Citizens' Action project takes off in Uganda

We work closely with our partners to transfer our knowledge of water and sanitation projects.

Credit: WaterAid / Suzanne Porter

Communities organise action plan

WaterAid Uganda is working with local government and partners through our Citizens' Action approach to help implement the Ugandan Government's ambitious plans of improving the country's water supplies.

The Government has recently received substantial funding from the Highly Indebted Poor Country initiative (HIPC) which is being channelled through the newly decentralised district governments. As local governments do not have experience of managing such large scale financial projects, WaterAid is working to build the capacity district governments through Citizens' Action projects.

WaterAid is working with the district governments of Wakiso, Mpigi, Katakwi and Kampala as well as local partners to ensure the funding is managed and targeted effectively so that even the poorest people benefit from community managed water, sanitation and hygiene projects.

Citizens' Action is a rights-based approach which is designed to help poor people gain access to the water and sanitation services to which they are entitled. WaterAid believes that poor people themselves should be able to hold governments and service providers to account through negotiation based on data that they collect themselves.

We work closely with our partners to transfer our knowledge of water and sanitation projects. With our support, our partners aim to help 40,000 poor people a year access clean water through simple, affordable and sustainable technologies that can be planned, built, operated and maintained by communities.

The water technologies we provide include hand-dug shallow wells, spring protection and rainwater harvesting as well as a range of sanitation options.

WaterAid Uganda has also been instrumental in establishing and supporting networks such as the Uganda Water and Sanitation Network. These networks play an important role in sharing knowledge, encouraging a more united and coordinated approach in development projects and ensuring NGOs understand and contribute to national policies.

Read more about how we work

Download a full copy of the Citizens' Action report, Bridging the gap ( PDF 972Kb)