Water_Sanitation & Hygiene

ChildFund and its implementing partner Community Efforts for Child Empowerment (CECE) have pledged to continue with their interventions to address the challenges of access to clean and safe water in Kyankwanzi district.

The revelation was made during the celebrations to mark International Water Day at Katengyento village, Kyankwanzi sub-county in the Kyankwanzi district. The celebrations were held under the theme; sanitation and hygiene for strengthening Covid-19 response.

Access to safe and clean Water is one of the biggest challenges affecting most vulnerable children and their families in Kyankwanzi district. This is partly hinged on a low water table in the district. As a result, people are sharing water sources, especially dams, with the animals and this has significantly contributed to shooting cases of water borne diseases among children.

In a bid to address the challenges of water scarcity in the district, ChildFund is implementing a three-year water hygiene and sanitation project in the area.

Primary 7 pupils of Rwamujubwe primary school demonstrated how to purify water using the sachets.

The project is being implemented in six sub counties in Kyankwanzi district. The sub-counties include Wattuba, Butemba, Byerima, Kyankwanzi, Bananywa and Nsambya.

“The project seeks to address the challenges of access to safe drinking water by promoting water purification using the Proctor and Gamble (P&G) purifier of water.” Allen Nanyonga, the Programs Manager of CECE said.

She said with the funds from P&G, ChildFund and CECE has been working with Village health teams to create awareness campaigns and emphasised the need for all families to have toilets and stop the practice of open defecation and the need to make water safe before drinking among other hygienic practices.

Over 7000 households and 18 schools were sensitized on use of P&G water purifiers and have been receiving sachets to purify water from wells and dams at no cost.

ChildFund through its local partner CECE also drilled a total of 18 boreholes in the district however the coverage is still low.

In the campaign, five schools have been supported with rainwater harvesting tanks to address the challenge of children walking long distances to access clean water.

Between October and November ChildFund conducted water sanitation and hygiene competitions aimed at increasing latrine coverage in participating villages among other good hygienic practices. This inspired a healthy competition that saw families create rubbish pits, utensil drying racks and pit latrines.

CECE’s intervention greatly contributed to the improvement of good hygienic practices in the district. By last week, the toilet coverage in the district stood at 90%. Katengyento emerged the best village in the district with 90% toilet coverage.

The district water officer Philbert Odongo said water has been and is still a major challenge in the district however the government is working hard to address the matter.

“This year, we were allocated Sh589million budget and this is peddled at seeing that people get clean water. There are a number of interventions that have been put in place. These include putting up dams for the community to access water for basic use, connecting communities to piped water among others,” Odongo said.

First published