Michel Ssenoga, operating in Kira town, says lack of public toilets has forced some people in the municipality to resort to desperate means of disposing their waste like defecating in open areas, incomplete buildings and street corridors.
Urban centres in Wakiso District are lacking public toilets
leaving people to practices open defecation.
In the municipalities of Nansana, Kira, Makindye-Sabagabo and some
parts of Kasangati, there are no public places of convenience.
Immaculate Nassuuna, resident of Mende shares that one day she visited Nansana but struggled when nature called.
“I moved around looking for a public toilet in vain. I had to ask for help from
shopkeepers to allow me to use a facility on their building, some of them
denied me access saying the facilities, which are kept under lock and key, are
limited to only tenants,” Nassuuna recollects.
Michel Ssenoga, a businessman in Kira town, says lack of public toilets has forced
some people in the municipality to resort to desperate means of disposing their
waste like defecating in open areas, incomplete buildings and street corridors.
//Cue in “Bwekituuka mwebyo…
Cue out…mubitundu ebyenjawulo.”//
In March, the Ministry of Health named Wakiso alongside Mityana and Mukono as
the least performing districts as far as sanitation is concerned.
Richard Zzimbe, another resident, argues that the pace of
development in Wakiso is yet to be matched by accessible and functional toilet amenities.
He, however, blames the district authorities and leaders.
Zzimbe says that the authorities should construct public toilets
in developing urban centres and along major highways.
//Cue in “Obuzibu bwetusanze…
Cue out…tuli bubi.”//
Isaac Galabuzi, the Wakiso District Water Officer attributes the
failure to construct places of convenience to lack of land and inadequate funds.
“The sanitation programs are allocated meagre resources. However, at times we
want to prioritize the matter but still, we don’t have land where we can put up
these facilities. If individuals from several areas can allocate us some land
we can look for means of funding the construction,” says Galabuzi.
David Ssekaboga, the District Senior Environmental Health
Officer, observes that although they have been fighting to attain 100 percent
household toilet coverage, they have done little or even nothing in ensuring
that there are public facilities in urban areas.
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Cue out...such facilities.”//
In 2012, Makerere University’s College of Engineering Design, Art
and Technology-CEDAT embarked on innovation to design a smart mobile toilet
which they hoped to solve the problem of poor human waste disposal that has
dogged many urban centres.
Although Ssekaboga says that it is one of the best alternatives,
he, however, notes that this is as well limited by the absence of sewage
treatment plants within the district.
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Ssekaboga adds that to address the challenge, they are proposing
to have a public-private partnership.
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A recent media report by the voice of Africa indicates that around
2.5 billion mostly in developing towns and cities of Africa and Asia are at a
crisis lacking access to adequate public toilets which lowers the possibility
of attaining the SDG 6 by the year 2030.
