Uganda: Busia District rewards hygienic homes

Busia district health department is rewarding area residents who keep good hygiene in their homes, but those who fail to maintain proper hygiene will be arrested and prosecuted. The drive, named the Home Improvement Campaign, was launched in Majanji parish in Lumino sub-county on Friday, 23 October 2009, by the district chairperson, Patrick Wedakule.

Speaking at the ceremony, the health inspector, Tony Wabwire, said the district would reward residents who have all the necessary sanitary facilities in their homes. The best at parish and village levels will get a bicycle and a 20-litre jerrican, Wabwire said, while the homes which ranked second will walk away with a basin.

He noted that the rewards would encourage the residents to improve their home and personal hygiene. Wabwire, however, said those who fail to maintain proper hygiene will be arrested and prosecuted.

Majanji, where the campaign was launched, is ranked the dirtiest area. Majanji is situated on the shores of Lake Victoria. The district health officer, Dr. Bwire Oundo, asked the communities to take health seriously.

Oundo argued that ill-health retards development because a lot of money is spent in hospitals and that people become too weak to work.

He also emphasized the need for proper hygiene, saying it would safeguard the residents from disease outbreaks that are likely to come with the heavy rains.

Vincent Adeya, the deputy chief administrative officer, noted that there was low pit-latrine coverage in schools in the district.

Adeya blamed this on the inadequate funding given to the schools.

Source: Egessa Hajusu, New Vision / allAfrica.com, 26 Oct 2009

New Procurement Notices for the Global Sanitation Fund in Uganda and Senegal

WSSCC’s Global Sanitation Fund has issued two new calls for tenders and expressions of interest. Below is a brief description, deadline and link for more information related to Country Programme Monitors in Uganda and Senegal.

• Call for Expression of Interest (EOI), Country Programme Monitor, Global Sanitation Fund, Uganda. Deadline date: 5 November 2009
Download the call

• Notice for Open Tender (RFP), Country Programme Monitor, Global Sanitation Fund, Senegal. Deadline date: 16 November 2009
Dowload the call

Please send enquiries about these notices to WSSCC and not to this blog.

About the Global Sanitation Fund

The purpose of WSSCC’s Global Sanitation Fund is to help large numbers of poor people to attain safe and sustainable sanitation services and adopt good hygiene practices. The Global Sanitation Fund is a single pooled fund open to contribution from any source. The money is allocated to Executing Agencies in carefully selected countries, which then grant funds to Sub-Grantees who implement the sanitation and hygiene work programmes agreed for each country. The whole system is closely monitored by WSSCC as well as in country and global audit mechanisms, of which the Country Programme Monitors are an important mechanism.

More information on the Global Sanitation Fund

Uganda – parishes could lose out on money over latrine coverage

Katine parishes could lose out on money over latrine coverage

Sub-county decides to make pit latrine coverage a condition of receiving government funding for income generating schemes

 Residents of Katine sub-county could miss out on government funding if they do not improve pit latrine coverage in the area.

In an effort to eradicate poverty at household level, the national government is providing parishes with money to fund income generating projects. The money is given to the district and then passed to sub-county councils to distribute to their parishes.

As a way of promoting hygiene and sanitation in Katine, the sub-county council has decided to make pit latrine coverage a condition of receiving funding, which could mean some parishes missing out.

According to Charles Elasu, Katine parish chief, each parish should get around UShs 1.3m from the UShs 8m grant given to the sub-county under the government’s Community Driven Development (CDD) programme. The money comes out of the Local Development Grant, given to sub-counties to fund priority areas.

The programme was introduced to encourage a more bottom-up approach to development, giving local communities a chance to initiate projects that would otherwise not be considered a priority at sub-county level. Committees are set up to implement the projects.

However, in Katine the sub-county has stated that each parish must have 85% pit latrine coverage, significantly higher than now, if they want to receive the money.

“We have money coming from government meant to help reduce poverty at household level, but the condition of us benefiting from the grant is that each parish must have at least 85% pit latrine coverage. Unfortunately most of our villages are bellow average,” said Elasu at Katine parish’s sanitation committee meeting last month.

Those at the meeting, which included members of village health teams (VHTs), the heads of local councils and sanitation committee members, noted the need to vigorously mobilise their communities so they can benefit from the grant.

Some of those attending called on the sub-county to support them by ensuring that residents who have failed to dig latrines are arrested and punished.  “We cannot miss [out on] development just because of a few individuals who do not care about their lives,” said Martin Elunyu, Omaria village chairman.

Sub-county chief, James Obore, said he would support such a move.

Tool kits

However, others expressed concern over their ability to dig pit latrines, claiming they lacked the necessary tools.

During the first year of the Katine project, the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) distributed tool kits, which included wheelbarrows and spades, to each of the six parishes to help them dig latrines. The tool kits were supposed to rotate between villages. The meeting heard that most of the tools were now broken, which meant some villages had missed out, and there were calls for Amref to supply more.

Amref’s water and sanitation officer in Katine, John Leonard Kasule, ruled out the possibility of supplying more tools.

“There is no possibility of supplying more latrine digging equipment to communities in the subsequent years of the project. What was supplied was substantial to enable at least everyone in the communities to have a pit latrine,” he Kasule.

He added that the breakages were not due to the poor quality of the equipment.

“It’s true that some of the tools distributed to communities have broken, but this does not mean that they were of poor quality or weak. Many of the communities still have the tools and they are being used. It’s normal for some tools to break due to excessive use, and it also depends on the areas being excavated. If it’s a rocky area, the tools are likely the break faster than those used elsewhere.”

Kasule said the latest available data on latrine coverage in Katine is not broken down per parish. Instead it represents the total sanitation coverage of the entire sub-county, which stands at 34.2%, compared with 7% at the start of the project in 2007. Amref is now collecting data through the parish sanitation committees to get accurate figures at parish level.

He said Amref would continue to support VHTs and parish sanitation committees in conducting awareness campaigns in their communities aimed at promoting sanitation and hygiene. More materials are expected in the third year of the project.

One of the tasks of the sanitation committees is to ensure that each parish produces five villages that have “model homesteads” from which other residents can learn. Using Personal Hygiene and Sanitation Education (PHASE), the project believes children can play a part in influencing their parents to have the necessary facilities.

Source – The Guardian

Uganda, Kasese: unwashed hands cause cholera

Persistent outbreaks of cholera in Kasese District have been blamed on poor hand-washing practices and bad eating habits. This was noted at a one-day advocacy meeting for district councillors on water and sanitation held in Kasese Catholic Social Hall on Thursday [01 October 2009].

Presenting a latrine coverage and hand-washing situational analysis in Kasese, the district health inspector also the disease surveillance officer, Ericana Bwambale, said washing hands among the people of Kasese ranged from 17% to 34%. He named the sub-counties where people rarely wash their hands as Muhokya with 17%, followed by Kitswamba at 18% and Rukoki at 20%.

He said Kyabarungira Sub-county has the lowest latrine coverage at 57%, followed by Rukoki at 60% and Kisinga at 65%. Kyondo Sub-county had the highest latrine coverage of 88%, followed by Maliba Sub-county at 87%.

He said the majority of the people in Kasese eat whatever food they come across without considering its cleanliness.

Since March [2009], 500 cases of cholera have been reported in Kasese with about 10 deaths. The Busongora County health inspector, Steven Bagonza, said cholera cases have been reported in all the four constituencies in the district.

The district councillors on the technical and social services committee blamed the sub-county health assistants for the deteriorating health conditions in the district. They said health workers were not sensitising the community on the need to improve sanitation and hygiene in their homes.

The head of the district technical and social services committee, Mustafa Kikusa, said all the sub-county health assistants should be summoned before the district committee and explain why they are failing to do their work. He noted that the Government was doing all it could to improve people’s standards of living but was being frustrated by civil servants who are failing to deliver as expected.

During the meeting, it was reported that people of Kasese were feeding on animal offals and fish skeletons from Kampala that have some times compromised the health of the people.

The furious councillors promised to move a motion to ban the sale of offals and skeleton fish in the district, saying they were unhygienic and partly responsible for the deteriorating health conditions.

However, some councillors on the committee, especially women said that they would block the motion if brought to council, adding that majority of the people in the district were surviving on offals and fish skeletons because they were cheap and some people cannot afford meat.

Source: Bernard Masereka, New Vision / allAfrica.com, 03 Oct 2009

Uganda, Kampala: goverment to borrow US$ 52 million for sanitation

Parliamwent has allowed the Government to borrow sh100b [US$ 52 million] for the Kampala Sanitation Program. The funds from the African Development Bank (AfDB) will be used to extend the sewerage network to serve at least 15% [the AfDB project description mentions 30%] of the city population from the current 7.5%, according to the committee on national economy.

The committee explained that funds will be used to rehabilitate and extend the existing 135km of sewerage pipelines in Kampala. Robert Sebunya, who presented the committee report, said: “A total of 30km of new sewer pipes will be laid, 10km unblocked, while 6.7km will be realigned.” He also added that some of the funds will be used to construct and operate the Nakivubo sewerage treatment works and construct a new plant.

The loan, to be managed by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation and KCC, will see the formation of water management units in each division of Kampala.

The committee noted that the improvements would curtail water and sanitation related diseases and contribute to environmental protection of Lake Victoria. MPs, however, expressed concern that due to the poor planning of the city, the sewer line was a waste of resources as it could not be accessed by many citizens.

Opposition leader Ogenga Latigo (FDC) [...] advised that more funds be allocated to emptying septic tanks to reduce the spillage into under- ground water. Okello Okello (UPC) demanded that the Ministry of Water and Environment provides a detailed plan of how the money would be spent otherwise, the funds risked being spent in feasibility studies like the rest of the money borrowed by the Government.

Water and environment minister Maria Mutagamba assured the MPs that the money would be put to good use.

Source: Catherine Bekunda and Mary Karugaba, New Vision / allAfrica.com, 04 Oct 2009

Uganda: improving district level leadership on sanitation and hygiene

Improved water supply and sanitation services are key priorities of Uganda’s Poverty Eradication Action Plan. Statistics show there is a lot of work to be done. Latrine coverage stands at 62% nationally, and 79% of these latrines lack hand-washing facilities. In schools, there is an average of 69 students per latrine.

Sanitation and hygiene are not priorities at district level. Limited funding (budgets for sanitation lag far behind those for water supply), the low profile and priority of sanitation and hygiene and the division of responsibilities and funding among departments that have other key priorities hamper progress.

[...]

Conditions vary substantially across Uganda’s 80 districts, and official coverage statistics do not reflect the condition or use of latrines. Outbreaks of faecal-related diseases such as cholera continue to occur. To address these issues in districts with particularly poor sanitation, the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre, the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) and the Network for Water and Sanitation (Netwas Uganda) launched the Learning for Policy and Practice in Sanitation and Hygiene (LeaPPS) programme. The programme has been implemented in the districts of Kyenjojo, Kamwenge, Arua and Koboko. LeaPPS brings together groups of people who work in hygiene and sanitation improvement, which includes politicians, local government staff, community members, donors, researchers and private sector providers.

Read more: Carmen da Silva Wells, Patience Turyareeba and Brecht Mommen, Source Bulletin, May 2009

Uganda, Karamoja: “there cannot be development without hygiene”

Regional public health officer Charles Lodda of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) argues that sanitation and hygiene should be the priority for Janet Museveni, Uganda’s First Lady and new minister for Karamoja Affairs.

“A lot has been said about what she [Janet Museveni] can do for this most socio-economically marginalised region. One would propose electrification and the provision of a robust and efficient transport infrastructure as the pillars for developing Karamoja. However, as a public health professional working in this region, I beg to differ”.

“A baseline survey by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) reveals that hygiene conditions of homesteads is appalling, with 61.1% households littered with faeces, while the latrine coverage stands at 0.3%. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) puts the figure at 9%, but I would attribute this to institutional latrines”.

“Knowledge on hand washing is lacking, with people knowing two critical hand washing events – before eating food and before preparing it. There is little knowledge of the other three critical and important events – after visiting the latrine or bush, after handling children’s faeces and before feeding infants. [...] The incidence of diarrhoea is at 46.5%”.

“Speaking during the participatory hygiene and sanitation transformation training of government extension staff by the IRC, the deputy resident district commissioner (RDC) expressed fears that poor sanitation had become the biggest threat in the region, next to insecurity”.

[...] “A boarding school in Kangole with 1,005 pupils has one five-stance latrine, never mind its condition. Considering the patchy nature of health facilities in the region, these children are sitting on a time bomb. Elsewhere, myths such as a Karimojong elder should “never mix” his feaces with those of an in-law still loom, thereby making the idea of owning a latrine so alien”.

“Eradication of poverty, hunger, child mortality, achievement of universal primary education, gender equality and empowerment of women are the key aspects of the millenium development goals. We can set a right environment for their attainment by streamlining sanitation in all aspects of development programmes to improve the sanitation ladder of the people of Karamoja”.

Source: Charles Rodda, New Vision / allAfrica.com, 09 Jun 2009

Uganda, Kamuli District: sanitation campaign succeeds in raising latrine coverage

The pit-latrine coverage in Kamuli district has increased from 46% to 76% in the past two years, the district health department [Alex Mulindwa] said [...] Mulindwa said they launched a campaign to encourage people to construct pit-latrines in 2006.

He added that they used radios and patrols to mobilise the residents. The campaign was funded by the water department. Mulindwa said at the beginning of the campaign, some villages had no pit-latrines and residents would relieve themselves in the bushes.

“Bulungu village in Namwendwa sub-county had no pit-latrine and the residents had turned anthills into latrines,” Mulindwa noted. The district health educator, David Mbadhwe, said the district council passed a resolution under which a punishment of six months jail term was imposed on those who did not have pit-latrines. Mulindwa said they targeted having pit-latrine coverage of 90% by 2010.

Source: Tom Gwebayanga, New Vision / allAfrica.com, 18 May 2009

Uganda, Kampala: schools to get water and sanitation project

RUBAGA, Kawempe and Makindye divisions are to benefit from a sh2b [US$ 900,000) water and sanitation project that targets garbage collection and maintenance of hygiene in schools. The one-year project will target primary schools in the divisions. Already, sh100m [US$ 45,000) has been put aside for ventilated pit-latrines, hand-washing equipment and water tanks. [...] The Community Integrated Development Initiative will implement the project in collaboration with Kampala City Council.

The project coordinator, Teo Namata, said a survey in the city divisions showed that the sanitation in schools was appalling as the majority lacked latrines. “In one of the schools, we found 900 pupils and only two latrines for all the pupils,” Namata said. She said teachers and pupils will also be trained on how to operate the facilities given to the schools. The school project involves rain water harvesting programmes. Schools will also be given water tanks for tapping water. A total of 3,610 students and teachers are expected to benefit from the hygiene education component.

Source: Juliet Waiswa, New Vision / allAfrica.com, 12 May 2009

Uganda: Toilet Emptying Needs Investors

THERE are investment opportunities in emptying of pit latrines in Kampala and other urban areas, the World Bank’s senior water and sanitation specialist has observed. “The bank carried out a study in Kampala and found that Kampala residents generate 800,000 litres of feaces per day (800 cubic meters) but the capacity to empty and dispose them of is only 230.000 litres,” Samuel Dawuna Mutono explained.

“This means more local people can invest in emptying pit latrines but the biggest challenge we discovered is that most of these toilets are not accessible, while some people are too poor to pay for the service,” he said. Mutono said only 8% of the country’s population is connected to the sewage system. “So how about the 92%? That is why the bank has supported this business linkage programme aimed at training members of the private emptiers association to improve their services.”

This was at the signing of a memorandum of understanding for a business linkage programme between the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), Enterprise Uganda and the Private Emptiers Association at the Kampala Serena Hotel.

[...] “SMEs [small and medium enterprises] lack documented long-term visions, strategic business plans, adequate capitalisation, while others are involved in unscrupulous practices and have poor customer care,” Enterprise Uganda’s director of business advisory services, Rosemary Mutyabule said. “That is why the association will benefit much from the training,” Mutyabule said. 

Source: David Muwanga, New Vision / allAfrica.com, 25 May 2009