Partnerships for sanitation for the urban poor in Uganda

This paper discusses sanitation for the urban poor, partnerships and governance in Uganda. It 2 major objectives: To discuss how public private partnership (PPP) is helping improve sanitation among the urban poor, and to make recommendations for future improvement.

Sanitation is an inter-sectoral issue. Poor water and sanitation lead to sanitation related diseases that affect the lives of the people and particularly so among the poor. They spend the little money on treatment and time they would have engaged in some gainful activity; instead its spent in hospitals taking care of the sick. Some children especially girls fail to go to school because of sanitation related problems. To improve Sanitation among the Urban poor, there is need for concerted efforts amongst all stakeholders to play a key and leading role in arresting this situation. Public Private Partnership is therefore key in addressing urban sanitation challenges. The involvement of Government, Development Partners, NGOs and the Private Sector is vital; pooling resources together is equally essential as well as making strategic alliances with other agencies with similar objectives. In the year 2007 alone, Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) NGOs in Uganda contributed a total of 8,945 household latrines, 337 school latrines stances (161 for girls), 78 public latrines were constructed with the support of NGOs/CBOs. In addition, NGOs provided 3,198 sanitary platforms (sanplats) to improve the hygiene of the traditional latrines. Other hygiene facilities constructed included household (5,576) and school (352) hand washing facilities, dish drying racks (6,660 and garbage pits (4,698). In monetary terms, NGOs and CBOs invested up to the tune of US$ 43.7 Million. This is 33% of the entire Government Water Sector Budget allocate in the FY 2006-07 of Ushs 142.8 billion.