Anger piles in Kabale Municipality as a public toilet is closed

KABALE- Traders dealing in dry produce and boda boda cyclists operating in Omukikoregyi in Central division Kabale Municipality are protesting the decision by Kabale Municipal council authorities to close the public toilet in their locality.

The traders, boda boda cyclists and residents in the municipality have been using the water bone toilet for the last ten years and every person to use the toilet would pay between Shillings 200-500 for using the facility.

However, the municipal authorities early last week closed the toilet under unclear circumstances.

Rosemary Ahimbisibwe, of the traders, says the closure of the facility has worsened the sanitation in the area. According to Ahimbisibwe, most of the vendors and travelers who don’t have courage to gain to use toilet facilities in restaurants use the bush to answer nature’s
call. She said that they are at risk of contacting sanitary diseases.

Mathias Bitambaboona, a boda boda cyclist parking in Omukikoregyi said that they currently find it hard to get where to ease themselves.  He said that some of his colleagues use the nearby swamp. Bitambaboona pleads to the Municipal authorities to open the toilet to the public
before the health condition in the area worsens.

Denis Ahimbisibwe, another trader says that they spend between five and ten minutes to walk to and from Kabode’s building to answer nature’s call.  He faults the municipal authorities for closing the public toilet on grounds that they had acumulated high water bills.

Ahcimbisibwe wonders why the authorities closed the public and handed the keys to workers of Chinese International Construction Company-CICCO who currently constructing the new Kabale Central Market, as if they do not pay tax to the council.

The Kabale Municipality town clerk Deo Ndimo declined to comment on the matter saying that  he is new and is not aware of the issues concerning to the public toilet. However, the Central Division Assistant town clerk Alex Bingana said that they closed the toilet after the tender failed to pay their water bills worth 1.86 million shillings. He added that they later handed the keys of toilet to workers of Chinese International Construction Company-CICCO who currently constructing the new Kabale Central Market under MATIP III after they cleared the water bills.