Uganda still lagging behind in access to clean water, sanitation- CSOs say
Civil Society Organisations have said Uganda still has a long way to go if it is to realise its targets in terms of access to safe water and improved sanitation facilities.
Speaking during the 14th annual civil society organisations WASH forum under the theme, ‘ WASH: The cornerstone for achieving the NDP IV objectives, Yunia Musaazi ,the Executive Director of the Uganda Water and Sanitation NGO Network said a lot still needs to be done to reach the targets.
“ When it comes to access to clean water, we are still lagging behind. At the beginning of NDP1 there was a target of universal access for both water and sanitation. We are at around 70% that means that out of every 10 households, three don't have access to clean water. When it comes to sanitation, more than 10 million Ugandans still don't have access to basic sanitation,” Musaazi said.
The State Minister for Primary Healthcare, Margaret Muhanga admitted that despite making significant progress in expanding WASH services, Uganda continues to grapple with the challenge of ensuring access to WASH services at the household and institutional level.
“According to the 2022 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey, only 78% and 89% of rural and urban households respectively have access to an improved water source while a substantial proportion of 8% practice open defecation. Also the same survey shows that about 51% of households have inadequate handwashing in place,” Muhanga said.
She said similar challenges continue to occur at an institutional level with 17% of the healthcare facilities having no access to safe water at all, 81% access limited sanitation, 10% have not sanitation at all while 31% don’t have environmental cleanliness at all.
The minister said inadequate menstrual hygiene management continues to hinder education of young girls while climate change ins also placing an unprecedented strain on the country’s water resources.
The challenge
The Executive Director of the Uganda Water and Sanitation NGO Network said lack of adequate financing is still a big problem and this hinders implementation of clean water and sanitation programs .
“From the assessment that we do ,in order to make sure that every Ugandan has access to clean water and sanitation, a computation that indicates that we need seven times or nine times the current financing,” Musaazi said.
She said whereas CSOs are trying to put their voices together and invest in programs to that support the access to servicing of clean water and sanitation and also environmental conservation, the funding is not enough and consequently limiting their reach.
“Another key challenge is lack of adequate capacity. You find that some district local governments, don’t have enough capacity to oversee who has clean water and sanitation or the gap when it comes to enforcement of some of these policies like the ones that call for maybe everyone having a toilet within their at household level. So there's lack of capacity to monitor but also enforce these laws that and bylaws that are put in place by government at different levels.”
She said there is lack of adequate coordination mechanisms among CSOs with many not willing to share annual reports to be able to see the progress of their projects and see where to improve.
Musaazi was however quick to note that there's currently a multi sectoral steering committee that has been shared by the Ministry of Health, where all the different players within the line ministries, including civil society, coordinate on a quarterly basis to deliberate on these challenges and come up with strategies.
The State Minister for Primary Healthcare however noted that government or civil society action alone is not enough.
“The complexity of the challenges we face, from population growth to climate change demands a multisectoral approach. It requires stronger collaboration among government, civil society, the private, media and development partners.”
