🔊In Katakwi, Ngariam residents use bushes as toilets

KATAKWI - In Uganda's eastern district of Katakwi, a worrying sanitation crisis is mounting: open defecation. 

The residents of Ngariam sub-county are turning to bushes and open land to poo because of a lack of pit latrines.

The statistics do not make for good reading. 

District councillor John Bosco Akubu says about 80 percent of the households in Ngariam do not have access to proper latrine facilities, leaving only 20 percent adequately served.
 
This gap has forced many residents to use nearby bushes, raising serious public health concerns.

Akubu says some residents cite seasonal waterlogging as a reason for not constructing latrines. According to him, that should not be an excuse.

He emphasises that flooding is not permanent and that residents can still build latrines on raised ground.

He is now urging households to take responsibility by constructing pit latrines to help curb the spread of sanitation-related diseases.



Despite ongoing efforts to improve sanitation nationwide, Uganda continues to fall short of its 2030 targets. 

More than seven million people still practice open defecation, while 42 percent of households rely on inadequate sanitation facilities.