Italy To Overhaul Bucket Toilets

By Nathan Etengu The Italian government, has offered to overhaul the colonial bucket toilet system still being used in the junior quarters in Moroto town. This was said by the Italian ambassador to Uganda, Mr. Luigi Napolitano, last tuesday. Napolitano said the obsolete system constructed by the British colonial administration will be overhauled at a cost of sh50m. He also said his government would reconstruct the sewerage system and septic tank at the Karamoja Regional police barracks. The bucket toilet system was constructed with a provision for collecting human faeces in a bucket. the contents are later removed and emptied in a cesspool container. The Moroto municipal authorities had an ox-driven cesspool emptier but the system collapsed after the oxen were raided by the Karimojong warriors in 1979. Dr. Urbani from the Italian Co-operation for Development, yesterday confirmed that the programme was one of the numerous projects implemented by the Italian government in the Karamoja region. The junior quarters where the bucket toilet structures are still being used, were constructed by the British colonial administration as detention centres for deviant politicians. former President of Uganda Godfrey Binaisa, was once detained there. Napolitano said sh20m would be used for the rehabilitation of the sewerage system at the police barracks. Both structures were constructed in the 1940s, but have never been renovated. Ends