WaterAid – World Toilet Day 2010: Uganda

How Katine’s residents got clean water and sanitation

The installation of more boreholes means many Katine residents once forced to drink from local swamps now have access to clean water. But a year-long strike by health volunteers has delayed progress on sanitation, says Sarah Boseley.

It’s been raining in Katine. The genteel English expression doesn’t do it justice. One moment the sun is out, the next instant the sky darkens and whole bathfuls of water tip from the skies. People flatten themselves against the mud walls of houses if they can. Those who can’t, walking slowly with heavy loads on their heads or cycling with wife and children on the pannier, are drenched in an instant. And it keeps raining. The swamps overflow.

Three years ago, I watched women with yellow jerrycans on their heads wade through the swamp, their skirts gathered up in one hand as best they could. They were on their way to a place where the swamp bubbles. There is a spring beneath. Their pitiful hope was that the water there would be cleaner. In the dry season, they would frequent an old shallow well beside the swamp. In the rains, it disappears, overrun by the high water and full of mud.

Edith Apiango, 23, and her grandmother, Erima Anayo, who says she is around 70, recall how it was. “When it rained, we crossed the swamp. The water came up to here,” says Apiango, drawing a line with her hand just below her hips. “The water there was flowing a bit. We walked 4km. I had a 20-litre jerrycan. I had to rest on the way back. I was very tired because I had to make two journeys.”

Uganda: Museveni warns against toilet fees

President Yoweri Museveni has described the practice of overcharging by operators of public toilet and markets as “parasitism”.

“Instead of developing common facilities in markets, business people make huge money out of people defecating. For somebody to use a toilet in Nakawa market, he must pay sh200 [9 US dollar cents]. This is not acceptable,” he stressed.

Museveni was speaking at the opening of the second national conference of his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party on 11 September 2010.

Running public toilets in towns has become a gold mine, especially in Kampala.

Kampala City Council estimates that there are over 2,550 users of public toilets per day.

According to a recent Saturday Vision survey, public toilet operators in Nakasero market and the Old Taxi Park, for instance, charge sh500 [22 US dollar cents] for bathing, sh200 [9 US dollar cents] ablution, sh300 [14 US dollar cents] long calls and sh200 [9 US dollar cents]  for short calls.

The survey revealed that an operator can make at least sh12,000 per hour just from one item.

Related news: Ghana: toilet wars, WASH news Africa, 12 Feb 2009

Source: New Vision, 14 Sep 2010

USAID Hygiene Improvement Project – Sanitation Marketing for Managers

Sanitation Marketing for Managers: Guidance for Tools and Program Development. July 2010.

Full-text: http://www.hip.watsan.net/page/5007

Developed through HIP’s program in Uganda, this manual provides guidance and tools for designing a sanitation marketing program. It guides professionals in the fields of sanitation and marketing to 1) comprehensively assess the current market for sanitation products and services and (2) use the results of this assessment to design a multi-pronged sanitation marketing strategy.

Katine winner sets standards in national hygiene drive

Katine ‘ideal home’ winner sets standards in national hygiene drive

In a campaign to promote household and personal hygiene in Uganda, a Katine family has won an “ideal homestead” competition. How did they do it?

Almost everything about Charles Adengu’s home tempts you to look again. None more so than the five large, terrace-thatched huts with smooth walls painted with motorcycles, footballs, cattle or juicy-looking pineapples. A sixth, smaller hut, just outside the main compound, looks like a teenager’s fancy dwelling until you are told that it is actually the pit latrine, with a yellow jerry-can for hand-washing suspended from a stick in the ground nearby.

Pit latrine with hand-washing facility in foreground at Charles Adengu's compound. Photograph: Richard M Kavuma

Riding in on a sunny Thursday afternoon, I am struck by the cool, fresh air thanks to numerous trees that cast swaying shadows on the brown earth of an impeccably clean, well-swept compound in Katine, north eastern Uganda. I had not heard of Adengu until I was given his name a few hours earlier by the African Medical Research Foundation (Amref), which with the Guardian is supporting the Katine community development project. Adengu, with his family, is the proud winner of an “ideal home” competition in Katine, and sitting on the brick-bordered veranda of one of the huts, with its smooth, cow dung-plastered floor, I can see why.

“I was happy that my home was selected as the cleanest because I have always tried to have a spacious, clean homestead; even [our] previous homestead was nearly as good as this one,” Adengu tells me later under bright moonlight, after he has returned from grazing cattle.

Besides the cleanliness of the homestead, which is surrounded by hedges, Adengu says the water and sanitation inspectors from both Katine and Soroti district were impressed because they found “everything” that a home should have – pit latrine, bath shelter, rubbish pit, granary, chicken house, rack for utensils, etc.

Sustainable Sanitation Practice: The ROSA Project

Issue 4 of Sustainable Sanitation Practice (SSP), published by the EcoSan Club, Austria,  is s special issue that presents the highlights and main findings of the EU-funded ROSA (Resource-Oriented Sanitation concepts for peri-urban areas in Africa) project.
Read the full issue

The ROSA project was implemented in four pilot cities: Arba Minch in Ethiopia, Nakuru in Kenya, Arusha in Tanzania, and Kitgum in Uganda.

The 7 papers included in this special issue show specific aspects of the as well as an outlook on future activities. Topics covered include scaling-up ecosan toilets in Ethiopia, urine-diversion dry toilets in schools in Kenya, urban agriculture in Tanzania, operation and maintenance, and the development of Strategic Sanitation and Waste Plans (SSWPs).

Uganda: pupil rewarded for exposing open defecation

A 13-year-old Primary Six pupil was rewarded with sh20,000 [US$ 9] during celebrations of the Day of the African Child in Kamuli district after she told the audience that members of her family defecate in the bush.

It all started when the deputy chief administrative officer, Cornelius Kalema, said: “Most of our people have latrines. Tell me anyone here without a latrine and you will get a sh20,000 prize.”

Proscovia Bagaaga of Nawansaso Primary School in Kamuli announced her father’s name and their village and said since their latrine filled up last year, he had refused to construct another one.

Kalema praised the girl and urged her to tell her father to build a new pit-latrine or risk arrest.

Source: Tom Gwebayanga , New Vision, 20 Jun 2010

Uganda – Sanitary pad project “changes refugees’ lives”

KYAKA II, 9 March 2010 (IRIN) – A project using papyrus and waste paper to make sanitary pads has changed the life of Evelyne Banyamisa, who fled rebel violence in Bunia, north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2003 when she was only 13. After leaving the DRC, Bamanyisa ended up in south-western Uganda where she has been living as a refugee. She was separated from her parents as they fled Bunia, and Banyamisa, her elder brother, a younger sister and a niece, arrived in the Kyaka II refugee camp where they lived together as a family until 2008 when her brother disappeared.

“I don’t know where he went; I have reported his disappearance but I have not so far heard anything; right now I am taking care of my sister, my niece and an orphan who I decided to take in as she did not have anyone to help her,” Banyamisa, now aged 20, told IRIN on 7 March. With the help of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Banyamisa managed to continue with her schooling while in Uganda, dropping out in the third year of secondary school. “I was idle for about two years with nothing to do here in Kyaka,” she said. “Fortunately, I got employed in June 2009 by Makapad where I am now the quality controller,” Banyamisa said. “I get a monthly salary of 80,000 shillings [US$40] which I use to sustain my family; where would I have gotten such money without Makapads?”

Set up in 2008 by a Makerere University professor, UNHCR and its implementing partner GTZ, the Makapads project has not only transformed the livelihoods of its employees, it has also made available sanitary pads for tens of thousands of refugees – most of them Congolese – living in settlements in south-western Uganda. Moses Kizza Musaazi, a senior lecturer at Makerere University, initiated the project to help disadvantaged girls access affordable sanitary pads.

The project later received support from UNHCR and GTZ, leading to the establishment of two sites in Kyaka II refugee settlement where the pads are produced, purchased by UNHCR and distributed among refugees. The Makapads are also produced in the capital, Kampala, at the faculty of technology at Makerere University. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, buys the pads for distribution among female refugees living in settlements in southwestern Uganda. They are also available for sale at local outlets Inside the 209 sqkm Kyaka II refugee settlement, the Makapads project is run on two sites, employing dozens of refugees, mostly women. The site where Banyamisa is employed has 29 workers, 24 of whom are women. “The project has also attracted the interest of nationals living close to the refugee settlement. They want to be involved as they realize it is beneficial but right now we only have refugees working here,” Ibrahim Rumanyika, the project manager for the Makapads project in Kyaka II said. Rumanyika is a Congolese refugee who arrived in Uganda six years ago.

Production process – The production process begins with the collection and delivery of papyrus reeds, Rumanyika said. “Once we have the papyrus, it is peeled, cut up into small pieces and ground into a powdery form,” he said. “Then we sieve it to remove the coarse particles. This is then taken to another container filled with water, where it is mixed with waste paper pulp; we get the paper from UNHCR in Kampala. “From there, we place the mixture on drying racks; it takes a few hours to dry when the weather is OK, on rainy days we hardly dry anything,” Rumanyika said. “Thereafter we take the dried sheet into the production room where it is softened and smoothed, and cut into pad-sizes; then combined with a paper-only dried pulp [which is softer], packed in soft outer material, sealed and sterilized.” With just two buildings and 50 drying racks lined up outside, the project runs on solar-powered electricity. “Even sterilization becomes a problem because we depend on solar power to do it; sometimes we do not produce as much as the day’s capacity because of this,” he added.

On average, the site makes at least 3,000 packages a day – each with 10 sanitary pads. “UNHCR buys the pads from us for distribution among the refugees here in Kyaka and Nakivale settlements but we also make pads for sale in local retail outlets,” Rumanyika said. The crushed pulp from papyrus reeds is mixed with waste paper before being sun-dried on racks outside the Makapads plant at Kyaka II refugee settlement Most of the equipment used is locally produced, Rumanyika said, with only the adhesive tape and soft outer cover imported.

He said a Makapad package retails at 1,000 Uganda shillings [US$0.50) whereas the prices for the other varieties on the market start at 2,000 shillings [$1]. Banyamisa said her life and that of other refugees using the pads has changed for the better. “Previously, many of us used cloth or toilet paper; the problem with the cloth was that one may not have soap with which to wash it, sometimes water is hard to come by, so you could end up with a bad smell as a result,” she said. “Since the Makapads were introduced, the days of periods being depressing are gone; the only problem right now is the pads are too thin for those with heavy flows. I think we should make some pads specifically for such women.”

Expansion plans According to UNHCR, the Kyaka II Makapads project has the potential to become self-sustaining. At the moment, the agency supplies it with the waste paper which is mixed with the papyrus to make the pads. Needa Jehu-Hoyah, associate external relations officer for UNHCR Uganda, said: “The Makapads project is one of the most beautiful examples of refugees coming together to respond to the needs of women and children in a manner that sustains their dignity. We recently reached the 50 percent mark in the procurement of Makapads for female refugees of reproductive age in the refugee settlements.” Maria Mangeni, UNHCR’s Makapads expert, said due to increased interest in the project, UNHCR was considering plans to replicate the project in other refugee settlements in the country.

Source – IRIN News

Uganda, Kampala: living on the edge in Namuwongo

On a tiny crumbling concrete floor sits a raised makeshift building with stairs of half-baked bricks. With the upper part screened off by boxes and plastic materials, this is what passes for a toilet in Namuwongo. This, according to Jamila Erika would be remarkable, if the toilets were plenty and enough for everyone.

“We have been robbed of our dignity,” says Erika, a resident of Kanyogoga. “Can you imagine women living without a toilet in the house? The most difficult thing is to get a toilet because they are too few and they are closed at night.”

A levy of sh100 [US$ 0.05] is also imposed on the users of the shared toilet, which Erika says pushes some people to use the bush instead. For those who are not bold enough to engage in open defecation, there is an option ["flying toilets"], which is equally degrading.

“With plenty of empty plastic bags, women who stay home when their husbands are away, help themselves in the plastic bags and keep them inside their houses. When the night comes, most women move out and discard the plastic bags,” says Erika.

In some of the tiny corridors, children answer the call of nature. There are heaps of faeces as one moves towards the swamp, making it difficult to walk there.

Swarms of houseflies hovering over the shacks feast on the heaps and later make millions of landings on the dirty plates nearby.

[...]

Ironically, it is rare for Namuwongo residents to wash their hands, a practice, which Sam Mutono of the World Bank says would cut down on incidents of water-borne diseases by up to 60%. “This practice has not been nurtured in Namuwongo,” says Mutono.

At the stand pipes, Erika says a jerrycan of water goes for sh50 [US$ 0.025] and that most women have only sh200 [US$ 0.10] by the husbands to run the home for the whole day. “Can you imagine hunting for food, water and firewood with just that money?” asks Erika. “For us, putting food on the table is a miracle and spending money on a shared toilet is an afterthought.”

In their tiny crumbling houses, the women have an extra burden of nursing children that frequently fall sick when water-borne diseases become so rampant. “I have to spend most of the money treating children in the rainy season,” says Erika. “This also means that I have to stay home much longer when they are sick.”

In times of hardship, it is women and children that suffer most. “The men care less because they step out of home very early and come back too late to listen to the problems their wives and children are facing,” says Erika. “It is common for men to run to other women in different parts of Kampala to escape responsibilities at home.”

Most patients during the three devastating outbreaks of cholera that spread through Kampala in 1997, 2007 and 2008 came from Namuwongo. InOctober 2009, cholera revisited Namuwongo and claimed three lives. One victim was a woman and the other two were children.

Too much unsafe water

Erika says when it rains, it floods and dirty water from the dreaded Nakivubo Channel seeps into the spring water wells contaminating the drinking water, a reliable source for those who cannot afford tap water.

“Most children miss classes because they are sick”, says Emily Hashaka, who works with an NGO. “We provide some medicine, but this is like a drop in the sea.”

The occupants of this slum count themselves lucky if the rainy season passes without cholera striking. The women sometimes sell household utensils in order to get money to buy medicine and food, according to Hashaka.

The LC1 chairperson for Kanyogoga, Emmanuel Masengere, says unsafe toilets were demolished since floods easily drain away the faeces into the houses. “This place is congested with people. The water table is high and the pit latrines are floating on water. So we constructed public latrines, which are safer, but too few.”

Asked whether their cries have been heard, Masengere replies: “Government officials only come here when there is a crisis or for votes. They never attend to issues affecting the population until it becomes a full-blown crisis.”

According to Charles Nuwagaba, a lecturer at Makerere University, half of the population in the slums in Kampala do not have access to toilets. “This”, Nuwagaba points out, “is a serious shortcoming given that about 60% of Kampala’s population lives in slums.”

Less than 10% of the two million residents of Kampala have toilets connected to the sewer line. The poor disposal of sewage has turned the Nakivubo waterway into an open sewer, which drains into Lake Victoria near Namuwongo.

To the National Environment Management Authority, the residents of Namuwongo are encroaching on the swamp. However, some of the encroachers have met their match in the floods and have had to vacate even before NEMA’s action to evict them.

“But this never lasts long. Other tenants keep on coming to rent the cheap houses in the dry season. The problem with Namuwongo is that the people who have constructed houses in the slums never stay there,” says Mutono.

The Government with the support of World Bank wanted to remove Namuwongo two decades ago, but it never happened. The owners of land sold it to their richer colleagues and the poor tenants crossed the Port Bell railway for cheaper housing deeper in the swampy settlement.

Recommendations

Mutono suggests technologies that can work better than the pit latrines as part of the way out. “Key to this is the exposure of women to new technologies such as ecological sanitation toilets that separate urine and faeces with an aim of making fertilisers,” says Mutono. “Once exposed, the women could teach many others. It could take a long time to accept such technologies, but women should be put at the centre.”

Mutono also recommends that NGOs with lessons on how to deal with sanitation in slums should be encouraged to share such knowledge. “As much as the Government tries to improve the situation, sanitation is a household responsibility,” says Mutono.

Mutono also says the landlords should be compelled to enforce the Public Health Act to create better sanitation conditions for people like Erika to lead better lives.

Source: New Vision / allAfrica.com, 20 Feb 2010.

Amref: Why we need a fourth year in Katine, Uganda

The African Medical and Research Foundation explains why it has decided to extend its development work in Katine for an extra year.

In July 2009, Amref invited a consultant to hold a mid-term review of the Katine project to assess whether the project was on track to meet its objectives. Although largely on track, the consultant’s key recommendation after consulting with our partners (community members and government officials) was to extend project implementation for one more year and increase the financial resources available for the project. The recommendation for an extension is not unique to Amref.  Many NGOs and donors are familiar with requests for costed and/or non-costed extensions to projects.

The question that follows is why does development take so long? By looking back at our experience in Katine and in other projects we’re implementing around Africa, we hope to shed some light on the complexity and realities of doing development in settings like Katine.

Read the complete article – The Guardian