By Micheal Atwakiire
Sheema: Minister for tourism Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu aka Ekikonda Njojo, who is also the Sheema municipality legislator, on Wednesday launched a campaign in Sheema district which he named ‘Free Woman From the Bondage of Fetching Water and Collecting Firewood.’
Prof. Kamuntu said as he launched this campaign that “Research shows that 80% an African woman’s time is spent fetching water and collecting firewood; the moment you rescue her from that burden or bondage, you will have unlocked so much of her potential in productive wealth because if she spends 80% time fetching water and firewood, where will she get time to do other productive things?”
He added that “Still, God did not create you with a head to carry but to think and decide, so if you disobey that by continuously using it to carry, it, your thinking capacity will keep on minimizing itself. Remember the more you carry water using your head, the more you weaken the spinal code; no wonder most our mothers in 50 years can’t walk properly because their spinal codes are already weak to support themselves.”
Kamuntu noted that “What pisses me off is that “even the 80% time wasted in fetching water, they spend it fetching dirty water; remember the government and National Water and Sewerage Corporation have tried to push water to remote areas but still, we have political leaders who are spreading the fake gospel, convincing natives not to use that clean water.
He also said that “People are being told that government water is expensive; remember a jerrycan is at Shs50, they resist using clean water and prefer going to ponds and wells where they get dirty water which in the end makes them sick. They go to the hospital where they pay a lot of money forgetting that prevention is better than cure.”
Kamuntu said all these while at Shuuku – Matsyooro water scheme project which is found in Sheema district, where government invested in Shs12Bn which will supply water in all villages in five sub-counties of Kasaana, Bugongi , Rugarama , Shuuku town council and sub-county where some families have not been accessing piped water. It is on record that currently, more than 60% of Sheema south homesteads access free government water.
