Uganda Has The Highest Alcoholic Intake Per Capita in The World

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According to a recent (WHO) World Health Organization report on Alcoholic intake, Uganda has been listed as the country with the highest alcoholic intake per capiter in the world with a whooping 19.7 litres of alcoholic beverages per head yearly. We are closely followed by Luxemburg with 16.5 litres per head yearly and the country with a bronze in alcoholic intake is the Czech Republic with a per capiter intake of 15.8 litres per person per year.

This report did not shock me, infact, from what I see in my country, these figures are quite conservative, I think more litres of alcohol are taken here than what the official figures show.

Drinking alcohol in Uganda is largely governed by the levels of income. Those with money flock to bars in urban areas and take crates after crates of beers before driving home in the wee hours of the night. With this group, they take a more refined form of alcohol and they also are well educated enough to know that heavy drinking must be complemented by good food. As a result, many alcoholics in the urban areas rarely die of over drinking.

In the rural areas where poverty rules the day, peasants engage in brewing and drinking very lethal form of alcohol that kills many of them almost yearly. For example, in 2006, 40 deaths were reported as a result of over drinking Waragi, a potent locally brewed alcoholic drink. In 2007, 60 people died as result of taking alcoholic drinks across the country. This year and to be precise, just last September, 19 Ugandans died in a spell of two days as result of heavy drinking of alcohol glazed with methane, a very poisonous chemical which the local brewers add to their brews to make it more potent and desired by those taking alcohol.

Many other Ugandans engaged in heavy drinking die gradually as a result of liver and kidney complications because they are so addicted to alcohol that they simply disregard any counseling or medical advise to discontinue drinking. The manifestations of problems associated with alcoholism are so enormous that I continue to wonder why the government has to this day, not considered this a real social problem. There are obsolete laws on our statute books that date back to the colonial times such as the Enguli Laws but they are not being enforced. Besides, these laws no longer address the specific emerging problems of alcoholism of our times.

Following the recent deaths however, the Ministry of Health has recommended stringent measures to curb the problem. We hope it saves Ugandans.