In response to the recent cholera outbreak in different parts of the country, the Ministry of Health is in the process of establishing a national Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Steering Committee to enhance sanitation and hygiene efforts nationwide.

The committee will take a collaborative approach to WASH initiatives to ensure efficiency, similar to the successful measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Hebert Nabaasa, a commissioner at the Ministry of Health, highlighted a decrease in hand hygiene and sanitation practices post-COVID-19.

He emphasized that the Ministry is now collaborating with development partners and Local Governments to raise public awareness, as preventive measures to cholera and other related diseases.

“We are deploying the high-level coordination engagement approach where we believe that…because sanitation and hygiene is a cross cutting mandate involving many players like the Ministry of Water and Environment, Ministry Education and Sports, and others,” he noted.

He highlighted that because of the laxity and recent outbreaks, they have developed a fresh strategy and created a roadmap to expedite efforts in sanitation and hygiene intervention.

He stressed that the national steering committee will provide assistance to the sector in enhancing financing, efficiency, planning, and service delivery for WASH.

Nabaasa said the committee will include representatives from various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), and development partners.

He expressed confidence that by working together with these stakeholders, they can garner support and improve coordination to effectively tackle the prevailing challenges in the field of WASH.

“We are developing a number of strategies to see that we do not decline because we saw how that sharp increase helped us to prevent COVID. We believe that actually the same energy we used during the outbreak of COVID can be deployed at the same time to continue accelerating proper WASH to prevent a number of emerging diseases in the country,” he explained.

Nabaasa mentioned the recent surge in cholera cases in various districts of the country, linking it to inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.

The outbreaks have been observed in Kayunga, Namayingo, and Mbale so far.

“Largely that is a practice of poor sanitation and hygiene. Essentially it means someone is not doing the right thing at personal level or at an institutional level,” he added.

He was delivering his remarks on Wednesday, February 21, at the national closing event of the WASH SDG program organised by Uganda Water and Sanitation Network (UWASNET) at Hotel Africana.

The initiative was rolled out in Agago, Nebbi, Kamuli, and Buyende districts starting from 2018, with backing from the Dutch Government-Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with various development partners, as well as the Ministries of Health, and Water and Environment.

The program was implemented in seven countries with three African countries.

Nabaasa mentioned that the government is now currently assessing the insights gained and the most effective approaches to see how to integrate the intervention into government programs.

“We have seen some achievements in the program areas like access to safe water, sanitation, and hand hygiene, so we want to see some of these achievements going forward,” he said.

Nabaasa remarked on the government's perspective of engaging the private sector in WASH as a business venture.

He emphasised insights from a recent study on the WASH economy, indicating vast untapped opportunities within the water sector.

“So, once we support the private sector in terms of subsidies, and incentives, we should be able to unlock that business so that we see more and more players come on board to support that business and eventually we can change that landscape for WASH in the country,” he said.

While making a presentation on the achievements of the programs, Irene Namusu, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at Simavi Uganda, noted that the program has made significant strides in improving access to water in all the four districts, at about 68% of the targeted goals.

Furthermore, she highlighted the noteworthy progress in Agago, where households have transitioned from open defecation to constructing their own pit latrines, achieving a commendable 40% milestone.

She highlighted that the sanitation and hygiene results in Agago were approximately 72%, while in the Eastern part districts, they were around 80%.

These outcomes were also attributed to the successful COVID-19 campaigns that promoted hand washing practices among the population.

Namusu emphasised the remarkable decrease in open defecation across all four districts.  

According to statistics in Uganda, hand washing with soap at household level stood at 38% in rural areas and 61 percent for urban areas in 2019/2020.

Watsisi Martin, the WASH advisor at IRC International, advocated for the development of an all-encompassing plan for WASH services, building the capacity of service providers such as masons and hand pump mechanics, and streamlining monitoring tools.

To ensure continuity of the accomplishments made, Yunia Musaazi, the Executive Director of UWASNET, said they have signed collaborations with Local Governments.

She emphasised the importance of WASH in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, highlighting the need for increased government funding in the sector.

Statistics from the Ministry of Water indicate that 755 of the urban areas have access to clean water compared to rural areas at 69%. This means 30% of the people consume unclean water.