Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) striving to ensure access to clean water and sanitation for all are still pessimistic about Uganda's ability to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets with only seven years remaining.

They contend that other objectives might not be fully achieved if not enough money is invested in the subsector of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).

Every SGD goal, according to Yunia Musaazi, the Executive Director of their umbrella organisation Uganda Water and Sanitation Network (UWASNET), cannot be met without enough water.

"Nothing can stand on its own without water," she said, citing industrialisation, health, the environment, and climate change as key examples.

She says water is crucial for ecosystems, education, poverty alleviation, food security, peace and human rights in addition to health.

According to Musaazi, there is a need for the Government to enhance financing for WASH, in their joint statement released on September 25, 2023, ahead of the 13th annual WASH CSO summit next month.

SDG 6 focuses on the universal acceleration of access to clean water and sanitation.

Musaazi says access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is the most fundamental basic human need for health and well-being.

She points out that the rapid population expansion, urbanisation and increased water requirements from the agricultural, industrial and energy sectors are all contributing to the increase in water demand, thus the need for more interventions.

Water and sanitation are "at a critical junction" at the halfway point in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, but progress on SDG 6 is "alarmingly off-track," according to the United Nations-Water report titled "Blueprint for Acceleration: Sustainable Development Goal 6 Synthesis Report on Water and Sanitation 2023," published this year.

It states that for safely managed drinking water, safely managed sanitation, and basic hygiene, progress must improve six times, five times, and three times, respectively, in order to attain universal access by 2030.

They also remark that even though there is more water stress, official development assistance (ODA) commitments to the water sector declined by 12% from 2015 to 2021, with actual payments declining by 15% over the same time frame.

The publication uses the five SDG 6 accelerators of the Global Acceleration Framework (GAF), which UN-Water launched in 2020, to identify "blueprints for how to gain momentum for SDG 6 progress and implementation of the Water Action Agenda." Finance, data and information, capacity development, innovation, and governance are all covered by the blueprints.

Need for urgency

Musaazi says the Government must act quickly to address the population's demand to lessen water scarcity before things spiral out of control, due to climate effects.

According to the UN-Water research, water shortage is expected to worsen as a result of climate change as the world's temperatures rise.

Musaazi noted that it is the primary reason, UWASNET has always prioritised planting of more trees, and restoration of degraded Central Forest Reserves (CFR) and other water sources including wetlands, rivers, and lakes.

“There is a need to increase access to clean water by putting more investments in infrastructure and sanitation facilities; protection and restoration of water-related ecosystems; and hygiene education if we are to hit this target by 2030. Without doing this we might not achieve our target,” she added.

This year marks the halfway point to achieving the 17 SDGs point plan to improve the lives of people and the planet by 2030.

Almost eight years have passed since the international community agreed to take bold and transformative steps to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The SDGs provide a framework for various stakeholders, including corporations, to have a beneficial impact on the planet, from lowering carbon emissions to promoting equality.

A 17 goals were created to serve as a common guide for world peace and prosperity in the present and the future, seeking to quicken acts that “leave no one or any area behind” at the theme.

In order to establish an inclusive and sustainable society where everyone may have enough of what they need (education, jobs, health services, clean water, enough food, shelter and others), it also targets the most vulnerable persons and communities.

Recommitment

For the sake of Uganda, the CSOs affiliated with UWASNET are urging for a renewal of commitment to financing, solidarity and action if the country is to realise the targets.

They insist that despite the positive environment the Government provides to support efforts for various social services, including water and the environment, there is a lack of adequate funding from the state to the sector so that citizens can live in a clean environment and have access to clean, safe water.

Briefing journalists during their joint presser at the UWSNET offices, Musaazi highlighted that there is an urgent need for the Government to increase the budget for water, sanitation, and the environment.

“There is also a need to manage the impact of climate change, which is almost hitting the country. We want other stakeholders including the private sector to come on board to manage the impact of climate change because it affects even the private sector like companies which depend on water to produce their goods,” she added.

She stated that by analyzing the accomplishments of the SGDs for the past years, Uganda is expected to take ownership and create a national framework for their fulfilment by 2030.

She emphasized that while the government has developed a number of initiatives to achieve the SDGs by 2030, the nation is only on track to achieve SDGs 12 and 13, and is off track to achieve the remaining SDGs, including SDG 6.

30% Ugandans consume unsafe water

The Minister of Water and Environment, Sam Cheptoris, revealed during this year's water week in March that Uganda might not meet the water objective for everyone by 2030 as anticipated.

He stated that one in four Ugandans living in urban areas lack access to clean water, compared to one in three in rural areas. According to him, this puts a lot of people at risk for water-borne illnesses such as cholera, worm infestations, and diarrhoea.

Statistics show that 75% of urban regions have access to clean water, compared to 69% of rural areas.

This, the minister said means that 30% of people in both urban and rural consume unclean water.

WASH in schools

According to Musaazi, additional financing is required for WASH in schools to maintain student safety, particularly for female students.

She pointed out that a recent report on WASH in schools shows that while 58% of primary schools and 73% of secondary schools, respectively, have overall access to water, approximately 42% of primary schools and 27% of secondary schools do not.

It further indicates that the girls stance ratio was at 68:1 and boys 72:1 in primary school, while in secondary schools it was at 48:1 and 51:1 respectively.  

The government and several CSOs in the sector have implemented a number of projects in the areas of water, sanitation, and hygiene after each year, but Naomi Kabarungi Wabyona, the communication, learning, and advocacy co-ordinator of IRC, an international water and sanitation centre, noted that the results are short-term due to a number of factors like water resource management and climate change among others which have been ignored, leaving a third and more Ugandans, per the statistics.

Betty Mushabe from the Water for People organisation, noted that the expense of treating diseases is higher, yet cleanliness is not given as much priority by people, according to Betty Mushabe of the Water for People charity.

“There are several people in the informal settlement with decent facilities but having poor toilet services which puts their lives at risk,” she noted.

According to global statistics, between 2015 and 2022, the percentage of people who have access to safely regulated drinking water rose from 69% to 73%.

However, there were still 2.2 billion people without access to safely managed drinking water, including 703 million without even the most basic water service; 3.5 billion without access to safely managed sanitation, including 1.5 billion without even the most basic sanitation services; and 2 billion without access to even the most basic handwashing facilities, including 653 million without any at all.