Uganda: government setting up Hand Pump Mechanics Associations in all rural districts

Forming associations for hand pump mechanics in Uganda has enhanced the services they provide and ultimately improved functionality, a new study [1] shows.   One such association in Kabong district succeeded in improving functionality of water sources from 20% in 2006 to 96% in 2010.

A 2011 study on the effectiveness of community-managed rural water systems revealed that just 53% were fully functional. With a coverage rate of 65% this implies that  only  about a third of the rural population of Uganda has reliable access to safe drinking water.

Hand Pump Mechanics Associations (HPMAs) have been in existence in Uganda for several years but were under-performing, partly because they were not formalised. In 2007, SNV  Netherlands Development Organisation developed guidelines to improve HPMA performance.

Now the government, through the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE), and its development partners have decided to set up HPMAs in all districts in Uganda. They have set a target to set up hand pump mechanics /scheme attendants associations in 80% of the districts in FY 2011/12, and operationalise them in at least 30% of districts by FY 2012/13 [2].

Members of the Lira District Hand Pump Mechanics Association undergo refresher training, January 2012. Photo: IRC/Triple-S

While the Ministry and its partners are now rolling out awareness raising and capacity building programmes for  HPMAs, several concerns have been raised. One is about their legal status. The Functionality Working Group, which was set up by the MWE,  recommends that HPMAs first register as Community Based Organisations (CBOs) as required by the Ministry but that they would also need to allowed to undertake commercial activities to ensure their sustainability.

IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre/Sustainable Services as Scale (Triple‐S) is supporting the secretariat of Functionality Working Group.

[1] IRC and SNV, 2012. Hand Pump Mechanics Associations : improving rural water service delivery. (Triple-S briefing note). The Hague, The Netherlands: IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre/Sustainable Services as Scale (Triple‐S). Available at: <
http://bit.ly/KTkKzH
>

[2] MWE, 2011. Water and environment sector : the third Joint Government of Uganda –Development Partners Sector Review 2011 : agreed minutes : 11th – 13th October 2011, Kampala. Kampala, Uganda: Ministry of Water and Environment. Available at: <
http://bit.ly/KTldlw
>

Related news: Uganda: associations of pump mechanics help improve functioning of handpumps, E-Source, 14 Dec 2010

Related web sites:

• Uganda – Ministry of Water and Environment
• IRC – Uganda Triple-S initiative
• RWSN – Sustainable Rural Water Supplies

Source: Hand Pump Mechanics Associations: actualising the dream, IRC-Triple-S/Water Services that Last/, May 2012

Uganda, Kampala: marketing human excreta – a study of possible ways to dispose of urine and faeces

Marketing Human Excreta: A Study of Possible Ways to Dispose of Urine and Faeces from Slum Settlements in Kampala, Uganda, 2011. E Schroeder, Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

• (Full-text)

Some key findings include: High sociocultural barriers associated with handling and using human excreta as fertilizer exist; sensitization does change people’s perceptions and behaviors considerably; and economical tools like the incentives applied in this study are helping to change people’s perceptions and behaviors.

New web resource on rural water supply highlights Ghana and Uganda – www.waterservicesthatlast.org

One out of three rural water supply systems in developing countries doesn’t function at all or performs far below its promised level. IRC’s Triple-S (Sustainable Services at Scale) initiative has put together a web resource to help those involved in financing, planning or implementing rural water supply projects or providing services. The website brings together the latest thinking on creating water services that last, including results from Triple-S work in Ghana and Uganda. It covers key elements such as monitoring, financial planning, institutional models, and capacity building for service providers and local government. Here you’ll find tools, concepts, case studies, videos, cartoons, and more.

Web site: www.waterservicesthatlast.org

Africa: political stability and country leadership key to water and sanitation progress

Political stability has heavily influenced progress in improving access to water supply and sanitation services with low-income stable countries outperforming low-income fragile and resource-rich countries.  ”This breaks with the common perception that access to sanitation and water increases with GDP”, says Senior Financial Specialist Dominick de Waal, lead author of a new report [1] by the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program (WSP).

The report, commissioned by the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW),  maps progress  in water supply and sanitation of 32 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. WSP carried out the country studies together with the African Development Bank in close partnership with UNICEF, WHO, and the 32 governments.

Briefing Note on Mapping EU Support for Sanitation in Africa

The Briefing Note “Mapping EU Support for Sanitation in Africa”, published by the EU Water Initiative (EUWI) Africa Working Group, is based on a full study by WEDC in association with Hydroconseil. The purpose of the study is to obtain an overview of the status of the involvement of EU Member States and the European Commission in sanitation-related activities in Africa. It is anticipated that the findings of this work will have the potential to be used for both arguing for greater priority for sanitation within the international architecture and also for individual donors to use in discussing their own Official Development Assistance (ODA).

East Africa: Germany and Japan harmonising efforts in water and sanitation

GIZ and JICA have signed an agreement to collaborate in water and sanitation in Zambia, Uganda and Kenya. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have agreed to plan, implement and evaluate their projects collectively in future. There are plans to extend the cooperation to other countries as well.

Zambia

In Zambia, GIZ works on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Zambia, providing advisory services to the government and urban water providers. JICA implements infrastructure and technical assistance projects, in both urban and rural areas. The two agencies have not set a time limit for their cooperation, but they have agreed biannual evaluations.

In Zambia, for instance, GIZ has cooperated with the government to develop a new concept for supplying water to slum areas, which concentrates on ‘water kiosks’ – public sales points connected to the mains water supply. These have so far opened the way to clean drinking water for more than 600,000 people. Now, assisted by GIZ, JICA will use this approach for wider application in other parts of the country. At the same time, GIZ will help spread the use of a maintenance system for rural water supplies, which was developed with Japanese support, to other regions of Zambia. This will benefit about 500,000 people.

Uganda

Here GIZ and JICA are working together improve sanitation in schools and poor urban areas, and in climate adaptation measures for water supply.

Kenya

In Kenya, both agencies are collaborating to reduce water losses in distribution networks, are helping promote more effective use of scarce water resources by the state.

Related web sites:

• GIZ – Water
• JICA – Focus on Water

Source: GIZ, 07 Apr 2011

Uganda: Nation shows improvement on MDGs

About 75% of Ugandans have access to safe water, compared to only 53% 10 years ago, according to a report released by the Ministry of Finance on 5 December 2010.

The report showed that Uganda had made significant progress towards many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The September 2010 report noted that progress had been made, especially in reducing the number of people in absolute poverty and those facing food shortage. It also showed that progress had been made in gender equality and women empowerment. The report said the target of gender parity between boys and girls in primary school had been achieved, adding that the country was also on track to meet the target of access to HIV/AIDS treatment and safe water. There has also been progress in the global partnership for development, notably in ensuring debt relief and sustainability, as well as expanding access to information and communication technology.

However, the Government said progress has “been too slow to meet the MDGs”. While access to primary education has improved, rates of completion of a full course of primary education have stagnated in recent years. The Government agreed that several of the health targets, such as child and maternal mortality, access to reproductive health, and the incidence of malaria and other diseases, had also progressed slowly.

Commenting on HIV/AIDS, the report revealed that there were significant challenges in sustaining past gains, adding that new infections had increased. “Population growth is adding to the number of new infections, as is transmission of HIV between older age groups, especially those that are married or cohabitating.”

The Government also noted that the dwindling of foreign development assistance was expected to continue because of the global financial crisis.

The analysis showed that even if there was progress towards many of the MDGs, the benefits were unevenly shared. “Levels of poverty are more than twice as high in rural areas than in urban areas, and poverty levels remain higher, and have fallen less rapidly, in the northern and eastern regions of the country,” the report said.

On maternal health, the Government reported that every day, about 16 women die while giving birth in Uganda. To combat the trend, it proposed interventions in emergency obstetric care, which addresses the direct causes of maternal death. These are bleeding, sepsis, unsafe abortion, hypertensive disorders and obstructed labour. These are responsible for about 80% of maternal deaths.

The Government acknowledged that special effort is needed if the MDGs are to be met not just in national averages, but also in real progress for all Ugandans.

Source: Barbara Among, New Vision /allAfrica.com, 6 December 2010

Uganda: Improving hygiene and sanitation in Masaka

A team of volunteers from the United States has spent four months constructing latrines, building protected springs and washing-stations as well as providing training in hygiene and sanitation in Masaka District. The Union of Community Development Volunteers (UCDV) from Utah State has constructed 60 protected springs, 16 school latrines, 10 washing stations, and has also donated water tanks to 15 schools.

UCDV has also built 25 pit latrines for families in Katoogo Village in Buwunga Sub-county and given out 500 pit latrine slabs to other families. “We gave out the slabs after making sure we had trained several of them to build pit latrines, and we expect them to share the skills with the others,” said Mr Eddy Mutebi, Director of UCDV.

Only 23 per cent of the homesteads in Katoogo Village had pit latrines before the volunteers’ intervention. About 75 local volunteers have been trained in general hygiene and sanitation practices and they are expected to teach other community members about the importance of hand washing, using and keeping latrines clean, as well as drinking clean water.

Mr Mutebi went on to reveal that the different schools and villages where the team had donated water tanks or built protected water springs were recommended by the Masaka District local administration and the department of health. The festivities for officially handing over the items to the local communities took place at St Bruno Primary School, Ssaza on November 19.

Masaka District community officer, Lilian Musisi said the intervention would go a long way to reduce diarrhoeal diseases in the district. She said only 57 per cent of the people in Masaka District have access to safe, clean water, and that only 42 per cent wash hands with soap.

The total cost of the four month intervention was about Shs580m which was collected by members of the Church. Masaka Municipality MP John Baptist Kawanga received the items on behalf of the Speaker of Parliament, Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi who had been invited as the Chief Guest but could not be present due to other state duties.

Kawanga appealed to the recipient communities to own the donated items and to protect them from vandalism. Elder Lincoln F. Barlow and his wife Marilyn Barlow, Humanitarian Services county director and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter – day Saints attended the function on behalf of the donors.

Source: Michael J. Sali, Daily Monitor, 25 November 2010

AMCOW AfricaSan Awards 2010 Winners: Feliciano dos Santos, Takiso Achame and David Kuria

A musician and activist whose songs about using latrines and washing hands are positively influencing the hygiene practices of communities in Mozambique; a widow who has risen through her caste status to lead a campaign against open defecation in her village in Ethiopia; and a toilet entrepreneur whose innovative partnership with local authorities is changing the way public toilets in Kenyan towns are managed, are the top winners of this year’s AMCOW AfricaSan Awards.

Feliciano dos Santos. Photo: © Steven Fisch Photography / The Independent

Musician Feliciano dos Santos was announced winner of the Grassroots Champion Award for dedicating his life and his music to campaigning for better public health through clean water and adequate sanitation. Santos and his Massukos Band have been using music to inspire thousands of villagers in rural Mozambique to curb the spread of disease by adopting good hygiene practices, such as washing hands, boiling drinking water and building latrines.

Takiso Achame, a widowed member of a traditionally discriminated community in the remote village of Shashera in Southern Ethiopia, was picked for the Distinguished Woman Leader in Sanitation for her exemplary local leadership over a communal cause. Even though her community often attracts the least attention from health promoters and local leaders in terms of accessing water supply, sanitation and hygiene services including awareness, Achame has become the self-appointed champion to eliminate open defecation in her village.

David Kuria won the Public Service Award for implementing a partnership model that is delivering safe, clean and affordable sanitation to the urban poor in Kenya. His company, Ecotact, is pioneering a private-public partnership approach with local authorities, and water and sewerage utilities to build public toilet malls in urban centres and informal settlements. By demonstrating the viability of sanitation as a business, David has been able to attract more than US$1.2 Million for the construction of 40 public toilet facilities in 12 municipalities in Kenya.

The top winners were announced by the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) Task Force on Sanitation during the Africa Water Week being held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (November 22-26, 2010).

Uganda: Koboko boreholes contaminated

Over 4,281 residents of Teremunga and Alimakodra villages in Koboko town council risk contracting water-borne diseases from contaminated water.

A water quality study carried out by Koboko town council with support from the German Development Organisation recently found that two of the 20 boreholes in the area contained high levels of faecal matter, far beyond acceptable limits for domestic use.

One of the boreholes is at Teremunga Primary School in Teremunga village and another at Koboko Pentecostal Church in Alimakodra village.

The district water officer, Eng. Anthony Dradria, said the nature of settlements and the simple latrines constructed in the two villages gives room for the faecal matter to contaminate the underground water due to the porous nature of the soil.

He called for urgent intervention to improve the sanitation around water points.

“There is also need to sensitise masses on the use of water treatment tablets and constructing VIP latrines and community Eco-san toilets,”

Joel Azabo, the health inspector, said a team had been dispatched to sensitise the affected communities on the need to boil and treat water before use.

The council, he added, would also distribute water treatment tablets to the communities.

Neima Tabu, a cook at St. Catherine Primary School in Teremunga village, said pupils drink over 10 jerrycans of water a day without boiling or purifying it. “We did not know the water was contaminated, she said.

Michael Andama, a teacher at Teremunga Primary School, said: “It is hard for us to treat water for the big number of pupils in the school. The Government should come to our rescue.” He blamed the technical personnel for drilling boreholes below the pit-latrine level.

Koboko town council has been gazetted by the Ministry of Water and Environment as a piped water supply authority area.

However, its safe water coverage stands at 28%, out of which 11% comes from piped water and the rest from other sources.

Source: Andrew Amvesi, New Vision /allAfrica.com, 21 November 2010