Sanitation week 2006

Sanitation week is a national event that leads up to World Water Day in March that aims to increase people's awareness of sanitation issues and improve the local population's sanitation conditions. Activities took place throughout the country surrounding this year's theme Water and Culture with particular emphasis on open defecation.

The week was organized by the national sanitation working group whose members include representatives from districts, ministries and NGOs working in the water and sanitation sector. WaterAid supported activities at both national and district levels.

During sanitation week the local community in Kajansi made a huge effort towards making the town a safer, cleaner place to live. The sanitation week activity was supported by the WaterAid Uganda central office and consisted of a one week clean-up exercise of Kajansi town.

Kanjansi lies in the Wakiso district, and was identified as one of the fastest growing towns with the poorest sanitation in the district. The town suffers from overcrowding and lacks space for constructing new latrines. Even if the space is found, the swampy environment poses a great challenge to building latrines.

Sanitation week provided the opportunity for the community to see what they can achieve by pulling together to improve their living conditions. Drainage channels were cleaned, toilets were emptied, garbage was collected and water sources were cleaned. The clean-up activity was crowned by awareness-raising on the dangers of poor sanitation and how to maintain good hygiene.

In the Mpigi district the main celebrations took place in the Buulo trading centre where people took part in cleaning activities focusing on latrine use, construction of dish racks and hand washing before eating and after visiting the latrine. The week was crowned with the launch of the district Water Atlas and the district sanitation strategy developed with support from WaterAid Uganda and used as a guide for improving sanitation

WaterAid supported school sanitation and hygiene competitions in Kawempe, Kampala by providing two latrines with hand-washing facilities, cards with hygiene messages, prizes for school competitions and materials for cleaning such as spades, slashers, rakes and water containers.