A 30-year-old mother in Kabalagala sustained electric shocks and burns when she came into contact with an energised metallic wash line. She was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital. In Jinja, a 15-year-old girl was electrocuted whilst hanging clothes on a metallic wash line that was energised by a live jointed cable attached to a metallic roof.
These are some of many incidents of lives lost in slum areas as a result of coming into contact with energised metallic wash lines. This is usually as a result of hooking power or power theft by individuals who put lives of unsuspecting community members at risk.
As such, the Umeme has embarked on a project to distribute plastic wash lines to communities across the Country.
Umeme’s Chief Operations Officer, Florence Nsubuga, while speaking during the launch of the Safe Wash Line Project said over the years, Umeme has continued to register both attributable and non-attributable fatalities.
“In the last 10 years, we have lost 213 people due to electricity-related causes such as illegal connections and energized metallic wash lines,” she said.
The Safe Wash lines project was first piloted in 2019 in Natete in five vulnerable areas. This was against a background of six fatalities in 2018 resulting from the use of metallic wash lines.
Nsubuga noted that when the project was piloted, they registered a reduction in the fatalities attributed to unsafe wash lines from 7 in 2018 to 1 in 2021.
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Badiru Bakoja, the Deputy Mayor Kawempe who presided over the event in Bwaise asked the community to prioritise safety in their daily lives.
“This community has lost lives before and we want our people alive for us to develop and prosper as a nation. The metallic wash lines are deadly in our communities given the kind of structures in many slum areas of the Country. I thank Umeme for the plastic wash line and I encourage the public to desist from the metallic ones. You also need to stay away from illegal connections because they are done inappropriately and end up taking lives of innocent people,” he said.
Peter Kaujju, Umeme’s Head of Communications while commenting on the project said safety of our customers is one of our key priorities as we distribute electricity. “As a utility provider, we have invested heavily in creating awareness about safety through mass media and community engagements. We have launched School Safety Clubs to introduce this to children at a young age. These Safety Wash lines come in handy to support all the initiatives geared towards promoting a safe environment,” he said.
Nsubuga indicated that the plastic Wash lines were being rolled out across the country targeting 37 zones in Local Councils across the Country this year.
She said the utility has purchased over 80,000 meters of wash lines which are going to be distributed in various vulnerable areas in Bwaise, Natete, Nakulabye, Najjanakumbi, Kamwokya, Kireka, Kalerwe, kitintale, Mbale, wobulenzi and Barracks of Mbarara, Masaka and Gulu.
