The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
The UN agenda
The UN agenda under Sustainable Development Goal 6.2 seeks to achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations. Uganda being among the states that subscribe to this agenda has come up with policies, frameworks and strategies that are geared towards attainment of this goal.
The Improved Sanitation and Hygiene (ISH) financing strategy (2030) has been developed to guide the promotion of hygiene and sanitation in both urban and rural areas hinged on the three pillars of Demand creation; Supply chain management; and Enabling Environment.
Access to improved Public Sanitation Facilities
Access to improved public sanitation facilities has been increased through construction of public toilets in small towns and RGCs as highlighted in the table .
Earlier this year, the Uganda’s Minister of State Primary Health Care Joyce Moriku Kaducu gave an example of the improving situation in a report .
She said the ministry had engaged all the District Commissioners ( RDCs) at the end of February 2019 and they signed commitments to monitor sanitation and hygiene activities within their districts.
She revealed that up to 44 districts of 134 are catered for under the Uganda Sanitation Fund in the Ministry of Health. A total of 30,341 new hand washing facilities were constructed across all the 44 USF districts
She revealed that going by late 2018 figures, at least 7,901 of the 11,354 (70%) villages targeted by the USF have so far been declared Open Defecation Free. Among the USF supported districts, the average latrine coverage now stands at 96%.
People practicing open defecation (% of population) in Uganda was 6.21 as of 2015. Its highest value over the past 15 years was 15.46 in 2000, while its lowest value was 6.21 in 2015.
People practicing open defecation refers to the percentage of the population defecating in the open, such as in fields, forest, bushes, open bodies of water, on beaches, in other open spaces or disposed of with solid waste.
The big news is this area came from India last week, when India PM Narendra Modi declared the country of 1.3 billion people free of open defecation, and turned his sights towards eradicating single-use plastic next.
“In 60 months, 600 million people have been given access to toilets, more than 110 million toilets have been built,” Modi said in a speech to 20,000 village chiefs in western Ahmedabad city in his and Gandhi’s home state of Gujarat.
“The women of our country no longer have to wait for darkness to descend. Innocent lives of young children are being saved… the expense on healthcare has come down,” Modi added, calling the achievement a significant milestone for the vast developing country.
However, despite huge progress, experts have expressed scepticism about his bold claim, saying millions still lack access to a toilet, and that because of old habits many of the new facilities that have been built are not being used.
