Elevating the Profile of Sanitation in Ngora District; Sanitation Week Celebrations
Uganda joined the rest of the world to commemorate sanitation week - on the 19th March
2013 the annual event was held in Ngora district. Plan Uganda and other partners
supported the Ministry of Health and the district in organizing the event.
The theme was, “OPEN DEFECATION IS A SHAME, USE A LATRINE.” This
provided a good momentum for catalyzing key messages on eliminating the practice of
open defecation during the week.
The event started with marching, where the congregation moved through the surrounding
villages up to the venue mobilizing community members to join.
The sanitation week celebration was attended by over 600 people comprising of
government officials, civil society representatives, district officials from Ngora and
surrounding districts, school teachers and pupils, community members and the media
fraternity.
The children actively participated in the event, as they made music and drama
presentations, where they called upon the leaders, parents and their peers to take action in
stopping the practice of open defecation.
Special speeches were made, where the district chairperson, urged political and technical
officers at the local government level to fully embrace sanitation by integrating it in their
activities. He added that this will enable them to ensure Ngora district becomes ODF in a
short time.
Project Co-ordinator, Community Led Total Sanitation – Plan Uganda applauded Ngora
district for using community led initiatives such as Community Led Total Sanitation as a
measure of ensuring that people appreciate the need to stop open defecation. She called
upon government, to scale up the approach and increase funding towards sanitation to
enable Uganda meet the Millennium Development Goal 7.
The chief guest, Minister of State for Primary Health Care asserted that; 30% of the
population in Uganda lack access to safe latrines and 3.2 million people defecate in the
open, if such practices continue then Uganda is unlikely to meet the MDG 7 target on
sanitation. She added that, “the Ministry of Health is committed to support community
led actions towards improving sanitation in the country and to date we are supporting 16
districts through the Uganda sanitation fund to scale up community led total sanitation.”
Mary Namwebe, Plan Uganda