Africa-Press – Uganda. As Uganda joined the rest of the world today to celebrate the World Toilet Day, last week on Friday, there was a reason to smile with the introduction of safely managed toilets for people to use as they promote hygiene in their homes.
This year’s theme was “valuing toilets,” that aimed at celebrating and appreciating how our toilets contribute to bettering our lives.
According to the Water and Environment Sector Report 2020, only 78 per cent have access to toilets and over 22 percent in the rural areas still practice open defecation as per reports from the districts.
It’s against this background that in a bid to accelerate access to safe sanitation in homes, Sanitation for Health Activity (USHA), a civil society organization, has supported households in 20 districts across the country to construct and use improved toilets.
The improved toilets are comfortable and secure.
As a result, may households desire to construct such toilets hence the increase in good sanitation coverage.
The districts are spread in central, eastern and northern Uganda.
Ms Jane Nabulonge, a resident of Kitovu in Masaka District and a cook at a local primary school, is one of the beneficiaries of the improved toilets.
Ms Nbulonge was a member of a local finance support organization, Rural Development Foundation (RDF) and did not think twice when the organization informed its members that it was providing small affordable loans to members who did not have a standard pit latrine but wished to construct one.
“I bravely decided to take up a loan of Shs200, 000 and constructed a decent latrine for my family. I did not find so much difficulty in paying it back because I was able to clear it in four months where I used to pay Shs28, 000 after every two weeks,” she said.
Ms Nabulonge says that she does not at any time regret her decision because the sanitation in her home has now greatly improved.
The other beneficiary is Ms Peninnah Mukasa, a resident of Kasozi, in Nawampiti Sub County, Luuka District.
She worked so hard to build a good life for her family when her husband lost his sight after a short illness.
Her husband died without building a toilet for the home.
Ms Mukasa has now a reason to smile, having constructed a two-stance improved toilet which is clean and convenient and saves her worries of her loved ones contracting diseases or otherwise using old dilapidated.
World Toilet Day is an official United Nations international observance day on 19 November to inspire action to tackle the global sanitation crisis. Worldwide, 4.2 billion people live without “safely managed sanitation” and around 673 million people practice open defecation
For More News And Analysis About Uganda Follow Africa-Press
