The effects of cement production to the welfare of Ugandans. A case study of Osukuru Parish in Tororo District
Abstract
Cement production having been one of the stable growing activities in Uganda with a number so factories and companies starting up across different areas where limestone one of the major raw materials are in plenty. It’s of a great importance to assess the effects of cement production on the welfare of people around such places taking a case study of Osukuru Parish, Tororo district. The study specifically assessed the association of welfare status of respondents with their background characteristics as far as Tororo cement ltd is concerned. Primary data was used in which data was collected from the respondents by administering a well-designed and pretested questionnaire and Epidata software was used for data entry, cleaning and sorting whereas SPSS and STATA were used in analysis.
The study was based on a sample of 100 respondents and from analysis, majority (72.00%) of the respondents were males, 53.00% were aged 20 to 29 years, 27.00% 30 to 39 years and 12.00% were aged 40 and above. About their marital status, 54.00% were married, 44.00% single and the rest divorced and for the education level, majority (52.00%) had attained secondary, 20.00% primary, 17.00% tertiary and 11.00% none. As regards to employment with Tororo cement ltd, majority (74.00%) of the respondents were employed with majority (56.76%) doing casual work, 16.22% operators, and they were paid median income of Ug.Shs 400,000 monthly though to the majority (52.70%) it was not enough for their survival so some had to subsidize with farming, business and doing other jobs. On welfare aspects all respondents agreed that Tororo cement ltd contributed positively to their community though providing employment opportunities, participating in community services, and educating their children however they all agreed that it somehow contributes negatively to the community through causing pollution and displacing residents in the process of expansion. Among the major symptoms of health effects were Cough and chest tightness, Irritation of eyes, runny eyes and conjunctivitis and Skin irritation, itching, and burn. At multivariate welfare status of respondents were significantly associated with education level, age and employment status by Tororo cement ltd where those that had attained tertiary, aged 30 to 39 years and those employed were more likely to have improved welfare status.
Finally there is need to increase on the employment opportunities of the residents of the area in order contribute positively to their welfare and more research on health effects of cement on the residents.