Buliisa residents raise concern over inadequate mosquito nets
‘’We can’t share one mosquito net yet; we have over 13 people in a home; they better take their mosquito nets,’’ they said, rejecting the free government mosquito nets.
By Pascal Onega
Buliisa: Residents of Nyalwera village in Nyeramya Parish, Kihungya, Sub-County Buliisa District, have rejected the mosquito nets disbursed by the government over their inadequacy.
The concern was exposed Tuesday at the village chairperson`s home.
According to residents, they are unable to take the donated government mosquito nets, stressing how the whole village can be given only six bales yet there are so many households. Each mosquito net bale has 50 pieces of mosquito nets.
Michael Thumi, Ajiggo, Scovia Kugonza, and many other residents say they cannot only share one piece of mosquito net in a house with more than thirteen people.
‘’We can’t share one mosquito net yet; we have over 13 people in a home; they better take their mosquito nets,’’ they said, rejecting the free government mosquito nets.
Fred Kwesiga, another resident, blames the officials for failing to exhibit transparency in the distribution, noting that the government opted to distribute mosquito nets to reduce the cases of malaria and the expense of procuring drugs, but they are disappointed since officials are not transparent in the exercise.
Benson Ambe Kurach and Abdul Majid Aheebwa, the Nyalwera Village Health Teams (VHT), reported to www.ugreports.com that they registered 255 households, but to their dismay, they were only given 6 bales of mosquito nets, which is equivalent to 240 pieces of mosquito nets.
The Nyalwera LC1 chairperson, Ms. Moreen Kwesiga, urged the district leadership to intervene in the issue, asserting that in most cases, her village doesn’t benefit from government programs.
Kenneth Tumusiime, the chairperson of LC3 Kihungya Sub County, blamed the district health officials for using the previous projections.
According to Tumusiime, they would have involved the village chairpersons and the VHTs in registering the families instead of using the previous projection, noting that there is an increase in the population.
‘’Residents are right to reject the government mosquito nets because you can’t disburse them before getting the actual number of homes; you can’t disburse six bales of nets to the entire village,’’ he said.
He, however, asked the angry residents to stay calm, saying they were intervening with the ministry on the issue.
Robert Mugabe, the district health educator (DHE) in Buliisa, recently disclosed that the district was projected to receive 71,250 mosquito nets, but the health ministry delivered only 69,560, thus being inadequate for the district.
He said each family would get pieces of mosquito nets depending on the number of family members. ‘’If there are three family members, they will receive two nets; six family members will receive three. They receive the nets depending on the number of family members,’’ he added.
Mugabe, however, stressed that sometimes some family heads give the wrong number of family members, thus getting extra nets, which affects the distribution of the nets.
On the 23rd of this month, police from Biiso Police Station arrested the head teacher, his deputy, and two other staff members of Nyamasoga Primary School over a missing bag of mosquito nets.
It’s reported that 44 bales of mosquito nets were stored at the head teacher’s office, but just a few days ago, one went missing. The suspects were arrested and forced to record statements at Biiso Police Station.
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