Health unit in Rakai spends 10 years without electricity
Under facilitated. Lwanda Health Centre III maternity ward only has solar power which cannot be used for operating fridges. Photo by Wilson Kutamba
What you need to know:
- Helpless. Sub-county officials failed to raise the funds for the electricity bill, and have not got any assistance from government.
- Mr Muliira said after failing to raise the required funds, they petitioned the district and Ministry of Local Government to come to their aid but in vain.
Leaders in Lwanda Sub-county, Rakai District, have expressed concern over the absence of electricity at Lwanda Health Centre III and the sub-county headquarters for more than a decade.
The power was disconnected over accumulated bills.
Mr Charles Muliira, the sub-county chairperson, on Tuesday said when he took over office in 2011, he found an outstanding electricity bill of Shs6m at the health centre and another Shs8m at the sub-county headquarters.
Mr Muliira said after failing to raise the required funds, they petitioned the district and Ministry of Local Government to come to their aid but in vain.
“The budget for Lwanda cannot settle the outstanding electricity arrears for one of the facilities,” he said.
Ms Rose Namuli, the sub-county councillor, said some equipment such as computers and fridges are lying idle at the health centre.
“We have tried to inform concerned authorities to come to our rescue, but it is now a decade yet we are not receiving any assistance,” Ms Namuli said.
Ms Jamira Nakirya, 50, a resident of Lwanda Trading Centre, said midwives sometimes use phones or torches to attend to expectant women during the night.
“My daughter was due to deliver, but since it was a rainy season, the solar light was off and the midwife delivered her using a torch and candles,” Ms Nakirya said.
One of the health workers, who preferred anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the media, said absence of proper lighting makes it hard for them to administer treatment.
“These days every patient or caregiver is expected to come with a torch or have a phone that can improvise light so that we can perform our work without any difficulty,” he said.
Mr Samuel Yiro, the officer-in-charge of the health facility, said the solar power cannot sustain medicine fridges and computers.
“The health centre keeps data on paper because computers do not have power to run them which puts the facility at risk in case it loses important information when exposed to water,” Mr Yiro said.
He said during the measles-Rubella vaccination exercise last year, they had to travel to Rakai hospital daily to pick the vaccines, which was cumbersome.
Dr Moses Sakor, the district health officer, admitted the challenges, noting that a solar system was supporting them in the meantime.
“The facility is not in crisis because the malaria control programme donated a solar system as a backup which is assisting the health centre in absence of electricity,” he said.
Dr Sakor said the Ministry of Health told them that it would clear 75 per cent of the bill before the end of this financial year and electricity will be reconnected to the health centre this year.
