End Water Poverty – Sanitation and Water for All

Billions of people across the world live in the same kind of squalor and disease that was eradicated long ago in the developed world. Without adequate sanitation and water there can be no sustainable development in health, education and livelihoods, locking people into a cycle of poverty and disease.

Today, UN World Water Day 2007, a new global campaign is being launched that seeks to End Water Poverty. The campaign aims to address the water and sanitation crisis felt throughout Uganda and globally.

The End Water Poverty coalition is calling on Germany, hosts of the G8 this year, to explicitly acknowledge the slow progress in extending access to sanitation and water, and recognize that sanitation and water are basic human rights fundamental to poverty reduction.

The coalition will urge the G8 summit, International and National Leaders to commit to a Global Action Plan for sanitation and water to ensure adequate services for the world's poorest people.

In Uganda today the population with access to safe water has remained at a level of around 61% in rural areas for the last two years, while the urban water coverage is 51%. The sector targets are 77% of the rural and 100% of the urban population using safe water by 2015. Current sanitation coverage is 58% and Uganda's Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) target is 77% of the rural and 100% of the urban population.

In spite of the Water and Sanitation Sector being one of the PEAP priorities under pillar 5, Government expenditure is decreasing with the sector's total share of the National Budget falling from 6.3% in FY 2001/02 to 2.6% in FY 2005/06.

This leaves a funding gap of more than $ 60m annually up to 2015, to meet the PEAP targets. Coupled with inadequate funding, the Sector is still faced with about a third of water sources broken down and inequitable coverage varying from ( 2% to 97% for sanitation and 10% to 90% for water).

It's against the above background that WaterAid calls upon the government, international development partners, NGOs and other stakeholders to join the coalition campaign to end the Water and Sanitation crisis in Uganda.

By working together we can be better able to realize the Millennium Development Goals and PEAP targets by 2015 and have a healthy and productive society.

The campaign in Uganda will be launched in September 2007 with a special focus on hygiene and sanitation. If you would like to add your voice to this campaign please do not hesitate to contact WaterAid Uganda at the following address:

wateraid@wateraid.or.ug or

www.endwaterpoverty.org

Minister of Water and Environment recognize CSO demands for safe drinking water and sanitation

Minister of Water and Environment, Hon. Maria Mutagamba, while attending the World Water Day (March 22) celebrations in the urban poor settlement of Kawempe, Kampala city was handed a Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) manifesto demanding government to make firm commitments in ensuring water and sanitation for all.

The statement was submitted by Alice Anukur, the WaterAid in Uganda Country Representative on behalf of CSOs under the umbrella of Uganda Water and Sanitation NGO Network (UWASNET).

In the manifesto, the CSOs are demanding concrete action from the government of Uganda to tackle the water and sanitation crisis in the country as it is such a key step towards ending poverty.

Water and sanitation is a human right
While addressing the people at the function Alice noted that; “when water and sanitation is given the lowest political and financial priority, progress towards the Millennium Development Goals is skewed.
“Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is a fundamental human right rather than a charity given out on the whim of politicians,” Alice said. “To have meaningful progress, the government must recognize the right to water and sanitation alongside health, education and also commit more financial resources to the sector. “

In response to the remarks made by the CSO representative, the minister agreed to continue supporting World Walks for Water as a global movement for change where campaigners march in solidarity with the millions of people who have to walk 6km everyday just to collect water for their basic needs. She urged leaders at all levels of governance to be exemplary and custodians of good sanitation and water practices.

International Women's Day- 100 years down the road: Access to safe water and sanitation still a dream to many Ugandan women

March 8, 2011 is the centennial celebration of the International Women’s Day. A day to celebrate the great strides achieved in advancing women’s rights, at the same time offering a platform to advocate for the tremendous work [including easy access to water and sanitation] that remains to achieve full emancipation of women.

Many women in Uganda as the case elsewhere in a number of developing countries, are a slave to water. They wake up every day in the wee hours; walk long and often dangerous distances in order to collect water.

In urban areas women have no choice but to collect water from polluted sources or pay prices to buy it from vendors.

This limited access impacts severely upon health, education and income. Ailments and lack of sanitation facilities in schools means girls during menstrual periods are not able to go to schools and lode their education.

Political opportunity

International Women’s Day provides an opportunity to push for water and sanitation from the women’s rights perspective, demanding governments to end the water and sanitation crisis.

WaterAid in Uganda is urging the government to recognition the right to water and sanitation (as a fundamental women’s human right), which should be prioritised alongside health and education. The government should also commit enough resources in order to end the water and sanitation crisis.

CITIZENS' ACTION FOR ACCOUNTABLE WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE DELIVERY: Uganda walks for clean water and sanitation Together we can end the sanitation and water crisis

March 22, Uganda joins the rest of the world to commemorate the World Water Day. The global theme is; Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge, which aims to highlight and encourage governments, organizations, communities, and individuals to actively engage in addressing the challenge of urban water management.

As part of a global movement for change, water and sanitation campaigners in Uganda are walking a symbolic 6km distance in solidarity with the millions of people who have to walk 6km everyday just to collect water for their basic needs.

This campaign aims at raising awareness of the water and sanitation crisis and demand concrete action from politicians to tackle the water and sanitation crisis in the country. Campaigners are targeting politicians demanding that water and sanitation be made a political priority.

World Walks for Water campaigners are demanding the Uganda government to push water and sanitation up on the national agenda. They are also demanding politicians to honour promises made as part of the Millennium Development Goals to halve the proportion of people without access to sanitation and water by 2015.

“A lack of access to safe, clean water and sanitation locks people in to a vicious cycle of disease, poverty and under-development. Children are kept from going to school and gaining an education and women are denied economic equality because of the time and energy spent gathering water,” said the Executive Director of Uganda Water and Sanitation Network Doreen Wandera.

Uganda: When an Entire Village Lives On One Borehole

Posted on April 8, 2010 by westerhof| 1 Comment

A round wattle hut painted black at the bottom and gray at the top stands 200 metres ahead. As one gets nearer, four circular unbaked brick but grass thatched huts emerge. A young woman in her late teens is baby-sitting one yard from the kitchen door. Chicken and children are roaming the dusty compound. It’s a poor home in a typical African village.

This is the homestead of Meiga Namuddu, a 54-year-old woman in the savannah village of Kisura in the remote district of Masindi. The five grass-thatched huts constitute Namuddu’s homestead. The main hut, about 3 yards from the kitchen, is the dwelling for Namuddu’s two younger children and a granddaughter.

To the left of the kitchen is a hut that serves as the guest wing. Behind the guest wing is the bathroom made of dry grass. Namuddu lost her husband in 2000. She is the sole bread winner of household which comprises eight people. Yet she has no paying job or formal business. The setting is an abundant proof of the prevalent poverty and vulnerability afflicting the masses in Uganda’s countryside.

As we enter her compound, a beaming Namuddu ushers us into the hut that passes for a guest wing. She has been looking forward to seeing us. After a short while we are led into the grass-walled bathroom to have a bath after about a one-kilometre walk to her home under the scorching sun, which is the main reason Namuddu’s village suffers scarcity of water.

Unlike the city dwellers who wake up and turn on a water tap in the bathroom, the sink or in the courtyard, some 400 households in Masindi’s Kisura village in Mutunda sub-county, every day walk one kilometre to reach the nearest water source.

Namuddu’s two younger children fetch water before leaving for school in the morning. Sarah Nanzala and Godfrey Byarusu, both in Primary 5 at Kakwokwo Primary School, have to bear the long queue at the water source every morning. It affects their reporting time at school, but they must leave water behind if they are to find a meal at home after school. There are two boreholes in the whole village, built by Masindi district administration. The local community maintain the boreholes through a committee. Each adult pays Shs3000 for repairs if the boreholes break down.

According to Joseph Kidaga, chairman of the local community-based organisation Mutunda Rural Development Association (MURDA) which works in partnership with ActionAid Uganda, it costs Shs25 million to construct a borehole. Government statistics show that 10 million Ugandans have no access to safe water. This problem is worse in the northern and north-eastern districts where less than 12 percent of the population have access to safe water.

National Water and Sewerage Corporation is only operational in 22 towns in the country. The biggest of this water coverage is in the city. Even if the 22 towns on the national water supply grid were to be counted on district basis, it would mean that 74 districts have no safe water given that there are 94 districts in Uganda today. Even in the 22 towns, outside Kampala, the water coverage hardly goes beyond the main district centres. This has prompted the intervention by the private sector especially the NGOs to help in provision of this basic human need.

For example the UNHCR has provided boreholes in some Masindi villages. ActionAid is working in partnership MURDA, in sensitising the residents to task the government to fulfill its obligations of providing basic needs like water and schools. ActionAid has also been supporting the residents in construction of primary schools, eradicating poverty and malaria as part of strategic intervention to mitigate social problems facing the local communities.

However some residents have taken personal initiatives to address the water scarcity in their localities. For instance, the Local Council II chairman in Kisura village, constructed a borehole in his compound to have water for his family and his big herd of cattle. A household which wishes to draw water from his borehole pays an annual subscription of Shs5,000. This is too expensive for Namuddu and her 21-year-old son who is now married with a baby boy. The LCII chairman’s borehole is 400 metres away from Namuddu’s home.

When both boreholes break down, the community is condemned to drawing water from the valley dam which they share with cattle, goats and sheep. Besides being unsafe water for human consumption, Namuddu has to walk 6km to the dam. On another day, when the dam water becomes too dirty, the widow has to walk about 8km from her home to the River Nile to get water.

Besides the biting poverty and scarce water sources, Namuddu and her community face a myriad other challenges. Whenever it rains, the downpour is so heavy and destroys crops. “For the last four seasons, the maize harvests have been bad,” laments Namuddu. “I am only hoping that this one will be better although the rains have delayed.” Lack of a reliable and profitable market for her produce is another dilemma. Namuddu used to grow cotton but has since stopped and resorted to maize. Cotton has lost market and its prices are not worth the labour. She has never heard of the government’s National Agricultural Advisory Services, which would give her advice to use her oxen to plough the land for commercial production rather than relying on it for subsistence farming.

Mutunda sub-county has 57 villages with 4 health centres serving 47,000 people of which 32000 have been internally displaced by the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency.

The health centres are more of shadows than medical care facilities. Kidaga says they lack drugs and are agonisingly understaffed. For example there is one clinical officer in charge of the whole health centre at Mutunda. He said complicated medical cases are referred to as far as Lacor Hospital in Gulu. Those who cannot make it to Gulu are left to fate.

There is high malaria prevalence in the area, but there is no sight of a mosquito net in Namuddu’s home. This underlines the ineffectiveness of the government’s much touted eradication of malaria.

The day is wearing away and the singing birds announce the dusk. Everyone in Namuddu house is participating in preparation for the family’s supper. We rush to the borehole with Namuddu’s 12-year-old last born, Godfrey Byarusu to fetch water at the borehole. The queue is long. It takes us two hours to get the water. Darkness has already swallowed up the entire village. Only the dim light from a kerosene candle (tadooba) pierces through the darkness to enable us see what lies around us.

Despite all these difficulties, hope on Namuddu remains defiant to despair. Namuddu and her family are happy to host strangers from the city. In the morning they line up to bid us farewell.

Source: Mubatsi Asinja Habati, The Independent / allAfrica.com, 6 April 2010

Uganda: Water Costs Higher in Kampala Slums | WASH news Africa

Water in Kampala’s slums costs three times more than it does in the planned areas such as Kololo and Nakasero, according to a report of Kampala Integrated Environmental Planning Management Project (KIEMP).

KIEMP, which is addressing public health-environmental and housing concerns in Kampala’s unplanned settlements, is funded by the Belgium Technical Cooperation.

“Whereas people in better-off neighbourhoods pay sh30 for 20 litres of water, those in poor parishes often pay sh100, three times more than the planned settlements pay,”

“Many people are, therefore, forced to draw water from contaminated, unprotected spring wells, exposing them to health hazards,” the report said.

This was disclosed on Monday at a media workshop entitled “linking urbanisation and health: key emerging challenges” at Hotel Triangle in Kampala.

The workshop was organised ahead of the World Health Day which was celebrated in Kampala on Tuesday.

At the same workshop, Collins Mwesigwa, an expert from the World Health Organisation, said the poor in urban areas were being denied access to safe water because of increased urban planning.

He said more than 60% of the population in Kampala, which lives in unplanned settlements popularly referred to as slums, lacks access to utilities and amenities.

As a result, slum areas are frequently hit by water-bone diseases such as cholera and dysentery, according to the expert.

“The urban areas are growing without planning. The disease burden is growing and outbreaks of cholera in Kampala occur every year,” Mwesigye said.

He, however, added that the issues affecting urban health were beyond the health sector, pointing out public infrastructure, local governance and income inequalities as some of the underlying causes.

“We can’t expect the Ministry of Health to solve the problem. We need to educate the civil society and the community on the problem so that the Government can plan better,” he said.

In the 1960s, Kampala did not have malaria not because there were no mosquitoes, but because the conditions that could cause the vectors to thrive were controlled.

Kampala used to be called the city of seven hills, but urbanisation had expanded to cover more than 30 hills.

“Look at the landscape beyond the seven hills, it unsightly because it is unplanned, with grave health consequences,” Mwesigye added.

Source: Gerald Tenywa, New Vision /allAfrica.com, 6 April 2010

Health Centre in toilet crisis | The Razor: Cutting Edge Uganda News, Business and Sports

By Ramu Afema

Koboko – The Health Centre IV is facing an acute sanitation problem after toilet facilities at the in-patient department got filled to the brim, prompting patients to resort to the use of polythene bags. Kizito Jurua, the district health inspector said the three pit latrines at the centre have been full for the last three months, forcing the over 600 patients and their attendants to use staff toilets and another pit latrine at the Out Patients Department (OPD).

STRETCHED: One of the filled pit latrines at the health centre. (PHOTO BY RAMU AFEMA)

Meanwhile, patients have been going without treatment at the centre, after medical workers resorted to industrial action.
Dr. Noah Musa, the Medical Officer in-charge of Koboko Health sub district, attributes the woes to interference and influence-peddling from the District Health Office (DHO).

Citing the case of one Frank Yoyo, a psychiatric nurse who was deployed to the Out Patients Department (OPD), Dr Musa accused the District Health Officer Dr Alfred Driwale of deploying staff without informing him. “Decisions taken by my office on staff deployment or duty allocation are regarded subordinate by the DHO. How can he write a letter on my behalf for me to just sign?” Dr Musa asked.
As a result of these misunderstandings, some staff have refused to accept transfers and to attend to patients.

The stand-off has also affected other health facilities like Gborokolongo and Dricile health centres, and several patients have resorted to seeking treatment from the neighbouring districts of Arua, Maracha and Yumbe. But Dr Driwale attributed the problem to tribalism, saying there is a plot to unseat him because he is not from Koboko. “People are being actually mobilised to demonstrate against me because I am not ‘a son of the soil,” he said.