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Environment health continues to elude Uganda due to poor drainage systems and ineffective environmental laws while the health policies alienates Ugandans due to lack of medical personnel, lack of health information for preventive health; and poor health infrastructure –characterized by dire lack of medical equipments.
It is thus important to examine the levels of environment health and health policy situation in Uganda; assess the cultural health environments in which Ugandans live; the spiritual health environments; and the relationship between health policies and environment policy.
While many Ugandans love their traditional systems or cultures and cherish them, some have proved dangerous to peoples lives. 2010 in Uganda was a year of child sacrifices and the grave, well publicized female genital mutilation.
Such are reflected in figures: 34% (who said yes) to a fact that cultures were harmless; 33% who said no to the contrary, 28% (who said sometimes to potential harm from cultures); and 5% (who said neither harmful nor harmless).
Cultures in Uganda have for centuries lived in harmony with nature from they derived medicine, firewood, and religions manifested in clan and spiritual names. However, with increased population and modernization, much of the natural resources have been invaded and destroyed.
As such, the once respected nature (god) lost his dignity from men, now at a level of 50% (who said yes) on positive response of cultures towards the environment; 21% (who said no to that); 26% (who said sometimes culture contributed to environment protection); and 3% (who did not know whether or not it contributed to environment protection).
There is a significant relationship between culture and conservation. The regular harvesting of bamboo shoots on Mount Elgon, sought by local residents is favorable to the ecology. But man’s rules and regulations often undermine this link and tilt the balanced and complimentary relationship between nature, conservation and spiritual inspiration –leading to their endangerment by the so-called modern economy and modern habits.
“As humans get lost in what makes them be below the most stupid animal those, who are armed with skills to help them become well acquainted with their issues and try to help them rise above that animal.” Fred Charles Oweyegha-Afunaduula, National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE), Kampala, Uganda.
The same is the case with spirituality –which over years has undergone degeneration and erosion due to western Christian movements and their contact with Africa. Despite the creation story emphasis of man’s stewardship over the entire creation, greed, arrogance and pride –instead characterizes the relationship.
That affects the spiritual significance to the natural environment as was marked by 50% (of Ugandans who said yes) to spirituality’s positive significance to environment protection, 23% (who said no to the statement), 25% who said sometimes it was significant to the environment; and 3% said did not know whether it was significant to the environment or not. Most religious today focus on economic gains, rather than environment issues and life sustainability as their focus too is heaven, not earth.
The Ugandan experience of worship especially among Christians shows most of them making fortune at the expense unsuspecting followers –using written scriptures as opium to extort, cheat and exploit church goers.
With 27% (yes) to show their concern towards a health environment, 34% said no, 39% said sometimes they showed concern, and 1% said did not know whether there was a need to show concern or not. The concern towards a clean and health environment in Uganda was very low as per 2010 –a situation, which, without doubt, limits sustainability of life systems
In Uganda government was reluctant to take on issues of encroachment seriously and insensitive of the effects on the environment. It is little wonder that the landslides in Bududa, Mbale killed 300 people for government to deal with the encroachment problems later. It did so by resettling inhabitants in Bunyoro. The resettlement was done without critical analysis of the cause of such environmental refugee crisis within the country.
There was a negative correlations between health policies and environment health showed by P=0.259 > 0.01 level (2-tailed). There is, thus, very little that health policies can do to foster environment health in Uganda.
In the first case, the health sector itself is sick –characterized by drug theft, negligence, low professionalism, poor health infrastructure, defects in administration, lack of priority spending, and poor funding.
Health policies are not effectively serving their intentions as showed by 27% Ugandans who said yes to it, 33% said no, 40% said sometimes they were effective, and 1% said did not know whether they were effective or not. There is gross lack of health infrastructure –where they are much needed (rural areas).
They are very poor and ill-equipped; lack medical personnel and equipment, and roads are inaccessible. Above all, people continue to die of preventable circumstances as maternal deaths, malaria, diarrhea etc.
In conclusion, there is limited grasp and practice of environment health issues –which continue to put the lives of Ugandans in great danger and make predictability of epidemics easy and worrying.
Besides the health policies have not been good enough to protect nationals against such eventualities –through community empowerment programs, interdisciplinary health education in schools and tertiary institutions, erection of functional and equipped health posts; greater and culture and religious involvement in health dispensations as family planning and health education.
There was a very low positive correlations between health policies and environment health showed by P=0.259 > 0.001 level (2-tailed) –which meant that health policies can do very little to help achieve environmental health. There is thus a need to make them functional if policy makers are to be sensible enough or relevant to the people they serve.
ENVIRONMENT TERRORISM, GLOBAL WARMING AND GENDER
Jacob Waiswa
Situation Health Analyst
Dishma-Inc.
P.O. Box 8885,
Kampala-Uganda
Tel. +256392614655/+256752542504
dishma.imhs@gmail.com
www.situationhealthanalysis.blogspot.com
An estimated 10 million people are at risk of severe drought in East Africa in East Africa. Over the years UNEP has warned of the effects of potential climate change, deforestation, and the loss of grasslands and wetlands (DeCapua, J. 2011).
The single cause of global warming today is man’s insensitive activities –including destruction of nature for survival and curiosity, and perpetuation of violence in struggle for remaining yet scarce natural resources that by far destroys life –including man himself or herself.
While we would rely on the fact that history judges people accordingly, on the part of any individual destroying the environment, it judges everyone –regardless of whether they are environment terrorists or not.
This makes conflict eminent when man’s own intentions lead to global warming, when global warming claims the already scarce resources and, ultimately, when the scarce natural resources lead to conflict.
However, experts have argued that, behind the debates on global warming are greater ill-intentions. “Some elites have created this debate, but the intended purpose is to say there are too many people on the planet unsustainably and these guys have a depopulation project going on; AIDS, bird flu, SARS and others tools yet to be unleashed. They are actually saying the 3rd world who are still using wood and charcoal, are contributing very much to global warming since they produce carbon dioxide (CO2) in great quantities, but good scientists are saying its CO2 that is needed by plants and, of course, its removed from the environment, and the amount of CO2 have never increased. There are also econ issues which haven’t been digested.” –Simon Nantamu (PhD), Global Health, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Women in Uganda represent 80% of the agricultural labor force, responsible for 80% of food crop production, and 60% cash crop production. Such important contribution from women is undermined by armed conflict. As a result, an estimated 2.3 million children get chronically malnourished –a condition that also affects their brains (Wandera and Mashoo, 2011).
The United Nations Security Council resolution 1325 recognizes that women and girls are most affected by armed conflict and, thus, calls for their participation in decision making.
During that time, they are not in position to gather food for the family, let alone the failure to contribute to the countries economic development. On top of the lack of incomes from agricultural produce, inflation becomes the order of the day –which worsens the poverty situation at household level.
The districts of Kampala, Iganga, Mayuge, Jinja, and Nairobi were put into perspective by way of observations, focused group discussions with community members mindful of gender, stories and cases, and review of data from other individuals and organizations that have worked or lived there –in line with the questions that related to the above objectives, and visited Nairobi (Kenya) the following year for further assessment and comparison with its neighbor –Uganda.
Lifestyle choices towards management of natural resources depicted food availability and a healthy population to manage them, and young people exhibited most aggression towards the environment; modernization in Uganda was understood in terms of tarmac roads, high administrative and commercial building, highest corporate life and, not at all, in terms of development of the natural environment of which humanity was part or which sustained life systems.
In just one year 4/5 days in the coolest month (July) in Kenya were as warm as Uganda unlike the previous year –and famine now threatens life on the African continent and in particular East Africa –with children and women most endangered; features of flooded areas were seasoned during the last five years, along with broken sewerage systems that went on to contaminate food and other human environments, denying affected population access to main roads, and without electricity and, most recently, has been a threat of lightening that killed an estimated 40 people in Uganda.
In conclusion, selfish and egocentric yet destructive behaviors towards nature and nature fighting back in terms of generate conditions for infectious diseases and “wild” rains, scramble for scarce resources, famine migrations and violence.
The situation is now endangering the whole continent –Africa. “As humans get lost in what makes them be below the most stupid animal those who are armed with skills to help them become well acquainted with their issues and try to help them rise above that animal.” Fred Charles Oweyegha-Afunaduula, National Association of Professional Environmentalists, Kampala, Uganda.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Lifestyle Influences Environment
Lifestyle is a way of life adopted by individuals after years of interaction with their immediate cultural environment, socioeconomic environment, socio-political, ethical as applied in all aspects of community life, and natural environments through parental or family influences.
In recent years, however, globalization in all those facets has taken its share of influence on ways individuals live. It is the nature of their consequences to individuals that, in turn, dictates decision making and specific lifestyles. As a natural interaction phenomenon, the natural environment too gives its feedback proportionately to what individuals have given to it in form of natural disasters.
Otherwise, It was important that the different ways –through which lifestyle is formed are identified, point out the nature of lifestyles adopted and their influence on individuals, the lifestyle influences on environment health, and the consequences of the responses of the natural environment on individuals, and possible solutions.
The districts of Kampala, Iganga, Mayuge, Jinja, and Nairobi were put into perspective by way of observations, focused group discussions with community members mindful of gender, stories and cases, and review of data from other individuals and organizations that have worked or lived there –in line with the questions that related to the above objectives.
Interestingly for Nairobi, rather than the modernization most used to mean tall buildings, long bridges and skyscrapers, it was modernization of the natural environment –where residency of individuals did not affect their environment: they co-existed with the natural environment –including wild animals in nearby national game packs.
And because of the unfair resources distributions violence in the Nairobi city has been on-going since independence as the gap between nationals who owned resources (like arable land) widened –and the means to eventual access to development opportunities (like jobs and benefit from public services) became more of a dream than a reality.
In the Uganda districts of Jinja, Mayuge, Iganga and Kampala, it was only modernization, (or development) that mattered –and as only understood in terms of tarmac roads, high administrative and commercial building; and not all, in terms of development of the natural environment of which humanity was part.
In Jinja and Kampala, despite such a perception of development, (or modernization), appropriate waste management technologies were not applied. Garbage problem remained the talk of the town and city –respectively. In Mayuge district, a place once a habitant for hippopotamuses and with a thriving natural forest has much of them replaced of populations of immigrants from Teso and Kenya –in addition to the rapidly rising local population of people. Their settlement was secured aggressively after bloody confrontations with security in search for arable land and fish for commerce and food.
As a result of garbage-related pollution Kampala faced (and continues to do so) an annual threat of cholera and other waterborne diseases affecting mainly children. The Kampala suburbs of Bwaise, Kawempe, Zana, Ndeeba, Kalerwe, Kireka, Katwe, Ndeeba and Kanyanya most hit hardest as much of the settlements are located in the wetland zones.
On Entebbe Road, areas like Lufuka, Najjanankumbi, Namasuba and Zana were submerged. Within the city centre, Clock Tower and Kisenyi were most affected. The case of heavy rains hitting Kampala in February and May 2010 are the most recent –in which houses were flooded, along with broken sewerage systems that went on to contaminate food and other human environments, denying affected population access to main roads, and without electricity. Schools and shops were closed for most of the day in the affected areas.
That, though, was most significant during the El Niño rains of 2003-2003 –which carried human waste in the waters and foods to cause contamination in return. 200 suspect cholera cases were reported. Besides, noise pollution in the name of religion or faith and parties continued to build stressful conditions for people living in the suburbs despite the Noise Standards and Control Regulations (2003) which advises that there are licenses available for property owners –whose establishments were likely to emit noise in excess of the permissible levels.
In Mayuge and Iganga have had sleeping sickness epidemic –which was originally ecologically-controlled parasite, now only controlled through spraying and trapping of tsetse flies since 1901 through 1970s to date while violent clashes between forest officials and encroaches rage on. Malaria pandemic also posed highest threat as if replacing sleeping sickness.
The government of Uganda, on one hand, showed no environmental consciousness –when it encouraged encroachment on reserves by calling for an end to evictions of encroachers by the national forestry authority. In Nairobi, Kenya ownership of land as a natural resource was a source of conflict that was only triggered by the 2007 election rigging.
In 2002, Mungiki were implicated in the massacre of 23 people in Kariobangi, Nairobi, and some 1,500 people were killed and another 300,000 displaced in a matter of weeks after the December 2007 presidential polls in which President Mwai Kibaki was accused of having stolen the vote.
In Jinja, Uganda, sanitation-related problems were more evident in suburbs –as well than in town where the elite made “noise” to pressure politicians to have urban problems addressed while the less represented south continued to suffer the environmental choke.
In conclusion, rather than the selfish and egocentric yet destructive behaviors towards nature, and nature fighting back in terms of generating conditions for infectious diseases and “wild” rains, the people of Uganda districts of Kampala, Jinja, Mayuge, Iganga ought to borrow a leaf from their Nairobi counterparts by learning to and really co-exist with nature or the natural environment –as that would create certain climatic conditions (as low as 10 degrees Celsius as a case in Nairobi during the months of July and August) as defensive barrier against humid-shriving parasites and, by so doing, they will be able to solve water shortage through rainfall harvesting –made available by the enhanced water cycle –and helping to solve hygiene and sanitation problems associated to water shortage (or lack safe-to-drink water), to control the bleeding of parasites, to ensure a healthy national yet productive workforce –and to promote environment tourism while Nairobi needed to revisit the distribution of natural resources –whose ownership and benefits go to mainly major tribal group, the Kikuyu, who go on to dominate in all other aspects of Kenya’s economic life.
Fortunately, undesirable consequences have always pressured humanity to devise solutions. In doing so several researchers have already come up with interesting findings and recommendations for the better, though in Uganda politics has been the cause of all efforts towards positive change in favour of populism. In Kenya, the ratification of the new constitution on 27th August 2010 aimed at resolving local conflicts, secured a peaceful future for Kenya.
Whether in aspects of governance, cultural, religiosity, economic decision making, media influences or man’s ignorance the natural environment must not be undermined to meet man’s selfish interests just because it has no known language to complain, or its language (natural disasters) not simply understood. However, in self defense it will always make its own points through acts of uncontrollable rainfall, generating conditions for parasites, and contamination of food to cause ill health, or even sudden deaths.
Peace and Conflict Studies Program
Makerere University
P.O. Box 7062, Kampala-Uganda
jwaiswa@arts.mak.ac.ug
In recent years, however, globalization in all those facets has taken its share of influence on ways individuals live. It is the nature of their consequences to individuals that, in turn, dictates decision making and specific lifestyles. As a natural interaction phenomenon, the natural environment too gives its feedback proportionately to what individuals have given to it in form of natural disasters.
Otherwise, It was important that the different ways –through which lifestyle is formed are identified, point out the nature of lifestyles adopted and their influence on individuals, the lifestyle influences on environment health, and the consequences of the responses of the natural environment on individuals, and possible solutions.
The districts of Kampala, Iganga, Mayuge, Jinja, and Nairobi were put into perspective by way of observations, focused group discussions with community members mindful of gender, stories and cases, and review of data from other individuals and organizations that have worked or lived there –in line with the questions that related to the above objectives.
Interestingly for Nairobi, rather than the modernization most used to mean tall buildings, long bridges and skyscrapers, it was modernization of the natural environment –where residency of individuals did not affect their environment: they co-existed with the natural environment –including wild animals in nearby national game packs.
And because of the unfair resources distributions violence in the Nairobi city has been on-going since independence as the gap between nationals who owned resources (like arable land) widened –and the means to eventual access to development opportunities (like jobs and benefit from public services) became more of a dream than a reality.
In the Uganda districts of Jinja, Mayuge, Iganga and Kampala, it was only modernization, (or development) that mattered –and as only understood in terms of tarmac roads, high administrative and commercial building; and not all, in terms of development of the natural environment of which humanity was part.
In Jinja and Kampala, despite such a perception of development, (or modernization), appropriate waste management technologies were not applied. Garbage problem remained the talk of the town and city –respectively. In Mayuge district, a place once a habitant for hippopotamuses and with a thriving natural forest has much of them replaced of populations of immigrants from Teso and Kenya –in addition to the rapidly rising local population of people. Their settlement was secured aggressively after bloody confrontations with security in search for arable land and fish for commerce and food.
As a result of garbage-related pollution Kampala faced (and continues to do so) an annual threat of cholera and other waterborne diseases affecting mainly children. The Kampala suburbs of Bwaise, Kawempe, Zana, Ndeeba, Kalerwe, Kireka, Katwe, Ndeeba and Kanyanya most hit hardest as much of the settlements are located in the wetland zones.
On Entebbe Road, areas like Lufuka, Najjanankumbi, Namasuba and Zana were submerged. Within the city centre, Clock Tower and Kisenyi were most affected. The case of heavy rains hitting Kampala in February and May 2010 are the most recent –in which houses were flooded, along with broken sewerage systems that went on to contaminate food and other human environments, denying affected population access to main roads, and without electricity. Schools and shops were closed for most of the day in the affected areas.
That, though, was most significant during the El Niño rains of 2003-2003 –which carried human waste in the waters and foods to cause contamination in return. 200 suspect cholera cases were reported. Besides, noise pollution in the name of religion or faith and parties continued to build stressful conditions for people living in the suburbs despite the Noise Standards and Control Regulations (2003) which advises that there are licenses available for property owners –whose establishments were likely to emit noise in excess of the permissible levels.
In Mayuge and Iganga have had sleeping sickness epidemic –which was originally ecologically-controlled parasite, now only controlled through spraying and trapping of tsetse flies since 1901 through 1970s to date while violent clashes between forest officials and encroaches rage on. Malaria pandemic also posed highest threat as if replacing sleeping sickness.
The government of Uganda, on one hand, showed no environmental consciousness –when it encouraged encroachment on reserves by calling for an end to evictions of encroachers by the national forestry authority. In Nairobi, Kenya ownership of land as a natural resource was a source of conflict that was only triggered by the 2007 election rigging.
In 2002, Mungiki were implicated in the massacre of 23 people in Kariobangi, Nairobi, and some 1,500 people were killed and another 300,000 displaced in a matter of weeks after the December 2007 presidential polls in which President Mwai Kibaki was accused of having stolen the vote.
In Jinja, Uganda, sanitation-related problems were more evident in suburbs –as well than in town where the elite made “noise” to pressure politicians to have urban problems addressed while the less represented south continued to suffer the environmental choke.
In conclusion, rather than the selfish and egocentric yet destructive behaviors towards nature, and nature fighting back in terms of generating conditions for infectious diseases and “wild” rains, the people of Uganda districts of Kampala, Jinja, Mayuge, Iganga ought to borrow a leaf from their Nairobi counterparts by learning to and really co-exist with nature or the natural environment –as that would create certain climatic conditions (as low as 10 degrees Celsius as a case in Nairobi during the months of July and August) as defensive barrier against humid-shriving parasites and, by so doing, they will be able to solve water shortage through rainfall harvesting –made available by the enhanced water cycle –and helping to solve hygiene and sanitation problems associated to water shortage (or lack safe-to-drink water), to control the bleeding of parasites, to ensure a healthy national yet productive workforce –and to promote environment tourism while Nairobi needed to revisit the distribution of natural resources –whose ownership and benefits go to mainly major tribal group, the Kikuyu, who go on to dominate in all other aspects of Kenya’s economic life.
Fortunately, undesirable consequences have always pressured humanity to devise solutions. In doing so several researchers have already come up with interesting findings and recommendations for the better, though in Uganda politics has been the cause of all efforts towards positive change in favour of populism. In Kenya, the ratification of the new constitution on 27th August 2010 aimed at resolving local conflicts, secured a peaceful future for Kenya.
Whether in aspects of governance, cultural, religiosity, economic decision making, media influences or man’s ignorance the natural environment must not be undermined to meet man’s selfish interests just because it has no known language to complain, or its language (natural disasters) not simply understood. However, in self defense it will always make its own points through acts of uncontrollable rainfall, generating conditions for parasites, and contamination of food to cause ill health, or even sudden deaths.
Peace and Conflict Studies Program
Makerere University
P.O. Box 7062, Kampala-Uganda
jwaiswa@arts.mak.ac.ug
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
STATE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH IN UGANDA:
A COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGIST'S PERSPECTIVE
JACOB WAISWA:
THE SITUATION HEALTH ANALYST
Health and environment are linked. In fact, most people prefer using the phrase environmental health to have the union of the two. The union intends to show how influences of human health could come from changes in the environment.
But, within environmental health, there are other issues, like poverty, population, organic farming, environmental politics, environmental health accounting, environmental health protection and environmental stress (from humans and climatic changes). In other words, it would simply mean external factors that potentially affect health.
The environmental health continues to be under serious threat from; ever increasing population that encroach it, lack of concern from both communities and their leaders, multinational firms’ scaling up of pesticide and chemical use in agriculture, and degradation of the environment -without moral conscience.
Use of chemicals is said to be highly destructive not only to weeds and pests but also to humans. Apart from losing the natural taste of food, eating food crops sprayed with chemicals, even after several hours of cooking, could soon have it settle in vital organs of the body -as lungs and liver. And thereafter, lifespan of humans and animals could be lowered.
Unfortunately, suppliers of such destructive drugs are big corporate firms -that are capable of bribing off influential African leaders, employing huge numbers of people and investing heavily in advertisements. As such, it would be so easy to shut people’s mouths –majority of who are beneficiaries, not to complain or advocate otherwise.
Yet, just looking at organic farming, which uses natural solutions to agricultural problems, it is something that is environmentally friendly –meaning that whatever constituent of the environment is not harmed. Rather, people practicing it co-exist with an understanding of the knowledge of sustainability in resource utilization.
Communities, in this case, are mindful of paying back to the environment from which they find food –with no pollutants, and ensuring that natural resources regenerate. There is, therefore, mutual benefit, unlike in scenarios -where use of pesticides, bush-burning and huge de-forestation for arable land is the mentality. Organic products are natural and in line with the similarly natural needs of the body.
And products are what consumers could be willing to pay more for in order to safeguard life. The practice of farming is itself gentle to the earth –where both compliment each other in terms of soil conservation, conservation of vegetative cover and ensuring sustainability.
Pressure on land has forced many to migrate into game and forest reserves, and thus, catapulting into aggravated de-forestation, and extinction of rare species of both animals and plants. In south west Busoga forest reserve, in Mayuge District, it is now history that there used to be buffalos and hippopotamuses in the area.
It is a place with most violent panga-yielding encroachers ever known in Uganda. They can go as far as attacking tree-planters, cutting down artificial plantation, and even uprooting of newly planted trees.
Such grave environment degradation is what in turn adds to the already existing threat of global warming, adversely affecting ecological balances, leading to natural punishments (natural disasters), and creating conditions for disease causing germs as well as immunological disturbances.
Encroachment is a key critical issue, but governments in Africa are passive about dealing with the problem. Instead, they focus more on political goals. Politics is usually mixed with serious environmental health concerns. In Uganda, the problem, mainly, is with the forest resource.
For wild life, it is well able to quell off encroachers –according to reports by forest officials in Uganda. There is a kind of discrimination in regard to forest land protection, as would be compared to resources like oil and wild life.
With many of them being immigrants from other regions of the Uganda, the reason they (encroachers) give is lack of land for food production, where denial of forest or animal park land would mean starvation to death. In fighting to live, they are willing to be shot down.
But independent observers say encroachers are runaway criminals, who ended up in forests. And those in the forest think justice can hardly be processed to the very end, which gives them a feeling of personal safety.
The passivity of local leaders has not generated action against encroachers -since they are voters capable of helping regimes in Africa stay in power. Governments, therefore, find it a delicate issue to handle. Instead, they choose to keep a blind eye as the environment is massively degraded.
While family planning would be an excellent strategy to combat growing population, the conservative lives of most Africans do not give room to the practice. Education too is out of reach for the majority of the populations around game and forest reserves –realizing that such areas tend to be remote.
The remoteness implies total absence of schools as much as the value of education. Yet, In line with education, going to school is said to discourage high birth rate and living without planning for the future. Some areas like Mayuge District have mainly junior level schools and parents value less the idea of sending children to school.
Parents think educating children is a waste of money, and that in the first place, it is hard to get. While at the same time their forest life is unpredictable –since they believe government would at one time expel them. So, surviving day by day is all they look at. Nevertheless, older men would always be on the look out for breast-pointing young girls to devour sexually. As a Consequence, many drop out before joining secondary schools.
There public health concerns in the face of high population growth -with pressure on utilities and irresponsible behavior in handling of community resources. People in such areas, as game and forest reserves -hardly care about hygiene and sanitation. Instead, the reserves act toilets or latrines.
And because they lack clean water, they frequently “host” water-borne diseases. Worse still, inaccessibility to reproductive health services makes them prey to HIVAIDS and other STIs/STDs. Where would you find condoms whilst in such areas?
The implications here are; improper disposal of waste materials, early sexual intercourse and rural prostitution around town centers. Further, in such areas, sexual intercourse is like taking a cup of tea –this time round, in Western Europe context, where anytime is believed to be tea time.
Besides, lack of proper nutrition, lack of well trained personnel, and engineered lack of drugs put local residences more at the risk of dying from the mainly water-borne, sexually transmitted infections and other simple infections -that would otherwise be treated.
Since health services are inaccessible, local residents resort to traditional medicine. Rarely would you walk in rural areas without meeting a kind of “Dr” Rashid Lukwago clinic that fill gaps where modern medicine has failed to reach. However, with integrated health service delivery system, traditional medicine and modern are one, though standards need to be set for the former.
People, there, are at subsistence level. They have very little or nothing to sale such that money is generated to buy medical drugs. Herbal medicine, therefore, becomes the most appropriate to them.
Interestingly, people claim herbs have been more effective at curing serious illnesses than modern medicine. No wonder, recent health strategy called for a twin approach to treatment of diseases.
Much as the lucky urban and semi-urban areas would be found with decent health care facilities, patients find no drugs in them. What is thought to be free treatment at government health centers is never so. At best they would offer blood testing and prescription. The patient, then, plays the last role of going to the pharmaceutical shop find drugs.
Perhaps, it is cost-sharing at work that government introduced in earlier stages of its rule. But, remember, people are poor. If unable to buy medicinal drugs, and when traditional herbs fail, they could succumb to death.
The health sector happens to be one of the most infested government departments with acts of corruption. As a remedy, liberalization of the economy in general and health sector particularly in this case, sounded as though was the answer.
However, doing so, well, helped to improve on services offered. On the other hand, only the rich could afford. The poor, as usual, were left out -and only had to pray that they do not fall sick and get close to their creator.
Not very long ago, health ministers were implicated for misuse of global funds meant for prevention and treatment of malaria and HIV/AIDS. As the lords where busy feasting and driving posh cars around, AIDS patients were dying. Sincerely, where are the hearts in the Uganda’s political players?
Unfortunately, belief in witchcraft is another problem in such areas. Any strange incident could call for a witch-doctor’s consultation or referral to cultural norms. It was not surprising; therefore, when findings by butabika hospital showed that majority of people in Uganda preferred traditional healers or faith-based prayers to health centers -as curative.
Meanwhile, the same cultural ideas could be so entrenched that changing attitudes might pose a challenge. Development pace could be slow or even static -since people find it “impossible” to think beyond simple cultural excuses. Actually, witchcraft, being at the center of cultural practices, plays roles of what science would be purposed for.
Without encouraging people to take their children to school such that young people post-pone marriage, it would always be hard to control infections and diseases as much as to change their attitudes towards the mainly useless cultural beliefs.
Useless cultures could have adverse connections to almost everything in life –be it with health service promotion, proper agricultural practices and viable leadership or managerial options. All could suffer under wrong mentalities.
More so, as the saying goes, “educate a woman, educate the nation.” The saying, just as from; different research findings on gender, experiences and the statistical occurrence of child abuse and neglect cases, educated men would tend to act more irresponsibly on matters of child development than educated women.
There could be a difference between good orderliness of a family of an educated mother and one -who is uneducated. Education, which is understandably, the high intellectual state and tangible resourcefulness of a person -long after he or she has left school, could help scale down incidences of child abuse and neglect.
Upon this background, prospective parents must go or return to school not just to attend classes, but to learn. Having done so, the future could have environmentally caring and patriotic generation.
Jacob Waiswa
Situation Health Analysis
0774336277
www.situationanalysis.blogspot.com
JACOB WAISWA:
THE SITUATION HEALTH ANALYST
Health and environment are linked. In fact, most people prefer using the phrase environmental health to have the union of the two. The union intends to show how influences of human health could come from changes in the environment.
But, within environmental health, there are other issues, like poverty, population, organic farming, environmental politics, environmental health accounting, environmental health protection and environmental stress (from humans and climatic changes). In other words, it would simply mean external factors that potentially affect health.
The environmental health continues to be under serious threat from; ever increasing population that encroach it, lack of concern from both communities and their leaders, multinational firms’ scaling up of pesticide and chemical use in agriculture, and degradation of the environment -without moral conscience.
Use of chemicals is said to be highly destructive not only to weeds and pests but also to humans. Apart from losing the natural taste of food, eating food crops sprayed with chemicals, even after several hours of cooking, could soon have it settle in vital organs of the body -as lungs and liver. And thereafter, lifespan of humans and animals could be lowered.
Unfortunately, suppliers of such destructive drugs are big corporate firms -that are capable of bribing off influential African leaders, employing huge numbers of people and investing heavily in advertisements. As such, it would be so easy to shut people’s mouths –majority of who are beneficiaries, not to complain or advocate otherwise.
Yet, just looking at organic farming, which uses natural solutions to agricultural problems, it is something that is environmentally friendly –meaning that whatever constituent of the environment is not harmed. Rather, people practicing it co-exist with an understanding of the knowledge of sustainability in resource utilization.
Communities, in this case, are mindful of paying back to the environment from which they find food –with no pollutants, and ensuring that natural resources regenerate. There is, therefore, mutual benefit, unlike in scenarios -where use of pesticides, bush-burning and huge de-forestation for arable land is the mentality. Organic products are natural and in line with the similarly natural needs of the body.
And products are what consumers could be willing to pay more for in order to safeguard life. The practice of farming is itself gentle to the earth –where both compliment each other in terms of soil conservation, conservation of vegetative cover and ensuring sustainability.
Pressure on land has forced many to migrate into game and forest reserves, and thus, catapulting into aggravated de-forestation, and extinction of rare species of both animals and plants. In south west Busoga forest reserve, in Mayuge District, it is now history that there used to be buffalos and hippopotamuses in the area.
It is a place with most violent panga-yielding encroachers ever known in Uganda. They can go as far as attacking tree-planters, cutting down artificial plantation, and even uprooting of newly planted trees.
Such grave environment degradation is what in turn adds to the already existing threat of global warming, adversely affecting ecological balances, leading to natural punishments (natural disasters), and creating conditions for disease causing germs as well as immunological disturbances.
Encroachment is a key critical issue, but governments in Africa are passive about dealing with the problem. Instead, they focus more on political goals. Politics is usually mixed with serious environmental health concerns. In Uganda, the problem, mainly, is with the forest resource.
For wild life, it is well able to quell off encroachers –according to reports by forest officials in Uganda. There is a kind of discrimination in regard to forest land protection, as would be compared to resources like oil and wild life.
With many of them being immigrants from other regions of the Uganda, the reason they (encroachers) give is lack of land for food production, where denial of forest or animal park land would mean starvation to death. In fighting to live, they are willing to be shot down.
But independent observers say encroachers are runaway criminals, who ended up in forests. And those in the forest think justice can hardly be processed to the very end, which gives them a feeling of personal safety.
The passivity of local leaders has not generated action against encroachers -since they are voters capable of helping regimes in Africa stay in power. Governments, therefore, find it a delicate issue to handle. Instead, they choose to keep a blind eye as the environment is massively degraded.
While family planning would be an excellent strategy to combat growing population, the conservative lives of most Africans do not give room to the practice. Education too is out of reach for the majority of the populations around game and forest reserves –realizing that such areas tend to be remote.
The remoteness implies total absence of schools as much as the value of education. Yet, In line with education, going to school is said to discourage high birth rate and living without planning for the future. Some areas like Mayuge District have mainly junior level schools and parents value less the idea of sending children to school.
Parents think educating children is a waste of money, and that in the first place, it is hard to get. While at the same time their forest life is unpredictable –since they believe government would at one time expel them. So, surviving day by day is all they look at. Nevertheless, older men would always be on the look out for breast-pointing young girls to devour sexually. As a Consequence, many drop out before joining secondary schools.
There public health concerns in the face of high population growth -with pressure on utilities and irresponsible behavior in handling of community resources. People in such areas, as game and forest reserves -hardly care about hygiene and sanitation. Instead, the reserves act toilets or latrines.
And because they lack clean water, they frequently “host” water-borne diseases. Worse still, inaccessibility to reproductive health services makes them prey to HIVAIDS and other STIs/STDs. Where would you find condoms whilst in such areas?
The implications here are; improper disposal of waste materials, early sexual intercourse and rural prostitution around town centers. Further, in such areas, sexual intercourse is like taking a cup of tea –this time round, in Western Europe context, where anytime is believed to be tea time.
Besides, lack of proper nutrition, lack of well trained personnel, and engineered lack of drugs put local residences more at the risk of dying from the mainly water-borne, sexually transmitted infections and other simple infections -that would otherwise be treated.
Since health services are inaccessible, local residents resort to traditional medicine. Rarely would you walk in rural areas without meeting a kind of “Dr” Rashid Lukwago clinic that fill gaps where modern medicine has failed to reach. However, with integrated health service delivery system, traditional medicine and modern are one, though standards need to be set for the former.
People, there, are at subsistence level. They have very little or nothing to sale such that money is generated to buy medical drugs. Herbal medicine, therefore, becomes the most appropriate to them.
Interestingly, people claim herbs have been more effective at curing serious illnesses than modern medicine. No wonder, recent health strategy called for a twin approach to treatment of diseases.
Much as the lucky urban and semi-urban areas would be found with decent health care facilities, patients find no drugs in them. What is thought to be free treatment at government health centers is never so. At best they would offer blood testing and prescription. The patient, then, plays the last role of going to the pharmaceutical shop find drugs.
Perhaps, it is cost-sharing at work that government introduced in earlier stages of its rule. But, remember, people are poor. If unable to buy medicinal drugs, and when traditional herbs fail, they could succumb to death.
The health sector happens to be one of the most infested government departments with acts of corruption. As a remedy, liberalization of the economy in general and health sector particularly in this case, sounded as though was the answer.
However, doing so, well, helped to improve on services offered. On the other hand, only the rich could afford. The poor, as usual, were left out -and only had to pray that they do not fall sick and get close to their creator.
Not very long ago, health ministers were implicated for misuse of global funds meant for prevention and treatment of malaria and HIV/AIDS. As the lords where busy feasting and driving posh cars around, AIDS patients were dying. Sincerely, where are the hearts in the Uganda’s political players?
Unfortunately, belief in witchcraft is another problem in such areas. Any strange incident could call for a witch-doctor’s consultation or referral to cultural norms. It was not surprising; therefore, when findings by butabika hospital showed that majority of people in Uganda preferred traditional healers or faith-based prayers to health centers -as curative.
Meanwhile, the same cultural ideas could be so entrenched that changing attitudes might pose a challenge. Development pace could be slow or even static -since people find it “impossible” to think beyond simple cultural excuses. Actually, witchcraft, being at the center of cultural practices, plays roles of what science would be purposed for.
Without encouraging people to take their children to school such that young people post-pone marriage, it would always be hard to control infections and diseases as much as to change their attitudes towards the mainly useless cultural beliefs.
Useless cultures could have adverse connections to almost everything in life –be it with health service promotion, proper agricultural practices and viable leadership or managerial options. All could suffer under wrong mentalities.
More so, as the saying goes, “educate a woman, educate the nation.” The saying, just as from; different research findings on gender, experiences and the statistical occurrence of child abuse and neglect cases, educated men would tend to act more irresponsibly on matters of child development than educated women.
There could be a difference between good orderliness of a family of an educated mother and one -who is uneducated. Education, which is understandably, the high intellectual state and tangible resourcefulness of a person -long after he or she has left school, could help scale down incidences of child abuse and neglect.
Upon this background, prospective parents must go or return to school not just to attend classes, but to learn. Having done so, the future could have environmentally caring and patriotic generation.
Jacob Waiswa
Situation Health Analysis
0774336277
www.situationanalysis.blogspot.com
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