The district officials in Kabarole in western Uganda have revealed that open defecation and improper disposal of human waste around the source of River Mpanga in Karangura Sub-County has greatly contributed towards the contamination of about 60% of the water used by the community.
Kabarole district health inspector Oliver Tumuhairwe, said only 15% of the homesteads in the district have the recommended standard latrines while another 19% have no toilets.
"Our water contamination level has gone as high as 69% and we have to work hard and make sure that we reverse that situation ,when you go to our OPD attendees you find cases of diarrhoea,"she said.
This revelation came at the commissioning of a newly improved toilets system in the district.
"We have not reported cases of cholera in Kabarole district in more than 20 years now but we are still at risk when we see that 69% of the sources of water are contaminated. So the remaining percentage of 19% out of 100% don’t have latrines at all, those ones we assumed that they are using open defecation,"she said.
Richard Rwabuhinga,the LC5 Kabarole district, said it is important for the community to always protect the ground water from all sorts of contamination as one way of mitigating associated challenges.
