Kampala’s urban poor get access to cheap clean water
May 24, 2009
OVER the years, shanties have sprung up in Kampala providing accommodation to more than 60% of the city’s population. However, government planning and funding has denied them public utilities like water since they are regarded as illegal settlements.
OVER the years, shanties have sprung up in Kampala providing accommodation to more than 60% of the city’s population. However, government planning and funding has denied them public utilities like water since they are regarded as illegal settlements.
As a result, poor people pay five times more than rich people for the same amount of water. Gerald Tenywa visited Kagugube and Kisenyi in Kampala Central where innovative interventions promise to help the urban poor access cheap water and now writes
IT is like a military airbase. Flies probably in millions take off and land like helicopters. They fly and fill the air, as children play hide-and-seek around the huge piles of waste.
The stench wafting through the air is unbearable as Joseph Simbwa, a consultant with Winsor Consult, carefully takes steps similar to the rhythm of a drum in an African ritual, walking in the tiny corridors separating crumbling mud–and–wattle houses which almost ‘hug’ each other.
“This is where the urban poor in Kampala stay,†says Simbwa, adding that there is need to improve the hygiene and living conditions.
“It is unbelievable that most of the diseases afflicting people in Kampala are related to poor hygiene.â€
Luckily, Simbwa says Kagugube, which has never had safe water is about to get cheap water to clean out the filth. He says this will greatly change the lives of those living in slums.
In Kagugube zome, sh2.5m has already been spent on the project which targets 15,000 people.
“These people buy 20 litres of water at sh100 while the rich pay only sh20 for the same amount of water.â€
He adds that those who cannot afford the fee, fetch water from spring wells which public health officials of Kampala City Council ruled as unsafe more than a decade ago.
The appalling sanitation conditions provide a fertile ground for massive breeding of vectors like flies, that cause all kinds of diseases.
Previously, slums were regarded as illegal settlements and therefore not provided with amenities like water or power. But instead of living in denial, the Government has moved in to reduce the burden of disease from what has been referred to as ‘Kampala’s eyesore.’
National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) offers two solutions. It has provided pre-paid water metres where users pay money for water and it is loaded on a chip.
The chip is ainserted in the metre which then lets out water equivalent to the amount paid for.
The second option is to provide toilet facilities. Construction of flush toilets connected to sewer lines, ventilated pit latrines and ecological sanitation also known as eco-sans is already ongoing.
The eco-san separates urine and faeces, which can be used to make manure when ash is added.
With funding from the Water Facility of Africa Ministers’ Council onWater, managed by African Development Bank, the national water body has contracted two companies: Winsor Consult and Alliance Consult to undertake a two year project: Water supply and sanitation services for the urban poor.
“It is better to prevent diseases than to treat the consequences,†Simbwa says as he takes The New Vision to one of the areas where the company is building 30 bathrooms with toilets
“We have to teach people to use the toilets so that they give up defeacating in plastic bags.â€
Nearby, Sawuda Bukirwa says the intervention has been timely since their toilet had collapsed and they were sharing a toilet with eight other households.
“When people bathe, the dirty water flows towards my house. My children even have nowhere to play,†says Bukirwa.
“People have been surviving by the mercy of God because this place is filthy,†she adds.
As a challenge, Simbwa says they have to break some houses to create passage for water pipes and access roads.
He says the toilets that are not connected to the sewers will have to be emptied as soon as they get full and that the community is being empowered to manage the facilities.
“We have been mobilising the communities, causing awareness and creating a sense of ownership,†Simbwa says.
He says a steering committee is already in place to oversee the implementation of the activities and that other committees will be set up to manage the toilets and the water facilities.
In Kibwa zone in Mengo-Kisenyi where pre-paid meters for water have been installed, Nalongo Akram says they have greatly benefited from the project.
Diseases such as diarrhoea have reduced and our backs are now safe since water is just at our door step,†says Akram. “Mothers used to keep dirty clothes in the house for days due to scarcity of water.â€
Akram says this kind of approach has also bailed women out of suffering because some men provide as little as sh300 to buy water and food.
“Children used to miss classes because of frequent attacks from water-borne diseases like dysentery and diarrhoea, but this has tremendously reduced,†says Akram.
She suggests that projects approaches should be replicated in other parts of Kampala to improve the well-being of the poor especially the women that bear the burden.
Other areas in Kampala benefiting from the intervention are three parishes in Kisenyi and Ndeeba.
Silver Sewanyana, the director of Winsor Consult, says NWSC would expand into other areas the moment it secures funding.
With the pro-poor interventions rolling out of NWSC, people like Bukirwa are soon going to enjoy the benefits of a clean and healthy environment.
As a result, poor people pay five times more than rich people for the same amount of water. Gerald Tenywa visited Kagugube and Kisenyi in Kampala Central where innovative interventions promise to help the urban poor access cheap water and now writes
IT is like a military airbase. Flies probably in millions take off and land like helicopters. They fly and fill the air, as children play hide-and-seek around the huge piles of waste.
The stench wafting through the air is unbearable as Joseph Simbwa, a consultant with Winsor Consult, carefully takes steps similar to the rhythm of a drum in an African ritual, walking in the tiny corridors separating crumbling mud–and–wattle houses which almost ‘hug’ each other.
“This is where the urban poor in Kampala stay,†says Simbwa, adding that there is need to improve the hygiene and living conditions.
“It is unbelievable that most of the diseases afflicting people in Kampala are related to poor hygiene.â€
Luckily, Simbwa says Kagugube, which has never had safe water is about to get cheap water to clean out the filth. He says this will greatly change the lives of those living in slums.
In Kagugube zome, sh2.5m has already been spent on the project which targets 15,000 people.
“These people buy 20 litres of water at sh100 while the rich pay only sh20 for the same amount of water.â€
He adds that those who cannot afford the fee, fetch water from spring wells which public health officials of Kampala City Council ruled as unsafe more than a decade ago.
The appalling sanitation conditions provide a fertile ground for massive breeding of vectors like flies, that cause all kinds of diseases.
Previously, slums were regarded as illegal settlements and therefore not provided with amenities like water or power. But instead of living in denial, the Government has moved in to reduce the burden of disease from what has been referred to as ‘Kampala’s eyesore.’
National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) offers two solutions. It has provided pre-paid water metres where users pay money for water and it is loaded on a chip.
The chip is ainserted in the metre which then lets out water equivalent to the amount paid for.
The second option is to provide toilet facilities. Construction of flush toilets connected to sewer lines, ventilated pit latrines and ecological sanitation also known as eco-sans is already ongoing.
The eco-san separates urine and faeces, which can be used to make manure when ash is added.
With funding from the Water Facility of Africa Ministers’ Council onWater, managed by African Development Bank, the national water body has contracted two companies: Winsor Consult and Alliance Consult to undertake a two year project: Water supply and sanitation services for the urban poor.
“It is better to prevent diseases than to treat the consequences,†Simbwa says as he takes The New Vision to one of the areas where the company is building 30 bathrooms with toilets
“We have to teach people to use the toilets so that they give up defeacating in plastic bags.â€
Nearby, Sawuda Bukirwa says the intervention has been timely since their toilet had collapsed and they were sharing a toilet with eight other households.
“When people bathe, the dirty water flows towards my house. My children even have nowhere to play,†says Bukirwa.
“People have been surviving by the mercy of God because this place is filthy,†she adds.
As a challenge, Simbwa says they have to break some houses to create passage for water pipes and access roads.
He says the toilets that are not connected to the sewers will have to be emptied as soon as they get full and that the community is being empowered to manage the facilities.
“We have been mobilising the communities, causing awareness and creating a sense of ownership,†Simbwa says.
He says a steering committee is already in place to oversee the implementation of the activities and that other committees will be set up to manage the toilets and the water facilities.
In Kibwa zone in Mengo-Kisenyi where pre-paid meters for water have been installed, Nalongo Akram says they have greatly benefited from the project.
Diseases such as diarrhoea have reduced and our backs are now safe since water is just at our door step,†says Akram. “Mothers used to keep dirty clothes in the house for days due to scarcity of water.â€
Akram says this kind of approach has also bailed women out of suffering because some men provide as little as sh300 to buy water and food.
“Children used to miss classes because of frequent attacks from water-borne diseases like dysentery and diarrhoea, but this has tremendously reduced,†says Akram.
She suggests that projects approaches should be replicated in other parts of Kampala to improve the well-being of the poor especially the women that bear the burden.
Other areas in Kampala benefiting from the intervention are three parishes in Kisenyi and Ndeeba.
Silver Sewanyana, the director of Winsor Consult, says NWSC would expand into other areas the moment it secures funding.
With the pro-poor interventions rolling out of NWSC, people like Bukirwa are soon going to enjoy the benefits of a clean and healthy environment.