Give Buhweju a tarmac road and hospital

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OPINION

By Dr Myers Lugemwa

Curving off the Mbarara-Ibanda Road to the left at Bwizibwera Town Council, the tyre starts picking up dust from a murrum road that takes one on a fairly flat terrain till a small trading centre, Bukiro, which makes the western border of Mbarara District and Buhweju.

It is at this point that one starts on a journey that snakes along a continuum of the Marrum road that started off at Bwizibwera, but this time round, characterised by rocky mountains and galleys with other smaller, rougher roads off-shooting till one reaches the district headquarters at Nsiika.

This same road will bisect the district in the same manner up to the border of Buhweju and Ibanda District at Rukiri, where it once again touches tarmac after leaving it at Bwizibwera, a distance of over 50 kilometres. As one drives through and within the district, they are unlikely to see any public, let alone private bus or even a 14-seater coaster or matatu, but only tens of boda boda mopeds (motorcycles), most of them with not less than 125cc engine capacity, given the terrain.

Like most boda boda riders in the country, they seem to have been born of the same father! Riding recklessly at breakneck speed and without protective gear like helmets and gloves, these riders make fortunes as they ferry passengers ( including pregnant women in the first stage of labour), who are never oblivious of the pending hazard that could crop up in the event of an accident.

Through this terrain, one's eye, and possibly experience if they have ever been to places like Kisoro, begins to see beautiful sceneries of gorgeous oval-shaped hills superimposed on one another, sometimes covered with eucalyptus trees at high altitudes and banana and coffee trees at a lower altitude. Tea is purposefully cultivated on big farms. Goats and sheep are more common than cattle, while chickens can surprise you as they try to escape back to their "home" from the onslaught of the oncoming vehicles. Unlike most districts in Uganda, nearly 70% of all living structures in Buhweju are thatched with iron sheets; an indication that the income per capita could be higher than most wananchi's elsewhere in the country.

Trade in timber, coffee, and bananas has helped the Banyabuhweju almost get out of the poverty equation. I have not put in oblivion the Gold Mining activities, especially around Nsiika and Bihanga, where every Tom and Dick ekes a living through scratching solid earth material in trying to discover a fortune in gold.

Large-scale mountain hiking is one of the activities for a tourist interested in the game, especially in Buhweju West. Ndurumo waterfalls, also in Buhweju west, and the famous River "Mukazi Anyara" (Urinating woman) cannot be missed.

Ironically, in-spite of all this beauty and wealth, Buhweju has no hospital; only one health centre four (HC1V), at Nsiika district headquarters and a couple of HC 111 and 11s. How the sick survive death in this terrain characterised by the rough, ragged roads as they go to seek advanced medical treatment at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital or in Bushenyi, where three hospitals exist, or Kagongo in Ibanda, God knows! However, suffice it to note that Malaria, a disease that is the number one cause of morbidity and mortality in Uganda, is far less prevalent in Buhweju than in any other district but Kisoro and Kabale, which gives the people therein a saving from malaria treatment costs.

It is therefore, my prayer that the government considers tarmacking the road from Bwizibwera through Nsiika to Ruhoko in Ibanda to ease mobility not only for people but also for the merchandise accruing from the district of surface area of 802 km2 (310 sq mi) and a population of 120,720 endowed with great wealth. Also, my prayer is that the government could consider upgrading the HC1V at Nsiika to a general hospital as one way of bringing services nearer to wananchi.