Elevating the Profile of Sanitation in Ngora District; Sanitation Week Celebrations

Uganda joined the rest of the world to commemorate sanitation week - on the 19th March 2013 the annual event was held in Ngora district. Plan Uganda and other partners supported the Ministry of Health and the district in organizing theevent.

The theme was,“OPEN DEFECATION IS A SHAME, USE A LATRINE.” This provided a good momentum for catalyzing key messages on eliminating the practice of open defecation during the week.

The event started with marching, where the congregation moved through the surrounding villages up to the venue mobilizing community members to join.

The sanitation week celebration was attended by over 600 people comprising of government officials, civil society representatives, district officials from Ngora and surrounding districts, school teachers and pupils, community members and the media fraternity.

The children actively participated in the event, as they made music and drama presentations, where they called upon the leaders, parents and their peers to take action in stopping the practice of open defecation.

Special speeches were made, where the district chairperson, urged political and technical officers at the local government level to fully embrace sanitation by integrating it in their activities. He added that this will enable them to ensure Ngora district becomes ODF in a short time.

Project Co-ordinator, Community Led Total Sanitation – Plan Uganda applauded Ngora district for using community led initiatives such as Community Led Total Sanitation as a measure of ensuring that people appreciate the need to stop open defecation. She called upon government, to scale up the approach and increase fundingtowards sanitation to enable Uganda meetthe Millennium Development Goal 7.

The chief guest, Minister of State for Primary Health Care asserted that; 30% of the population in Uganda lack access to safe latrines and 3.2 million people defecate in the open, if such practices continue then Uganda is unlikely to meet the MDG 7 target on sanitation. She added that, “the Ministry of Health is committed to support community led actions towards improving sanitation in the country and to date we are supporting 16 districts through the Uganda sanitation fund to scale up community led total sanitation.”

Mary Namwebe, Plan Uganda