MPs, Civil Society Organisations – Advocate For Access to Clean Water

By Admin

In the bid to improve the dire sanitation and hygiene conditions in the country, the parliamentary forum on Water Sanitation and hygiene in collaboration with civil society organizations have organized a symposium that will bring together stakeholders to think on how to enhance access to safe clean water, good sanitation and hygiene

According to statistics, over  11 million Ugandans lack access to safe water, yet 10% of Ugandans live without latrines which have exposed many to water-borne diseases, like cholera, typhoid among others. It’s also captured that 177 million US dollars of GDP are lost annually due to lack of safe water, poor sanitation, and hygiene. In regard to that background, the civil society organizations have joined hands with members of parliament on the forum of WASH to organize an annual symposium that will bring together stakeholders to discuss solutions of water sanitation and hygiene in the bid to achieve sustainable development goal number six of clean water and sanitation by 2030While addressing the press at parliament, Julius Ahimbisibwe the officer in charge of WASH forum in World vision called for increased funding for to establish more water sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools and health care claiming that some health facilities have turned into “disease vectors” due to poor sanitation 

The availability of toilets in schools has remained one of the biggest challenges and Robert Otim the national director of Habitat for Humanities showed concerns that that one toilet in schools serves 70 children. This does not only claim children’s studying time but also expose them to infections. Otim believes that the symposium will make a very big contribution as far as sanitation water and hygiene are concerned as new innovations will be showcased in an exhibition where all key players, especially from the three-line ministries will be present. 

The chairperson of Uganda parliamentary WASH forum which was established in 2012 to champion the cause for advocacy and policy influencing  Jacqueline Amongin called for the fast-track  the national community works bill of 2016 (Bulungi bwansi) which she believes will be able to fix sanitation challenges in the committee