Rwanda National Police

The hidden cost of poor hygieneEvery last Saturday of the month, communities come together to clean up their neighbourhoods in a communal exercise locally known as Umuganda.  

At least twice a year, local authorities partner with the police in running a campaign dubbed “Security and Hygiene.”

They clean up different neighborhoods but most importantly, they move house to house tutoring residents and showing them potential dirt that is piling or have piled up in their compounds over time.

There is much hope that the homes visited will maintain standards of sanitation and hygiene. Unfortunately, some care less about the lessons offered.

Littering has not been completely done away with; garbage management is yet to be an expected culture of every household, and even neighbours – sometimes – are bothered or don’t raise a complaint.

City authorities come back after six or so to offer the same lessons and the sequence goes on and on.

As health experts say, decaying garbage makes a breeding ground for ants, fleas, flies, mosquitoes, cockroaches, anay, rats, and mice, which obviously endanger human health.

Typhoid, cholera, among other communicable diseases, are also associated with unhygienic and insanitation situations.

According to the National Health Research Agenda 2014-2018 from the Ministry of Health, communicable diseases constitute 90% of all reported medical consultations in health facilities. Malaria, respiratory tract infections, diarrheal diseases, parasitic infections and zoonosis are most predominant and thus considered as a public health priority.

The link between hygiene and security

The pests coming from the rotting garbage can easily make contact with people living around them, resulting into high cost on health, and definitely time wastage.

Children will miss school due to continuous sicknesses, parents risk spending more time at the hospital and the souring costs of medication – either undergoing treatment or taking care of children; consequently this may result into being incapable to perform and deliver on time at work as well as less productivity. This implies that there are higher chances of losing or shortfall in accomplishing a set development task.

A man that has lost his earnings at a time when he is the sole bread winner for his family may probably resort to underhand methods to sustain his family.

These may as well be in robbery, conning, selling counterfeit currencies and many more.  Eventually, when caught, he goes to jail leaving the family in even worse situation.

To ensure that this doesn’t happen, prompted City of Kigali and Rwanda National Police to conduct the security and hygiene campaign, periodically to harness the ideal of human security.

The two-month campaign launched on Tuesday is the seventh of its kind since this partnership started few years back.

On the second day of the campaign held in Gasabo, yesterday, city officials, police officers and thousands of residents joined together in cleaning various targeted sites.

The main cleaning event was held in Jali Sector, where the mayor of CoK, Pascal Nyamulinda and Commissioner for Operations and Public Order in RNP, CP Emmanuel Butera tutored residents on how security and hygiene are inseparable.

“A health nation is a wealth nation – we have achieved a lot in the last 23 years and if we maintain the tempo, we can achieve a lot more, but this is through cleaning up our neighborhood and ensuring we are healthy and safe enough to deliver for ourselves and our nation,” Mayor Nyamulinda said.

CP Butera also reminded residents that; “a sick person is an insecure person and this is why we have to ensure every Rwanda is in good health so that we have a secure nation as well.”

The “Security and Hygiene Campaign” campaign to be conducted in three phases, is focusing mostly on public sensitization for ownership on hygiene and security standards under the theme: “Keeping Kigali City Clean, Green and Safe.”