20.2 million people don't have clean water.
20.2 million people don't have clean water.
That's 44% of the population.
8 in 10 people don't have a decent toilet.
8 in 10 people don't have a decent toilet.
That's almost 37 million people.
2,696 children under 5 die each year from diarrhoea.
2,696 children under 5 die each year from diarrhoea.
caused by dirty water and poor toilets.
Eliminating trachoma in Uganda
Trachoma is the most common cause of preventable blindness, damaging the lives of millions of people living in poverty. James Kiyimba describes how the disease disproportionately affects women, and WaterAid’s role in the race to eliminate trachoma by 2020.
Restoring dignity in rural Uganda
Margaret Among, 45, lives in rural Bobol village and uses a wheelchair, which has made access to toilets very hard.
“With my physical disability I cannot squat,” she explains. “I can only sit. I grew up going to the toilet in the bush because latrines in my community did not have anywhere I could sit. But as a mature person, going in the bush is very shameful.”
Through our local partner, WEDA, we were able to train the community in how to make toilets that were accessible to people with disabilities. Then Margaret’s community built a new toilet for her, and she paid for its construction.
She is delighted with the outcome. “My latrine is big. Inside there is a raised slab where I sit. I ride my wheelchair up to the entrance, and then I enter with ease.”