Women in the northern Ugandan district of Yumbe, 400 kms north west of the capital Kampala, have complained that their inability to get enough sex with their husbands has prevented them from producing children in required numbers.
According to them the reason behind their sexual starvation is due to the lack of adequate water sources in the district brought about by corruption. They claim that money meant to drill boreholes is being misappropriated by local government officials.
The women have appealed to the country’s president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to ensure that money meant for drilling boreholes is not swindled because they are sexually starving due to poorly constructed boreholes which make them stay in long queues for water at night.
The women made their complaints to Uganda’s leading anti corruption body, Anti Corruption Coalition Uganda (ACCU), which for the past three days has been touring the district to investigate the corruption allegations in the water sector. The team was led by the ACCU’s executive director Cissy Kagaba.
“We have few boreholes and so we spend most of the time at night lining up for water. Since we spend the mornings in gardens and part of the day cooking for our family, we only come for water at night when men who fetch for construction and other (jobs) are away. Hundreds of us line up for water. A queue can be as long as 300 meters. In most cases we get the water late in the night or early in the morning and by the time we reach home it is already to late too sleep with our husbands,” said one of the women leaders, Amina Zena.
Amina suggested that as the money meant to drill boreholes is misappropriated the number of boreholes remain few, which makes some of them walk up to five kilometers to fetch water. She said they are appealing to president Museveni to come to their rescue so that more boreholes are drilled in order for them to have enough time with their husbands at night.
The ACCU team expressed its shock after learning that 91 of the 270 boreholes in the district were dysfunctional, while 51 newly drilled boreholes were dry although the contractors who did the work had been paid 10,000 US dollars for each borehole for work poorly done. The team members were awed after learning that each of the functioning boreholes served over 1000 families.
ACCU boss Cissy Kagaba wondered why money was paid to contractors, when the boreholes were not functioning. “This is unbelievable. Why do the district authorities pay money to contractors who construct a borehole which does not produce water. That is corruption of the highest order.”
“We want the local authority officials to account for all the money sent to the district for construction of water sources. We cannot tolerate corruption any longer,” says Muzamir Achema, an official from a local NGO, Needy Kids Uganda.
A district official, Bob Alinga blamed the government’s policy on borehole construction as the main cause of dry boreholes. According to him, “The policy requires that we hire two companies, one of hydrologists and another that drills the boreholes. It seems that at times the hydrologists do not do their work adequately and misguide drillers who end up constructing boreholes where there is no water.”
The district police commander.James Asubu confirmed that police was to soon start investigating about the corruption in the district. He thanked ACCU for bring the corruption in the water sector in that district to light.
In the meantime, housewives at the district of Yumbe have no choice but to make do with their strenuous activities.
